The way 2010 ends

This week's prompt at Big Tent Poetry suggested we write a list poem...

The way bare and brown branches gain a grand sense of purpose
The way the thinnest of twigs fill out with importance
The way the moose lays her babies in soft, frozen blankets
The way my poor feet slide while the deer remain fleet-footed
The way the pine trees bow down with silver concession
The way the Little Spokane sighs with knowing and welcome,
broadens her shoulders, and goes back to sleep.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone. Life has been getting in the way of poetry lately, and my goal for the new year is to figure out how to intertwine the two again. In the meantime, here's a new poem and I've reposted my Christmas poem from last year in the next post down. I wish you and yours the happiest of holidays.





Star

A single point in human time
A single lantern in the sky

Obliterates
The slow and anxious advent
The now and then and have and not
The want and need and pride and shame

Illuminates
The happy, necessary fault
The joy of ransom and release
The ache, the salve, the yearn, the claim

Concentrates
The soul’s mind into knowing
The intersection of ask and answer
The ancient breath, the newborn name

The Night Before

The desert floor cracks and yearns

Somewhere in one grain of sand

The memory of what was lost stirs

And launches itself into the thirsty wind

Men shift in their mournful sleep,

Turn their dark, dusty faces

And breathe their brokenness out

To a bright and insistent star

While slumbering women cradle

Their arms to their aching breasts,

Feel the heavy night contract and push,

Sense the cresting of a tide

And the crowning of All That Is

Bear down on a pregnant sky

Tangle

For only two weeks
my hair
matches
the leaves you shake
up there
so I want to join you,
tangle
in your sharp branches
and swing
until it all falls
inevitably down
Will you float? Will I thud?
I don’t care
what happens after
to your leaves
or my hair

Will and Won't (again)

Happy Halloween! I've not posted anything for quite a while because quite frankly, my life is quite crazy lately. I've got pieces of poems chasing themselves around in my head, and I hope to post something new soon. In the meantime, however, here's a poem I wrote and posted a few years back. I hope it's spooky enough to add to your Halloween enjoyment! ~Erin

I will do anything

I will stuff it

Feed it sweet and sticky

I will sleep it

Snore it deep and throaty

I will soak it

Scrub it wet and steamy

I will jam it

Shove it dark and dusty

I will swallow it

Gulp it fast and bubbly

I will shun it

Slight it rude and sneaky

I will hold it

Clutch it tight and sweaty

I will stroke it

Pet it long and lovely

I will pack it

Haul it long and heavy

I will nurse it

Grow it strong and scary

But look at it

Or name it

I just won’t

Water

I wanted to say
When I saw
Your blue eyes brim
That the waters
That flood so fast
And rush past your lashes
Are the same ones
That spill from mine
That they come
From the same stream
Of love and regret
Of grasp and release
Of swell and stab
Are the same tides
Of contracting and pushing
Of me and other
That clean
And then roil
The bonds
Between child
And mother

I'm back after a bit of a dry spell with a poem somewhat inspired by this week's prompt at Big Tent Poetry.

Wish me luck!

It's been a bit of a dry spell for me lately--

so I'm off

to a cabin on the lake

where I hope to work on my relationship

with my poetic muses

My goal is simple but daunting--

to have at least one poem

to post by Monday

The longer I delay

the next poem

the harder

and scarier

it is to write it

and the easier it is

to put it off

I hope to return

with a postable poem

and I plan to visit

my favorite blogs

once again

Wish me luck!

I miss writing and just as much

I miss all of you.

Sacrament

Hello! I've been away for a few weeks teaching summer school with a sprained ankle and trying to enjoy the gorgeous Spokane summer as much as I can.



This week's prompt at Big Tent Poetry asked us to incorporate something from our favorite poet into our own poetry. Thinking about this caused me to return to and revise a poem I have worked on for a few years. The poem is about giving birth, the most overwhelmingly holy experience I have ever had. At the end of the poem, I use the "Ah! Bright Wings!" phrase from Gerard Manley Hopkins' "God's Grandeur." I have always thought the sound of the language and the image in the last two lines of that poem are among the most beautiful in English.



This prompt has also inspired me to think of the many, many lines from Emily Dickinson that I love, particulalry, "Rowing in Eden--/Ah, the sea!". I'm working on something inspired by that, but am not there yet. In the mean time...


In pain shall you bring forth children, but
Rejoice, O highly favored daughter!
That you should bear such a curse!
And I cry out—
Laying waste to mountains and hills
As a mighty wind sweeps over the waters
For these moments I contain the Genesis of all things—
My own urgent offering—
This is my body, given up for you
I cannot let this cup pass—
The source contracts and pushes
For in the midst of blood and water poured out,
Body broken, torn in two,
Creation continues, Salvation is,
I roll the stone away from the tomb!
I would not wish for numbness now,
For how else could I hear
The flapping of Ah! Bright Wings!
And a chorus of Aves in my ear.