~Jennifer Starzec
Happy Poetry Friday! Two poems today. The first one could make a good mentor poem. What doesn't know about you?
What Pain Doesn't Know About Me
by Gail Martin
How I visualize him as a rooster. How I nickname him Sparky.
My rabbit-heart. How it looks motionless in the bank of clover
but secretly continues to nibble.
I can tell time underwater. I sing hymns there.
He’s not pocketed my vanity...
read the rest here
***********
The T'ai Chi of Putting a Sleeping Child to Bed
by Alexandra Lytton Regalado
In the lull of evening, your son nested in your arms
becomes heavier and with a sigh his body
sloughs off its weight like an anchor into deep sleep,
until his small breath is the only thing that exists.
And as you move the slow dance through the dim hall
to his bedroom and bow down to deliver his sleeping form,
arms parting, each muscle defining its arc and release—
you remember the feeling of childhood...
read the rest here
***********
A Word Edgewise has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Linda!
10 comments:
It feels as if the poet writing about pain brings a clear divide from it to the life she lives, intriguing thought! The other is sweet, bringing that memory to all of us who've done "the slow dance through the dim hall". Thanks, Tabatha!
Tabatha, wow those are two gorgeous poems today. I love the idea of use Gail Martin's "What ___doesn't know about me?" as a mentor to write. I've made a note of it.
Also, that "T'ai Chi and Putting a Sleeping Child to Bed" is full of memories for me. Most of them coming from my own childhood and being carried to bed, knowing
"your sleeping form
would be ushered by good and true arms
into the calm ocean that is your bed."
So lovely!
Tabatha, thank you for the two poems different from each other but both stunning in the way the author captures the feelings in such descriptive ways. I hope you are healing from your previous injury. Happy Summer!
That is indeed a great mentor poem idea. And yet I feel like it has reached its zenith in the first lines: "How I visualize him as a rooster. How I nickname him Sparky." Excellent.
...adding to my notebook! Thank you, Tab, as ever. xo
Martin's line describing pain as "roommates forced to share the same body" is so powerful.
Thank you for visiting, y'all! I thought so, too, Laura.
Yes, I think it would be a good mentor poem–what we share, we wear, we hide… Such a contrast in the second poem, mindfulness of placing a sleeping child, "into the calm ocean that is your bed." Beautiful, thanks Tabatha!
I enjoyed both by Gail Martin, including the notes on the side. So relatable right now...sigh.
Oh man, that second poem needs a trigger warning for those of us who are sending our last child to college this fall. Sniff.
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