A metta meditation after an imaginary conversation with the 14th Dalai Lama
I.
Place your palms together,
rest your thumb knuckles
on the bridge of your nose,
ask for a lotus to blossom
behind your sternum.
II.
Remember when your teacher
saved the poems
you slipped in his drawer.
Imagine him bald and strong,
waving Tai Chi arms on a lawn.
III.
Gather scenes of your friend,
the woman who [...]
alpha zone
Ask me why I wear an aluminum foil bulb
cleft in two on my head,
elongating like a leaf
growing toward sunlight. I’ll answer: it’s to search
infinite waves swirling in a baba gannouj
kaleidoscope, floating in an astral
medium, a subatomic plane, nothing fleshy or Darwinian.
Orbiting words spin, free agents until poets build a booby-trap.
Quaint how their little phrase [...]
I think about memory, time and self when I watch a heron
After I spy a blue
heron on a rock, the weather
clears, and I see myself: daughter,
sister, wife, a me
who lives in this shape,
a body directed in time toward this point.
The heron is a distant point
on a rock midstream, blue–
grey feathers shape
and protect its weather–
beaten [...]
you and me
you
you were a floating vagabond
as the waning sun gave way to moon
subtle, sensual, and strong
you roam the world with a worldly glee
to transcend the boundaries
along with suns, stars, moons
you were a floating vagabond
me
night after night
as I walk the streets
with intent to trample
in every pore and every nerve
mirrored pools of crisp cyan
soothing the tensions [...]
Not June Cleaver
It’s funny, the things I remember about June,
how she served hot Jell-O in Dixie cups, no stress
about washing up, made ox-tail soup each new moon,
and dried her hands on flowered aprons. She didn’t obsess
over bedwetting boys, urine soaked mattresses, or a snake
in the yard. That Bobo pooped in the sandbox was moot
since [...]
The Anxious Journey, by Giorgio De Chirico, 1913
1. I’ve decided not to attempt a daily published poem. I have to like what I put up on my blog, at least a little. There are only so many De Chirikus, Rothkos, and Pollocks the world needs to read. Besides, that Pollock, while no great work of [...]
Poems, pills, and rhymes
Sometimes I notice things about the butterfly
that aren’t very pretty. I’ll leave the stinging steam
of those words in the kettle. I don’t want you to cry
out in disgust, to break the spell of your poetic dream.
For weeks, out of boredom, I didn’t comb my hair,
letting the undergrowth snarl, like weeds in a [...]
Giorgio de Chirico, The Enigma of a Day, 1914
lone sarcophagus
even shadows have shadows
stone men search the sky
I am officially coining a new poetic form in honor of the painting of De Chirico, the De Chiriku! I’m sort of joking about the title of the form, but since it’s short and fun, I thougt it might [...]
Someone moves the ends
The arithmetic of leafless branches skews
the bell curve of my horizon.
Someone must have drained the ocean,
pushed coral through earth’s crust-
craggy fingers shove
through the dirt, graying
in the silver scent of cold.
Someone, maybe the wind,
moves the ends of branches
in frenzied wailing. Even the buds
wail in foreign tongues, worried
that spring sap won’t travel
to their [...]
If you’re interested in poetic forms, head over to readwritepoem for Tom’s post on the villanelle. I wrote the prompt for this week, combining math with poetry.
My inspiration for the math prompt came from a Georgia Writers Association poetry reading and workshop, featuring Earl S. Braggs. He read one of his most recent poems about [...]
