after shedding all these skins
still saying to the cherry blossom
teach me how to let go
Archive for May, 2018
One More Layer
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged letting go, poem, poetry on May 19, 2018| Leave a Comment »
One Afternoon with Ulli & Jen
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged friendship, poem, poetry, singing on May 17, 2018| Leave a Comment »
singing beside the falls
the sound of the water
drowns out our voices
but that isn’t any reason
to stop singing
Some Days Are Difficult For Me
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged loss, poem, poetry, tears on May 16, 2018| 3 Comments »
Longing is the hardest thing to give up.
—Jim Tipton, “What is This Place I Have Come To?”
Some days can’t end soon enough,
when the heart, so full of love,
breaks and breaks again—
for beauty, for loss.
And the eyes can’t cry
another damn tear
but they do anyway,
I would rather not
cry anymore, but God,
thank you for letting me
be one of the ones
who can’t help but weep,
whose house is built
too close to the water.
What a gift to feel this horrible ache
like a lantern, golden
and soft, guiding us
deeper and deeper
into our humanness,
leading us closer
to each other, even
though we have never felt
farther away,
and though the stars
are out and at last,
thank god, it is night,
we have never
been more awake.
Workshops & Readings & Revealings, Oh My!
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Corinne Platt, literary burlesque, poem, poetry, poetry reading, poetry workshop, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer on May 16, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Poetry friends, I hope you will be able to join me for some of these upcoming events:
May 18-20, Telluride Literary Arts Festival, featuring free readings, free open mic, free workshops, a poetry hike! For more schedule and featured guests, visit http://talkinggourds.weebly.com/literary-arts-festival.html
May 19, Literary Burlesque!! This year’s them: Uncorseted: It’s not what it seams . Eight whip-smart women strip away what it means to fight for LIBERTY in all their cheeky glory. It’s the 100th anniversary of Armistice. We celebrate the women who unbound themselves using their voices and bodies. Sexy, serious, playful, hot. I’ll be playing Anna Akhmatova, the Russian poet. 7 p.m. at the Black Box Theater in Telluride. Tickets are $20, available only at Between the Covers, 728-4504. Always sells out, get your ticket now!
May 21, Naked for Tea—I will be performing and sharing poems from my newest poetry collection in Ridgway at 6:30 at Cimarron Books and Coffee Roasters. Featuring Kyra Kopestonsky accompanying me on cello. Free.
May 23, Lost in Motherland, a free writing workshop for moms (step, biological, grand, etc) exploring how motherhood has undone us and made us who we are. At Wilkinson Public Library, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Telluride Room. To register, please call 970-728-4519 and ask for the youth services desk.
June 18, Always Becoming: A Dream and Poetry Workshop in Placerville, CO
What if you could rest in the knowing that your own consciousness had the answers that you were looking for? Each night, through the power and intensity of our dreams, we are offered pieces of ourselves that we might never come to know. Dreams speak the language of the soul, a rich and deep patois, from the deepest parts of our being. A dream may speak to a personal mythos or idea we hold about who we are, how we are living or what our future might hold; or it may offer an insight into a small detail of everyday life—what we do in relationships, how we pull back or illuminate the places we are stuck. Talking about dreams – as opposed to interpreting them – opens us up to a deep discovery of our own authenticity.
In this six-hour workshop, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., we will explore the landscape of dreams and use the symbols, images, metaphors and feelings to leap into language, writing poems that walk the line between certainty and uncertainty, dream and reality, the irrational and the true. Through dreams and poetry, we will navigate the tides of becoming—the continual, miraculous unfolding of life. No previous experience with dream work or poetry necessary. Led by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and Corinne Platt. $100.
To register, contact Rosemerry, 970-729-1838 or wordwoman@rosemerry.com
June 26, Art Bar(d): The Art of Showing Up, Ridgway, 6-8 p.m. Sometimes, writing a poem is good medicine. The process can help us keep our heads and hearts where our bodies are, inviting us to return to the present moment again and again. No matter how busy you are—or not—this art of paying attention to the here and now has a wonderful way of inspiring us to live better, and to make our world better, while at the same time allowing us to see ourselves and the world as “good enough.” This is a workshop brought to you by curiosity and paradox. And wine. $25 gets you instruction and some liquid inspiration. We’ll read, write and share poems. All levels of writing expertise welcome. For more info or to register, contact Weehawken Arts, https://www.weehawkenarts.org/all-classes/343-artbar-d-the-art-of-showing-up-with-rosemerry-wahtola-trommer
July 7, First Saturday Poetry Series at Bookbar in Denver: Naked for Tea and Phases: Rosemerry joins bestie Erika Moss Gordon for an evening of poetic play. Free. Mingling at 4:30, reading at 5:30. For more info, contact Kate@bookbardenver.com
One Desolation
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged answer, heart, poem, poetry, question on May 15, 2018| Leave a Comment »
I make in my heart a nest for the questions,
ask them to stay, and at the same time
post a sign that says
answers only—
no wonder they fly away.
Nine Years Since I’ve Seen Him
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged death, friendship, poem, poetry on May 14, 2018| 2 Comments »
for Jim Tipton
Margaret tells me
that while in a morphine stupor,
our friend told her I am dead.
I take the news of my death
rather well, I think,
remembering that just this morning
I ate blackberries
and pulled on my shoes
and drove a winding road.
But my friend, he is close
to death, his hand so tired
he signed only half his last name
in his book Margaret sends to me.
Reading it, he is in the room,
his voice still baritone and booming,
speaking of high desert honey and mesas
and cinnamon. I meet him there,
startled by how close he feels,
and when the book is over,
how enormous the emptiness.
On Mother’s Day
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged love, mother, mother's day, parenting, poem, poetry on May 13, 2018| Leave a Comment »
She looks so happy with her new baby, all coo
and smile and jiggle and swing.
I smile at her, and think of everything
I do not tell her. How the child will grow up
to break her heart over and over. How
she will give him more love
than she knew she had, and it will not
be enough. How he will hate her
for holding a line. How she must hold it,
still. How she will come to doubt herself.
How all of us are broken, no
matter how hard we’ve worked to be
whole, and how none of us can
carry the other, no matter how
much we long to. How she will
beg her own heart, Stay open,
stay open. And how some wise friend
may someday say to her,
Shut down your big heart
at many a time. It needs to rest
while you are awake.
And she will know perhaps by then
the truth of love, how it is never
what we imagined. How
big a risk it is to love. How
everything depends on this. And how
she will weep, someday, watching
another young mother in the park,
cooing at her baby, remembering
how simple it seemed, and how
perhaps it is still that simple,
a mother, a child, a big world to explore.
One Day Before Planting
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged garden, planting, poem, poetry, seed on May 12, 2018| Leave a Comment »
before the planting,
the dreaming, laying out seeds
while summer still fits in my hand
Happy Mother’s Day
Posted in Uncategorized on May 12, 2018| Leave a Comment »
To every mother, Happy Mother’s Day. Here are two poems published today in Telluride Inside and Out, one about my mother, one about being a mother … wishing you all grace and rest!
Priceless
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged clarity, poem, poetry on May 12, 2018| 2 Comments »
moments of clarity
strung like pearls
with knots between them
never touching
but oh, the sweet weight
of wearing that necklace