Just trying to keep things safe,
this innocent, valiant inner mason
who built this stone fortress
to protect me from the vicious wind—
of course there are no windows,
no doors.
That’s how a breeze might come in.
Archive for April, 2016
Secure
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged innocence, overkill, poem, poetry, security on April 30, 2016| 1 Comment »
One Beautiful Madness
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged edge, picinic, poem, poetry on April 29, 2016| 1 Comment »
just past the cliff edge
where land yields to infinite air—
spreading our picnic blanket there
Ritual
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged communion, love, poem, poetry, tea on April 27, 2016| 3 Comments »
We should have each other to tea, huh? We should have each other with cream.
“Lovecats,” The Cure
Perhaps you don’t like tea.
Perhaps you don’t like cream.
It’s not what’s in the cup that matters,
though of course there’s the lovely
unfurling of leaves and the way
that the water accepts what
it’s been given. But no.
It’s not about the tea.
It’s the ritual of the pouring that matters.
It’s the sharing from a single pot
and the all that is said and
the all that is seen as we sip.
We can fill the pot with water.
We can fill the pot with wine.
All that really matters is
that we take the time to sit
together and slowly drink—
we, two separate beings who
are choosing at the same time
to accept the same thing into ourselves.
It’s a little bit like love.
Shared Visions: Concert this Weekend
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Ars Nova Singers, artistic collaboration, Paul Fowler, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Wewer Keohane on April 26, 2016| Leave a Comment »
What would a painting sound like? Come find out at the Ars Nova Singers presentation of Shared Visions this weekend in Denver and Boulder (I will be at the Boulder concert on April 30). They invited Colorado artists to submit work. Then poets responded. Four composers chose four poems (one was mine!–the composer for my piece is Paul Fowler, music chair at Naropa, and the artist is Wewer Keohane, an amazing artist from Carbondale). I am so excited to hear the result! I hope you’ll join me! What a fabulous, collaborative process!
You can read more about the artists, the project, the concerts, and the ticket sales here: Shared Visions
Three Answered Prayers
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged poem, poetry, prayer, silence on April 26, 2016| 1 Comment »
in the beginning
before the word
the silence
*
walking the other
direction it’s so obvious,
that waterfall we missed
*
in my pocket
this laughter—all day
I pat it to check if it’s still there
One Entering
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged breath, poem, poetry on April 26, 2016| 1 Comment »
in the breath, a back door,
in the door, a lock, in the lock
a catch, in the catch, your name
What Doesn’t Work
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged poem, poetry, thoughts, xerxes I on April 24, 2016| 1 Comment »
And so when his bridge was destroyed by the sea,
Xerxes I had the sea whipped. Three hundred lashes.
He branded the water with red-hot irons
and ordered his soldiers to shout at the strait.
I have tried to lash these errant thoughts,
have wanted to whip them to keep them in line.
I have wanted to make my mind eat soap,
have tried to force it to sit in the corner.
But the sea cared nothing about the lashes,
just as the mind is nonplussed by the soap.
The sea laps its tongues against my frustration.
Salt gets into my eyes, my beliefs, my throat.
One Perennial
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged lotus, poem, poetry, unsustainability on April 23, 2016| 1 Comment »
On An April Evening
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged April, poem, poetry, rush, slow on April 22, 2016| 3 Comments »
The creek is rising, love,
all surge and plunge,
a rapid, eager coursing—
do you see how the water
surges, falls over itself
in its springborn hurry—
all around us, ahh, do you hear?
the world is a-scurry
with reachings and rushings
and places to go,
and in me this wish
to do nothing but
touch you very,
very, very
slow
ly.
Two Marvelings
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged allowing, gratitude, love, moon, poem, poetry, river on April 21, 2016| 2 Comments »
just another full moon rise—
is it any wonder
I can’t stop bowing?
*
how, I said,
to the river bed
do you make
of yourself a home?
I let the flow shape me,
the river bed said—
flood, current,
shimmer, stone
On an Anxious Day I Go to the Hot Springs
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Orvis Hot Springs, poem, poetry, relax on April 20, 2016| 5 Comments »
and let the warm water hold me.
I close my eyes and when they reopen
they are filled with clouds.
I feel no need to name the shapes
as they shift. As I watch,
the sky changes from gray to blue.
I am naked as these winter-simple cottonwoods
ringing the water, though there
is no denying it is spring—
everywhere life is preparing
great change. Buds in the willows.
A robin chatters. Sound of falling water.
Beneath what is bare, there are evergreens.
My empty hands float, and each time I inhale
my chest rises out of the water. Some time passes
before I notice the clench in my gut
has disappeared. That is the way with some things—
so impossible to ignore when they are present,
so easy to miss when they are gone.
I unfold my limbs atop the water’s surface
and open myself to the sun.
The wind ruffles whatever it touches.
I let it touch me everywhere.
To the south, the grayness gathers again.
I see it will be here soon. Scent of coming rain.
As if it were no work at all, I breathe.
Only the Dance
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged dance, poem, poetry, stillness on April 19, 2016| 1 Comment »
At the still point of the turning world; neither flesh nor fleshless
—T. S. Eliot, from The Four Quartets
Waltzing in the kitchen,
I ask the sauté pan to dance.
It is an awkward affair,
neither of us is really sure
of the steps, neither of us
knows if the other is leading.
In the end, I curtsey. The sauté pan
retires to the stove top
and says nothing. There
is no applause. The music
that was not playing
continues not to play.
The deer in the grass
who did not turn to watch
the strange dance in the house
continue to eat the lawn,
which I know by tomorrow
will seem taller, though
I have never seen it grow.
In me, something so still.
I struggle to name it,
say “nothing,” and I bow
to the nothing, know it as true,
then it changes its name
to “everything.”
There is so much
I don’t understand.
On the stove, the butter
skitters across the pan.
It smells salty, sweet.
The pan and I are partners again.
I lift it by the handle
and swirl it slowly,
then return it to the grate.
I don’t dare be still now,
lest the butter burn.
Whatever is still in me
remains very, very still
A Languaging Between
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged language, love, poem, poetry, spring on April 18, 2016| 4 Comments »
Spring speaks a language
with only present progressive verbs—
just today as I walked into blue sky
turned blizzard, I attempted translations
into English with words such as flusterizing,
mirthing, tizzying, and unguarding,
but none of these seemed quite right.
As soon as I felt I had touched
something true, the moment
was already changed.
In Springese, there’s a word
that means both destroying
and flourishing. And another word
that means both grieving
and rejoicing. I felt my heart
leap up in glad recognition—so familiar
it is with unrepentant paradox
that the clumsy tongue can’t master.
They seemed to have a profound conversation,
my heart and spring, that my brain wanted
so much to decode. It could not,
but the snow was heavy and cold and wet
as it fell on my warming cheeks,
my rising chest, the greening grass.
And though it was clearly
inadequate, the brain settled
for this gloss, God, its so good,
so damned good to be alive.
An Interview in Tethered by Letters
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged poetry interview, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, tethered by letters, Western Slope Poet Laureate on April 18, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Here in the heart of National Poetry Month (though I believe in Poetry Year, or perhaps even Poetry Life), a wonderful online resource for writers, Tethered by Letters, has published this Q & A with me … I liked their questions, and I like rummaging around their site, too …
You can read the interview here.
A Big Bouquet of Poems from Aruba and the Florida Keys
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Aruba, Florida Keys, poem, poetry, travel on April 17, 2016| 2 Comments »
Hi poetry friends, we’re back from a couple of weeks in the sun. Here are some tropical haikulings from our travels …
no answers in the sunset—
watching it redden
I forget the question
*
a warm wind blows north
thoughts become clouds—
I chase their shadows
*
enormous spider!
or just a scrap of leaf—
the heart leaps just in case
*
years after the wreck
returning to the wreck
this time with anticipation
*
this body
a million million doors
all of them swung wide
*
the further I swim from shore
the clearer the ocean’s invitation—
keep swimming
*
on the heart’s cracking walls
such tender graffiti—
you were made to love like this
*
the surf and I reach
for the same pink shell—
all day we play for keeps
*
in white sand
my fingers trace vague outlines—
what is and what is not here
*
butterfly farm—
everywhere I look
life reinventing itself
*
diving into clear water
I change from swimmer to wave—
gentle communion
*
in the arms of dawn
waking to unfamiliar birdsong—
oh rising urge to sing a new song
*
white underfeathers
of the osprey soaring—
my heart comes out of hiding
*
with a drill sergeant voice
he clips out orders for meditation—
deep peace arrives right on time
*
imaginary
this last piece of key lime pie—
still, we vote for who gets it
*
hold back, my friend says
but I fall relentlessly open—
red red hibiscus
*
after two weeks away
new birds outside my window—
or perhaps new ears
The Art of Changing Metaphor TEDx
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged frame, lens, metaphor, poetry, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, TEDx on April 17, 2016| 12 Comments »
Hi friends,
My TEDx talk on The Art of Changing Metaphors has finally come out on youtube! The premise: Our thoughts are made of frames, many of them unconscious. Identify them and change them, and you can change the way you engage with the world.
I hope you enjoy watching it! Let me know if you try it … and what might happen!
More Poems Soonly …
Posted in Uncategorized on April 1, 2016| 4 Comments »
Hey friends, I will be taking a short break from sending out poems, but when I return, I will have a full bouquet of poems to share with you,
Xo
r
Ain’t Love Something
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged love, poem, poetry on April 1, 2016| 1 Comment »