Thursday, December 29, 2011

TREES

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

   - Joyce Kilmer     +1918

Thursday, December 22, 2011

trembles and terror the rapture rends the bowels

AUNT

Her demure eyelids a magenta
My aunt touches an ash to the ashtray
The end of her cigarette sparkles

Between her frail hands
A glass of plum coffee rests

She takes the cigarette between her pale lips
And squints as she inhales smoke
(Pauses to read Book of Revelation)

Exhaling, small errant clergymen
Tumble like scorpions with women’s faces
Hands outstretched
They research the air for dark epiphanies.


 - Kirby Olson

Monday, December 19, 2011

NAKED

  We are mapped
in stitched flesh,
   ragged sighs.

    The naked
 know the way.

Learning love's fierce art,
         the naked walk
         the blood trail

            in silence

         to the heart.



-  Ivan M. Granger

Friday, December 16, 2011

germination and desire

LIKE A SEED

every
broken
dream

is
like
a seed
that
f
a
l
l
s

and is welcomed
by the soft black earth

and all the other dying things


be still now
and rest

rest safe
in the warm
silent
dark

for this
is God's womb
where
the force
of new life is at work


   - sally the geologian

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

of Rhodes it is said

 
 
The animated figures stand
Adorning every public street
And seem to breathe in stone, or
Move their marble feet.
                         -  Pindar

Monday, December 12, 2011

haiku

minutes to go
noplace seems real anymore
even the clouds are disinterested

Saturday, December 10, 2011

a view

COME TO THE EDGE

come to the edge.
   -we might fall!
come to the edge.
    -it's too high!
COME TO THE EDGE.
and they came.
and we pushed.
and they flew.

-  Christopher Logue   +2011