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Archive for February, 2016

A Little Togetherness Means a Lot

Posted in Uncategorized on February 18, 2016| 7 Comments »

So exciting! My poem was chosen this month by Ruth Bavetta, the artist in Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, to go with her painting “Chronicle.” The poem, It Won’t Make the News, is posted today on Rattle … it was a curious painting to interpret, in fact, I’d be very interested to know what she thinks is happening.

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Drosophila

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on February 17, 2016| 3 Comments »

 

 

 

All winter

the fruit flies

have survived

in our kitchen.

Whatever I know

of fruit flies suggests

they should not

have lived

through the cold.

They never have

made it to February before.

I find them in my wine glasses,

in my tea cups,

one a week or so.

I know that every

living thing is wired

to go on—some mysterious

drive in us says

Live, live. I have

felt it myself

when held too long underwater

or when lost in the woods.

Is this why

I do not try to kill them,

these fruit flies,

though I am repulsed

by their tiny insatiable hunger?

Their name means dew lover.

I, too, am hungry—

I, too, have learned

to adapt to cold.

To adjust is more

practical than to hope.

All winter, in my cups,

there’s a taste of dew,

of learning to thrive.

 

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Original Sin

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on February 16, 2016| 2 Comments »

 

 

 

Tonight I will give you yourself.

All those pretty words you spun

into negligee, all those promises

you strung like pearls and then

tightened around my neck, all

those lovely leashes you made

out of praise, I give them back.

 

I have always loved being naked.

I think this is what you loved

most about me, too. Once. No one

is at fault for this strange game

of dress up we’ve been playing.

Perhaps it is what we were taught to do.

I unlearn this game. I want to give

you you. I give you your

own nakedness. Any robes

of hope I put on you, I untie

them. See them slip into soft piles

on the floor. Look at you now.

I see I never saw you before.

 

Out the window, winter is melting.

Everything loses its sheen.

I tried to hate you for the ways

you bound me, though the bounds

were beautiful. Now, all I can feel

is the thrill of this body so bare,

so new. I stare at my feet, my hands

and marvel at how they move.

Is this me? I never knew her.

I know her so intimately.

 

It is almost sweet now, so innocent,

how we tried to dress each other in dreams.

We didn’t know then that even

the softest words become chains.

I give you yourself, your longing

to be loved in the ways you thought

you needed. I give me myself,

I don’t know what that means,

already I am shedding.

 

 

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One Missed Deadline

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on February 16, 2016| 2 Comments »

 

 

 

I dangle my whole body

from the end of the minute hand

as it mounts its way

toward the hour,

no use,

it swings me into tomorrow

right on time.

 

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One Definition of Faith

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on February 15, 2016| 1 Comment »

 

 

 

toeing the edge

of everything

we think we know

building a nest for us

on the other side

 

 

 

 

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Happy Valentine’s Day

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on February 14, 2016| 2 Comments »

Here are three love poems to celebrate the day, posted today in Telluride Inside and Out. May you find love in every day, and if you can’t find it, may it find you.

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One Valentine

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on February 13, 2016| 1 Comment »

 

 

 

from another room

pouring a love song

into your cup

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Calling

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on February 13, 2016| 4 Comments »

 

 

 

There are tigers in the forest.

I used to think I was tame. No one

knows why they are given

a certain task. My task

is to catch the tigers.

We keep each other strong.

My arms are bare. My head

is bare. We stay awake. We prowl.

 

*

 

A friend offers me a bit of something dead.

What is dead is dead, but still I try

to make of it something useful. I tie it

to a ribbon of blue and cast it into the forest.

The tigers do not care for beauty.

The tigers care nothing for what is dead.

It is me that they want.

I stay strong. The tigers stay strong.

 

*

 

I walk closer to the tigers

until we are face to face.

I have nothing to offer them

except for myself. This is all

we ever have to offer.

The tigers follow me now.

Once I thought I was hunter.

Now I see we are all each other’s prey.

 

*

 

There is a room with no windows,

a room with two hidden doors.

I lead the tigers here, though I

have never been here before.

The first door closes behind us

and as the tigers explore

I push on the weight of an inner wall

and slip through an inner door.

 

*

 

Anything tame is a lie.

It is only me that I want

and I will do even that

which I think is impossible.

I do not need a weapon.

I do not need a lure.

I am the wall that I slip through.

I am the hidden door.

 

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Slowly, In Three

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on February 11, 2016| 3 Comments »

 

            recite this aloud, please, for Mimi, for Vivi, for me

 

 

 

Mama, she says,

can we waltz?

and we do,

we step one

two, three, one,

two three cross-

ing the room,

and again

I am five

and my grand-

ma and I

are alone

in the house

and my feet

are on hers

and we’re danc-

ing around

and she hums

with the ra-

dio, hums

with low light,

and we waltz,

and we waltz

there’s a blaze

in her eyes

as we one,

two three, oh

how I miss

her tonight.

 

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One

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on February 10, 2016| 1 Comment »

One Prediction

 

 

not one cloud

and still the heart’s forecast

is for rain

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