CONTEMPORARY POETRY

The Blues

                    The Blues Much of what is said here must be said twice, a reminder that no one takes an immediate interest in the pain of others. Nobody will listen, it would seem, if you simply admit your baby left you early this morning she didn’t even stop to say good-bye. But if you...Read More »

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Astral bard

                  Astral bard Fair seerintuit beautyas night absorbs the moon and starsas thorns know the rosetime streams along age-worn bedrockunderscored by muse.Hush! Listen!Life sings a solar windsongLips open to paint new visionsInk sweeps silks in fantasy strokesher poems plucked from the etherto reanimate,as nectar for soulfragrantas rose wine   from PoetryZoo Abigael   Gael Bage ...Read More »

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Christmas Sparrow

                    Christmas Sparrow The first thing I heard this morning was a soft, insistent rustle, the rapid flapping of wings against glass as it turned out, a small bird rioting in the frame of a high window, trying to hurl itself through the enigma of transparency into the spacious light. A noise in the...Read More »

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I Ask You

              I Ask You What scene would I want to be enveloped inmore than this one,an ordinary night at the kitchen table,floral wallpaper pressing in,white cabinets full of glass,the telephone silent,a pen tilted back in my hand? It gives me time to thinkabout all that is going on outside–leaves gathering in corners,lichen greening...Read More »

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Woman ( 5 cinquain sequence) (titles make a sixth)

                              Woman ( 5 cinquain sequence) (titles make a sixth) Ice Queen Woman introverted, lives in ice-olation fears love and closeness, if warmth comes – she melts. Potential Love Woman love does not come on plates for the needy seek inner riches and blossom – reap love. Existence would miss You Woman home is no place –...Read More »

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Taking Off Emily Dickinson' s Clothes

                    Taking Off Emily Dickinson’ s Clothes First, her tippet made of tulle,easily lifted off her shoulders and laidon the back of a wooden chair. And her bonnet,the bow undone with a light forward pull. Then the long white dress, a morecomplicated matter with mother-of-pearlbuttons down the back,so tiny and numerous that it takes...Read More »

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Aimless love

  Aimless love This morning as I walked along the lakeshore, I fell in love with a wren and later in the day with a mouse the cat had dropped under the dining room table. In the shadows of an autumn evening, I fell for a seamstress still at her machine in the...Read More »

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Cascade

              Cascade Waiting for a bus by The Western InfirmaryOne Dreary Overcast October day.Scanning the dirty, tenement lined streets for a 43.Windy-empty wrappers whipping around my feetStudents and hospital visitors huddled in the shelterIn scarves and anoraks. Wrapped up against the chill. Suddenly, something changed. Quietly. Unnoticed.A change of wind direction perhaps orA...Read More »

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The Secrets of Life

            The Secrets of Life The riptide pulled and weighed us down,swimming in our shoals.It bent us in our will to win,oh weary, sorry souls. Oh tiresome, terrifying dayswhen scholars moved to preachthat all of Christendom was ours,but always out of reach. Oh weary, sorry souls, I criedfor all of us, who’re driven,wherein unconscious...Read More »

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Deniers deny...

                          Deniers deny… Deniers deny what they don’t understand Believers believe what they do. Whatever you do, whatever you say Never confuse the two. Those who believe what they don’t understand Or deny what they truly believe Are caught in a spot without any hope Of anything new to receive.         Raymond Joy ...Read More »

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