Upons

If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.
~Charles Darwin

photo by bookchen

Upon Being Asked What I Believe In
by Christine Rhein
after Dean Young

I say, for starters, the word in,
the way it dumps quicksand before
love and trouble, or after belief
and jump right! I say the days I'm sunk
in up to my waist, improvising
with ingredients at hand. I say the sizzle
of bacon, onions, the wooden spoon
meandering through thick lentil soup
with basil. I say all the herbs in my garden,
pushing roots into earth. I say the Zen
of weeding, aches that follow. And how,
in Japan, they seat a guest facing away
from the most beautiful part of the room,
remember the person later as what's missing
from the art.

Read the rest here

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What to Say Upon Being Asked to Be Friends
By Julian Talamantez Brolaski

Why speak of hate, when I do bleed for love?
Not hate, my love, but Love doth bite my tongue
Till I taste stuff that makes my rhyming rough
So flatter I my fever for the one
For whom I inly mourn, though seem to shun.
A rose is arrows is eros, so what
If I confuse the shade that I’ve become
With winedark substance in a lover’s cup?

Read the rest here

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The Poetry Friday round-up is at Carol's Corner.