Dear Poetry Friends,
Thank you so much for the sweet notes I received while I was on vacation letting me know you missed the daily poems. I should have mentioned ahead of time that I would be taking a break from nightly sending. Then, yesterday, the motherboard on my computer went out and I understand it will be at least a week before I have it back … so we will be on a limited posting schedule again until my computer returns. Luckily, through the grace of iCloud (how is this possible) my poems from our trip still exist on my phone. What a great technological twist to a story about a technological bummer!
AND NOW FOR TWO WEEK’S WORTH OF POEMS!
Bouquet of Poems from Florida Keys
changing blues in the water
trying to name them as if this way
I will remember
*
riding rusty bikes
every pedal an invitation
to sing along
*
after facing new monsters:
the ankle grabbing bubba, the dunka—
the swimming pool safe at last
*
between domino spots
infinite space
for laughter
*
drinking lemon drops
with my mother—
afternoon sunshine
*
sea breeze so strong
it makes of all my thoughts
a kite
*
training to believe in luck—
at Boondocks mini golf
hole in one
*
once swimming in the waves
how soon I forget
stench of beached seaweed
*
how quietly they become
part of everything—
all those dropped petals
*
on silent streets
walking with midnight—
never once feeling lonely
*
what shall I listen to—
from far away
a song on the wind
*
after thousands of years
what new is there to say
about waiting
Bouquet of Poems from Washington DC
unable to see stars
I find a tree about to leaf
wish on a greening bud
(at Yoko Ono’s “Wishing Tree” in the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden)
*
we wade into the black
sea of names, deeper, deeper—
salt water on our cheeks
(at the Vietnam Memorial)
*
above the wall of the dead
a field of tiny blue self-seeding flowers—
how peace begins
(at the Vietnam Memorial)
*
night of a thousand sirens—
meanwhile, above the orchestra pit,
the Russian ballerina bows
(at the Kennedy Center, Mariinsky Ballet, “Le Corsair”)
*
surrounded by beauty
he finds only reasons to complain—
rain of cherry blossoms
(beside the Tidal Pool)
*
beside the empty cherry tree
the message of Martin Luther King
still blooming
(at the MLK Memorial)
*
in a room of Rothko
I find it inside—
my horizon
(at the Phillips Museum)
*
Lincoln’s giant marble fist—
staring at it until my own fist
opens
(at the Lincoln Memorial)
Lovely vacations. 🙂 Did you get to see the Pulse exhibit at the Hirsshorn?
Hi Valerie,
Yes! we did go to the Pulse exhibit! It was fabulous … I loved its interactive nature, its scale, how it could be intimate for every person who experienced it. Amazing to see my own heartbeat in lights!
I’m so glad you experienced it! Yes to everything you said. I went through twice, and both times at the lights section I walked in feeling like I was in the womb, and walked out loving every single person I saw. Truly transformative for me.