I have a lalpful of cat this morning.
He’s large and orange and purring and
does not care one bit that I need to write today.
I suppose this is the crazy cat lady version of,
“the dog ate my homework”
Wind and Fire – NaPoWriMo #26
Somewhere a fire is burning,
dry leaves and unleavened loaves
turning to ash
with unabashed women
stirring, stirring,
until the flames regain their whirling heights
hungrily devouring all in their path
souring our ideas of power
And the dry ash flies up
on the wind
independent of even gravity,
dancing and drifting with the depravity
of fiery demons
And somewhere winds are shrieking
blowing, billowing, and peaking
above the church’s spire
higher and wilder
catching up papers, leaves, rags, and sheaves.
Then lightning strikes, it sparks and starts a fire.
Nothing Much to Say – NaPoWriMo #25
I can almost feel blood pulsing
through the capillaries that carry it
down
to my fingertips
as I press the computer keys
to type this drivel.
I have nothing much to say
but I need to say it for another five days,
because April is the month of
30 poems in 30 days,
and this is only number 25.
So if you stick with me, gentle reader,
you may learn more of my
very, very ordinary life
my cats, my dog,
my weird little hangups,
and weirder little random thoughts
that stroll through my head
mostly unbidden, and usually hidden from you and you and you.
In the Beginning – NaPoWriMo #24
Beginnings and endings can be tricky,
We mark beginnings in many ways,
A ball drop, a photograph, a toast
or an awkward introduction.
And there are all sorts of middles –
dramatic
disappointing
painful
suspenseful
incredible
satisfying
fulfilling
harrowing
crushing
or just… middling
With endings we often don’t know
when they are happening
a final goodbye or a last kiss,
Endings and beginnings can be tricky.
I started with the idea of palindromes, when I looked at today’s date, and that took me to the more general idea of beginnings and endings.
Listening – NaPoWriMo #23
I listen to the river
and wonder,
can I ever learn her language?
Or the deep, quiet lake,
or the restless, rushing waves of the ocean.
Can I learn the language of the trees
as they whisper to one another on the wind?
Or the slow language of the rocks,
and the earth and the sands?
I watch the clouds
and listen to the wind,
but there is so much more than I can grasp. Still, I love to listen
Moving House
My husband and I are moving house,
sort of. Maybe. But maybe not.
For who can move away
from 35 years of living?
What crate do you pack all your memories in?
How many boxes does it take
to hold a life?
A marriage?
A family?
This old house is only a place,
but it’s the place
where so much
of your life happened.
This new place does not have the spot
where your son took his first steps
or the spot where your daughter
lost her first tooth.
It doesn’t have the place on the stairs
where your children sat
when you overheard
your daughter asking your son to play Barbies
and your son answering
that he would,
for a quarter.
This new place does not have
the hallway you walked
all those nights
when the babies wouldn’t sleep,
or the spot where you stood
when you learned of
the attack on the World Trade Center,
or the door your husband walked through
when he brought home the stray dog
who became a part of the family.
It does not have the sunroom
where you slept every night
while recovering from knee surgery
and you couldn’t walk
up the stairs to the bedroom,
the sunroom where you sit
every morning
writing and reading
with your dog and your cat and your coffee.
And now you are old
and there isn’t enough of you left,
of your life left,
to make all the new memories
that will transform another house
into a home,
into your home.
Elemental – NaPoWriMo #21
Water, Earth, Air, and Fire,
Building blocks
and also, demolition tools.
Both the over-abundance
and the withholding
of these materials
can destroy
anything,
everything.
So why do we not take more care
of the ways we use
them?
And, of course,
they often remind us
of the many ways they are
beyond our control.
“Humans,
you are not
Masters of the Universe or
Rulers of the Planet or
Lords of the Land,”
they seem to me to say.
We have our place,
along with all the other creatures
amid beautiful,
terrible,
wonderous,
grand, and humble mix of
Water, Earth, Air, and Fire
Untitled – NaPoWriMo #20
Now, at the start of spring
Winter sends us one last blast
of cold. Like a dying
patient who rallies
just before he
finally fails,
finally falls
into whatever comes next
Though no one seems to mind
when Winter dies
Winter has one of those,
“it’s a blessing”
deaths,
though, when people say it
about a loved one
(theirs or mine)
I want to scream
or give them a slap
or both,
no matter the circumstances of the death
But the death of
Winter is
another matter.
After all,
we know that
Winter
will always
find her way back.
Underneath – NaPoWriMo #19
Underneath the surface
is where we find the monsters,
and the treasure.
Under the dirt, the rot, the slimy, wriggling things,
that’s where the proper monsters lie.
The ones we simply can’t face
because they are facets
of our own selves.
But just beyond the monsters,
if we kill them or
beat them or
love them
into submission,
is the priceless treasure
that will transform our lives.
Untitled – NaPoWriMo #18
There is so much
wrong with my society:
institutionalized corruption
institutionalized injustice
institutionalized sexism
institutionalized racism
Sometimes it seems the best thing
to do is to set the world on fire
and just start over.
But, of course, I would
never do anything like that.
Though, I might cheer softly
if you did.
Anyone need a light?
In Other Words 