so beautiful, these seeds—
still learning to appreciate them
not for what they will become
but for the intricate
wonders they are
Archive for June, 2018
What the Gardener Learns
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged garden, poem, poetry, seeds on June 30, 2018| Leave a Comment »
And What Happens Next
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged attention, intention, poem, poetry, quality, tomato on June 30, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Slicing the tomato
as if the world depends
on how well the tomato
is sliced—tell me
that it doesn’t taste
sweeter, sharper,
more red.
Walking Alone on the Specie Mesa Road
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged bear, fear, poem, poetry on June 29, 2018| Leave a Comment »
The bear is in no hurry
as he moves toward you.
He does not turn away.
Though you yell. Though
you wave your arms above
your head. Though
you plant your legs wide.
He just ambles up the steep
dirt road and focuses on you.
At first, it’s not unnerving.
You’ve seen bears before.
But this bear is interested.
This bear keeps you near.
You walk backwards up the hill.
The bear matches your pace.
You lose sight around the curve.
A few steps later, it’s still there.
You shout until your voice is hoarse.
The bear is undeterred.
The moment loves and hates itself.
You think it could be worse.
You think it could be better.
You shout and wave and walk.
It is only later, after the man
in the old black pickup truck
has rescued you
that you let yourself wonder
how else the story could bend.
And your heart emerges,
something big and wild,
surprising you with its ferocity,
its unswerving strides.
Busy Girl’s Satori
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged awakening, bird, blue heron, poem, poetry, question, revelation on June 28, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Across the yard, below
the cliffs, and just beneath the evening’s
drift toward darkening, above
the river, through the trees,
there is, if you are lucky,
a slender moment charmed
by chance when, if you look up,
the great blue heron
will angle past on slanting wing
and make you question
everything.
Encouragement
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged garden, poems, poetry, sun, waking up on June 25, 2018| 1 Comment »
Over a month after
the nasturtium seeds were planted,
the last four seedlings begin to push
their pale green elbows above the soil,
as if stretching before they leap.
If they were children, I might chastise them
for taking so long. As it is,
I celebrate them, bend over
to whisper encouragement.
You can do it, I say to the valiant stems.
Some mornings, when the sun
has just begun to slip
into my room, I swear
the sun says the same thing to me
as I try to hide beneath the sheets.
You can do it, the light seems to say.
It does not mention, not even once,
all the darkness it has traveled through
just to arrive at this window, this morning,
so that it might warm my elbows,
suggest there is so much more light to be found.
Upcoming Poetry Events … Starting Tuesday
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Ah Haa School for the Arts, Brucie Holler, poetry reading, poetry workshop, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Weehawken Arts on June 24, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Hello Poetry Friends,
I hope you can join me in the next month at these events–several involving happy hour, one involving painting, another involving writing about painting and meditation, and several just plain old writing for the glorious sake of writing. Events in Ridgway, Telluride, Ontario, and Montrose. Come play!
June 26
Art Bar: The Art of Showing Up
Ridgeway, CO
Sherbino Theater, 6 p.m.
with Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
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. We’ll read, write and share poems. All levels of writing expertise welcome. For more information, contact Trisha at 970-318-0150 or programs@weehawkenarts.org. https://www.weehawkenarts.org/all-classes/343-artbar-d-the-art-of-showing-up-with-rosemerry-wahtola-trommer
July 7
First Saturday Poetry
Denver, CO
Bookbar, 4:30 p.m. mingling, 5:30 p.m. reading
Rosemerry and Erika Moss Gordon perform a poetry duet at one of the country’s most innovative and successful bookstores. For more information, contact Crystal at crystal@bookbardenver.com. https://www.bookbardenver.com/event/first-saturday-poetry-series-12
July 25 & 26
Writing into the Unknown
Telluride, CO
Ah Haa School, 3-6 p.m.
“Write what you know,” says the adage, but what happens when we write to unknow? What happens when we let our curiosity guide our writing? In this workshop, we will read poems and stories that launch us into wonder, writing that opens doors instead of clicking them closed, then we’ll leap into writing of our own, writing that is more interested in exploration than answers, writing inspired by authenticity. Let’s find out how a bit of what if might transform what happens when you sit down to the page. For more information, contact 970-728-3886. http://www.ahhaa.org/calendarize/writing-unknown-rosemerry-wahtola-trommer/
July 28 & 29
The Art of Showing Up: with Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer & Jill Davey
Caledon, Ontario
Alton Mill Arts Centre, 9:40 a.m. – 4 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 we 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.” To explore the art of showing up, we’ll practice meditation with Jill Davey. We’ll practice ekhprasis, the art of writing poems about works of art. And we’ll practice writing poems based on our observations of the natural world.
This is a workshop brought to you by curiosity and paradox. We’ll read, write and share poems, and find quiet and voice in ourselves. All levels of writing and meditation expertise welcome. Bring a journal with you! $325 + hst. To register: https://waxworksencaustics.com/events/the-art-of-showing-up-july-28-29/ or call 519-323-3437
August 1
Write Like Crazy!
Montrose, CO
Field House, 25 Colorado Ave, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Let’s play! This is a class of prompts and writing! We’ll experiment with poetry and stories. The goal? A good time with words in a playful, supportive environment. A class for rousing your muse, no matter where you are in your writing practice. For more information, contact programs@weehawkenarts.org .
August 10-13
Taking Flight: A Poetry and Painting Retreat for Women
Telluride, CO
Ah Haa School, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. daily
We spend so much energy holding things together, keeping it all in. Let your pen and your paintbrush be the keys to fling open the cage doors. With curiosity as our guide and paradox as our playground, we’ll launch and laugh ourselves into four days of creative freedom. This is a time to generate new work, to be seduced by your wilder self, to explore in an uncensored way the powerful, vulnerable, radiant, humble, soaring woman that is you. All levels of experience and inexperience welcome. Led by Rosemerry and Brucie Holler. http://www.ahhaa.org/calendarize/taking-flight-poetry-painting-retreat-women-brucie-holler-rosemerry-wahtola-trommer/
One More Chapter in Letting Go
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged awareness, daughter, garden, innocence, letting go, mother, parenting, poem, poetry on June 24, 2018| 1 Comment »
Today it slipped into my daughter,
the seed that all is not right in the world.
In a matter of hours, already
the tap roots had grown beyond
my ability to pull them out.
I wonder if I have been wrong
to keep her garden so tidy.
I wonder how to best teach her
to tend her own rows.
It will be endless now,
the onslaught, as every gardener knows.
And there is some pleasure in tending.
I think of how I would rather
be aware of all that grows.
I think of how sometimes
we change our minds
about what is wanted
and what is a weed.
Some part of me longs
to swing the sun back to yesterday.
Some part of me rejoices
that now all the world
is her garden.
One Track
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged poem, poetry, thoughts on June 23, 2018| Leave a Comment »
At the Pond
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged baptism, poem, poetry, self, swimming on June 22, 2018| Leave a Comment »
It’s no Walden, but it’s cool
and the day is dust hot,
and so I ask my younger self
if she wants to go swimming,
and she grabs the hand of my older self,
and drags her to the pond.
My older self was, perhaps,
more rhetorical than sincere
when she suggested the swim,
but the younger self has already
kicked off her shoes and shrugged
out of her dress. The swallows
wheel and sweep overhead
and all along the pond’s edge
the dragonflies darn through the reeds.
What is it in us that never forgets
how to jump in, no matter
how cold, no matter who’s watching,
no matter what else
we’re supposed to do?
That is the part that is already wet
and otter slick as the older part of me
stands at the edge, still dressed,
in awe of that girl, how she
glitters in the sun, how
through chattering teeth,
she laughs, how she looks
so almost familiar.
The Gate
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged airport, beauty, connection, humanity, poem, poetry, travel on June 21, 2018| 6 Comments »
It was Concourse B that altered me
as I ran past old women in sarongs
and young wailing children and men
in red ties and couples holding hands.
At first, all humanity felt like a hindrance,
living hurdles between me
and gate B-14 where the plane
for Seattle was already boarding.
But then, and who can say why,
as I stitched past B-70, B-68, B-66,
I began to notice how beautiful they were,
the ones with dark briefcases and the ones
with strollers, tall ones and fat ones and
slight ones and crooked ones,
all of us constellating in the same place
at the same time, star dust
with dreams and goals and heartaches
and hopes. And as I wove through
the fabric of us,
I felt their blessing as they parted
to let me through,
and I blessed them, too,
with a thousand silent thank yous,
astonished at how different we are,
how very much the same.
The Thing Is
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged dream, Ellen Bass, poem, poetry, self acceptance, trust on June 20, 2018| Leave a Comment »
after Ellen Bass
To trust life, that is the thing.
To trust it even when there are gaping holes
in the walls of your certainty.
To trust it even when your foundation
feels like a strange place filled with strange people
who all feel more at home in you than you do.
And when fear enters you like a bear in your basement,
or like three bears, all of them famished,
all of them rummaging through your emergency stores,
yes, when fear offers to give you its name,
when fear brings you a ladders and says, Here,
climb down into yourself, into this chamber
of strangers and bears,
when you would rather go anywhere but in,
that is when you step onto the rungs and go down,
one rung at a time. No gun in your hand.
No bear spray. No knife. There is honey
in here somewhere. And tea. So much here
to offer these hungriest parts of yourself.
And you are ready to make peace.
You are ready to meet them and share.
One Renewal
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged connection, heart, poem, poetry on June 20, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Reverie
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged allowing, poem, poetry, possibility on June 18, 2018| Leave a Comment »
In the pond, it is easy to let go of the paddle,
to let the wind move my little boat
wherever it will. I feel no need to change direction,
no sense that one way is better than another,
no attachment to arriving on any shore.
All around me, dragonflies skim bluely above the water.
Cotton drifts through the air like midsummer snow.
Robins sing their simple song. In this moment,
somehow unstitched from the calendar,
everything seems possible—like a woman
who feared she could not love could do so.
And a day could open in surprising ways,
new worlds spilling into this familiar world.
And a chapter could be written inside another
so that we would never, ever get to the end.
And Why Not Call It Miraculous?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged communication, language, light, poem, poetry, transformation on June 17, 2018| 2 Comments »
Just as the sun enters the room
and changes the feel, the warmth,
and the power to perceive,
the right word, too,
can be a beam, can shine
into an evening, bring
glimmer, tidings of light,
make even the darkest corners
shine. Yes even one word
can become a prayer,
a gate we pass through
to find ourselves luminous.
Wish
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged father, Father's Day, healing, poem, poetry, rain on June 17, 2018| 6 Comments »
for my father
And when at last
the healing comes,
may it come like rain,
like rain after a long drought,
so soft that at first
you won’t be sure
it is raining,
but the fragrance
will overcome you,
green and wet,
and the world
will look dewy and
you’ll feel it in your lungs.
Yes, may the healing
arrive in a way that
astounds you,
as today when the rain turned
long and steady,
the kind that touches
and changes everything,
changes things so completely
you almost can’t remember
what it was like before,
yes, may healing come like this
so that everywhere you look,
all you see is promise.
One Boundary
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged boundary, fence, mother, parenting, poem, poetry on June 16, 2018| Leave a Comment »
for parents of teenagers everywhere
planting flowers
all along the fence—
the fence is no less sturdy
One Surrender
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged moon, poem, poetry, surrender on June 13, 2018| Leave a Comment »
One Patience
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged patience, poem, poetry, tree on June 13, 2018| Leave a Comment »