Posted in Uncategorized, tagged conflict, food, human nature, poem, poetry on January 31, 2017| 3 Comments »
Tonight,
slicing ginger,
I think about
not thinking
about the news,
how I would then
sit down
at dinner
and look
around the table
at my family
and enjoy
this peanut sauce
on brown rice,
and for a while
I am two women
in one skin—
one who stews
about the supreme court,
one who thrills
in the hot pepper oil,
the way it blazes
on the tongue.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged broken, human nature, monostitch, poem, poetry on January 30, 2017| 2 Comments »
No way to pretend we’re not broken, no way not to see how dazzling we are.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged joy, poem, poetry, sunshine on January 29, 2017| Leave a Comment »
One minute you’re sitting on the porch
in the warm morning sun and ten minutes later
it’s been an hour or more and you have forgotten
your name, forgotten the year, forgotten
who’s president, all that you know is the sky
has never been so clear and your body
has never been this starved for blue—the way
it steeps so deeply into you that by the time
you enter yourself again, you forget to wonder
how to make this radiance last,
can’t imagine you could ever feel
any other way.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged craft, interview, poetry, practice, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer on January 29, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Last year, I did an interview with poet and writer Eduardo Brummel, and today he’s posted it on his blog … more about practice, on how a poem might save your life, and the dance between inspiration and crafting … thanks, Eduardo! Here’s a link to the interview
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged knitting, love, monostitch, poem, poetry on January 29, 2017| Leave a Comment »
I imagined pearling a silk shawl of prayers generous enough to cover the whole cold world, the color of the moon.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged beauty, fear, poem, poetry, self talk on January 27, 2017| 9 Comments »
Even after I turn off the radio
there is a red voice below my gut
that repeats, “You should be very afraid.”
Out the passenger window
I see three elk bedded down
in the snow beneath a spruce,
and then I am past them,
looking up valley at the mountains
where the wind blows the snow
in long white curls off the peaks.
I want to return, I think,
to a different chapter—
but I don’t believe it.
There are no fewer opportunities
now to fall in love,
and there are a whole lot more
chances to be of service.
I tell myself I was born
for exactly this life—
born to see the frosted cottonwood trees
on the valley floor
flood with the low light of morning,
born to meet the fear in my gut
and carry it with me to do brave and beautiful things.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged love, monostitch, news, poem, poetry on January 26, 2017| 5 Comments »
In the bedroom of my heart, kicking out the stinking news, opening the window to hear the river song.
Posted in Uncategorized on January 26, 2017| 3 Comments »
I had so much fun doing this interview with my new friend Bill for his blog. If you read the interview, I hope you also take time to check out some of his work at https://pinklightsabre.com/
Here we talk about poetry as practice and how to move our practice forward. Enjoy!
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged koshti, poem, poetry on January 26, 2017| Leave a Comment »
In Persia, they used to wrestle
each other to ready themselves
for combat. They’d grapple in secret
meeting places, learning first
to sing, to juggle, to chant poems,
to whirl to the beat of a drum.
Let’s wrestle, love, it can only
help now. There are battles
aplenty to wage. Let us
cultivate strength on our own,
then bring our power to a hidden circle
where we’ll strengthen the other.
Imagine how our bodies will meet
each other then, moving
to a faithful, inner drum. With some practice,
imagine how strong we’ll become,
how when we emerge,
we’ll be ready to take on the world.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged grammar, monostitch, poem, poetry, politics on January 25, 2017| 3 Comments »
Before I press send, I edit the last sentence so the adverb doesn’t split the infinitive—not that I care for grammar, just that it feels good today to have one small thing I know how to fix.