What he's asking is, will you keep all the sadness out?
The end, forever, period.
When you clawed up my crown,
jumbled in the bones of former kings,
I promised
we would sleep in a pile, every night
warm snuffles and sighs
buried in nuzzled fur.
I pull my ears up. We dance,
you scrape your heart
around my name. White seeds like blossoms
All forts seem like a good idea.
We want wooden flutes, rough drums,
the better to feel our rub.
When icy light found me
grey beneath broken twigs,
your clumsy grief caved
and howled holes in the trees.
We slept in the forest that night.
I had to go. After all, I only bite
and teeth fall out and grow again.
you love me so. I eat bread and milk
Ghazal for Lars
A thaw came early - yet still Wisconsin winter.
Re-frozen slush hedges garage house, second winter.
So much wool. So many sweaters, blue and green,
you could cocoon forever in thick winter.
Some people don't like to be hugged. Shield your skin
from burn of hands with down-stuffed coats of winter.
None of this is easy. Who knew you could be so lonely
you forget what day it is. And hearts don't winter well.
At least artificial flowers never die. This far north,
you have to choose, to bury deep or melt in winter.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
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Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Poetry. Who needs it?
"The enduring human need for poetry . . . its ancient task of teaching and consoling humanity."
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Thursday, June 25, 2009
Openings: a rant
This post is for all those people who hate poetry because of a really bad English teacher who insisted on a certain reading. As in, you were dead-wrong if you didn't say exactly what Mrs. Grimkin wanted. And she wore odd-smelling hair nets and you're still bitter about 10th grade.
Today
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Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Conflict: resolving
I wrote this poem for Mr. Carter's Amazing Poetry Class this summer. I think the idea was sparked by Elizabeth Bishop's "Argument," which I wrote a paper on in the spring and pretty much adored. Relationships tend to be much stronger once they weather a few storms, but there's always a risk involved with fights, especially the first one. But who doesn't love conflict resolution?
First Fight
It happened on a Wednesday morning.
I brushed the breakfast crumbs away
and heard your knock – you handed me
my book (a Chesterton, I think),
and sat down at the table.
I poured us Stumptown coffee
while we talked of books,
the morning sky, your grinding job,
our coming weekend trip. I remember very
clearly what you said then, that dulled
the dreamer’s shine I’d painted
over the trip, and shattered morning's peace.
I fought back, of course, surprised
by the sudden poison of my own bitter jabs.
I wept and ran outside, laid my hands and cheek against
the ivy-spotted brick of my apartment wall.
how long I stood there, pressed against
the roughened clay, whispering “I’m sorry”
into a tiny wasp-nest hole, as if
you could hear me
through the pile of earth and wood.
How long I stood there, before you came
and leaned against the wall beside me.
We did not speak; not even
when your hand found mine beneath the ivy.
Later, we went inside, made more coffee,
sipped sweet reconciliation from a cup.
But I remember most the feel of your fingers
in mine, warm and strong
beneath the thick and waxy emerald of the leaves.
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Friday, October 10, 2008
Ginger Ice
I'll go ahead and admit I love this poem. Not because I think it's great or anything, I just love it, like you love your child even if they have an extra eye or something.
Ginger Ice (in response to Vettriano's Singing Butler)
That night in Buenos Aires,
they danced under the dome
of umbrellas and sang
a requiem for star
fish, washed up on the sand,
their only shroud a shadow
from the couple's liquid waltz.
The maid cast down her eyes,
tucked a tendril in her cap,
and the couple closer swayed -
his hand pressed on her back,
she nudged his shoulder with her chin -
the butler lost his bowler, chased it
Charlie Chaplin style
until it reached the surf
and disappeared
into the labyrinth of waves.
He tossed a log of driftwood
and retraced his sandy tracks.
The couple never noticed,
not even when the wind
whipped his tails, her cherry dress,
and spun confetti from the sand.
Later, in the plaza,
they spooned ginger ices
by the fountain
(the maid and butler yawning
on the balustrade).
She kissed his cheek, left a syrupy ring.
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