Thursday, March 27, 2014

Amy Fleury: When at Last I Join

(Amy Fleury)

A few weeks ago I read a poem in Ted Kooser's column. I liked the poem so much I looked up the poet, Amy Fleury, and bought her latest book, Sympathetic Magic. Every single poem is incredibly good. Seriously. I don't remember the last time I read a collection of poetry that didn't have even one weak poem. Here is one of my favorites:

When at Last I Join

When at last I join the democracy of dirt,
            a tussock earthed over and grass healed,
I'll gladly conspire in my own diminishment.

            Let a pink peony bloom from my chest
and may it be visited by a charm of bees,
            who will then carry the talcum of pollen

and nectar of clover to the grove where they hive.
            Let the honey they make be broken
from comb, and release from its golden hold,

            onto some animal tongue, my soul.

                                 --Amy Fleury



Tuesday, March 25, 2014

If I Could Have Any Wish

There would be no blazing colors,
     no deafening fireworks,
no boisterous milling crowds
     of pleasure-seekers.

Only you and me
     in a darkened room.
Only the electric touch
     of your body and mine.

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Congrats to Abhra Pal on the occassion of his first dVerse hosting! Abhra, using the joyous Hindu festival of Holi as inspiration, invites us to consider the combination of color and love. Contrarian that I am, I went colorless. Kind of. 

Friday, March 21, 2014

Walt Whitman: The Most Spiritual Poems





I will make the poems of materials, for I think they
    are to be the most spiritual poems,
And I will make the poems
    of my body and of mortality,
For I think I shall then supply myself with the poems
    of my soul and of immmortality.

              --Walt Whitman,
                    from "Starting from Paumanok"

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Sindoor Sun

(Painting by Sunita Khedekar)

Veiled from the setting sindoor sun
by a charcoal roof
and shaded downcast eyes,
I still feel your tears on my face—

what are these thoughts I think
in the gray of a fading day?
Just to know, for my own sake,
I look from the window

as we used to do, to see
if the fishermen’s boats
still glistened in the
setting sindoor sun.

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For dVerse. Grace has us writing with color in mind, using artwork by Sunita Khedekar for inspiration. It's been such a long while since I've posted anything, but Sunita's work is so powerful I just had to give this a go. Click here for info. on sindoor. Please visit dVerse and write something you can share with us; at the very least, you owe it to yourself to check out Sunita's art. Incredible work!