Heavy as hot wet flannel, every breath…I hate to sit or move againstthis August afternoon.Sticky-damp, clothes cling,a drag against ambition.Birds, lethargic, dull,sing only if they must,fly ghostlike if at allthrough dusty drooping trees.Cicadas ratchet on and on–maddeningly constant;mosquitoes whineor strike unheard, the devils!Roses overblown and bright,relishing this tropic season,exude aromas heavy and too sweet. I …
Category Archives: Poetry
Reclaiming the Eternal Feminine
MEDUSA O maid, you once were lovely,full of grace, and namedfor Wisdom in eternal female form–Metis, Maat, Medha the names you bore… But the passing generations,reshaping and restructuring your form,made you over as a thing to fear,no longer Maid, but Monsterwith a deadly, stony gaze; Men made you cruel and coldand perilous to life in …
Who?
I look for youyour sweet face gleamingon the very edge of dreaming,I seek you, yearningto believe,to knowthat you are real…that we are in a worldtogether loving,touching, laughing,waltzingon a harlequin ballroom floor,chequered black and white,smooth and perfectin a forest glen,beneath crystal skiesand lit bydancing fireflies…
Privilege
I walked a path today, a path I’ve passedoh, many times before,because it led up-hill,and looked like work…But today, I walked it anyway. I was rewarded bya twisting tree I’ve never seen,and colored textures in the trailand a gated fence with signs:“No Trespassing” and“Private Property… No Entry”–all on the far side of the fencingfacing outward to the …
Octopus
Lurkingloosely,blobbishlyunrolling,your enormousbulbous heada-lolling,with a kind ofneckless graceas you come pouringdown the faceof rocky covesand coral caves that shimmerwith a most enchanting glimmerthrough the roofof pulsing waves–Gem set in a jewel… Red or yellow,white and polka-dotsor maybe cobalt blue:Loosely committed to your shade,your shape also definedsort ofby whatever space you fill… And yet, in youa hunter’s will…And truth be told,you’re really …
Nocturne
This midnight restlessness of mindthat drives me room to roomis once again awake:when all the world is dark and dreamingit drives me softly,something seeking… A child in the window framegazing out on night-times’s day,held in thrallby lunar lightthat casts the night-landssoft and fey… A girl enwrapped in arms,entranced,over mothsthat dash and danceabout the silent night-light in the …
Night Running
Under a skynetted with starslike gemsin the sweeping wavesof holy tresses… Wind sighslike divine breathof the world aroundand with itI also breathe… Running, runningkinlessunder the skyMoon, the lanternfull as a pearl,a heart,the senseson a night like this… In such solitudealone and yetby all the world embracedI wonder,Where in all of itare you? 2014
Solitude
Wandering–flickering quietlya fragment of my soulin peaceable night,eternal playgroundof gods and planets,stars and dust and dreams… Hearkening–to a thread of tonea music simpleand profoundand not entirelyunknown… Wondering–Shall I follow?Cast my curiosityupon the solar windstack this way and thatuntil I cometo findthe instrument,the player of this theme? Or–wander on–embracing solitude,and safe? November 2009 November 2009
I AM NOT WHITE
I am not white… Not white, but tones of pinkof gentle shades of tawnywith constellations on my skinof greater and lesser magnitudesof brown. My eyes are blueor sometimes more like grey.It’s a mood thingor a product of surroundingsand ecologies. My blood is redas brightas anyone’s. My hair has lived throughsun-touched goldand lightish, dullish brown,and through fads …
Lament
I’m sorry, I can’t love youas maternal love should be…Out here I standbeyond the glass, a wall of distancebetween my heart and the world. Love’s such a quiet subtle thingso easily drowned outby need and wantand hungers wailingfrom a time,the time when childrenlearn to loveby being loved. I’m sorrythat my missing piecesmake this puzzlethat is …
LOOSELY SPEAKING... 