Poetry
November 15, 2009
- A Large Stable of Horses
I can't stop writing without my arm on fire
and then milk. I must be a reincarnation of St. Sophia,
or was that blood and milk.
Her teeth sharp, black, each morning she hands me
my peppermint latte at Dunkin Donuts. In another life,
she was Kali and I, the daughter she killed for singing or weeping.
You send me a postcard of Paris, although you've ...
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November 15, 2009
- The Working Poet: 75 Writing Exercises and a Poetry Anthology has just been released by Autumn House Press. Edited by Scott Minar, the book gathers together 75 poetry prompts contributed by 52 poets, one of whom is me! The exercises are divided into 9 sections: Form and Structure, Word Play and Thought Experiments, Metamorphoses, Art to Art, The Personal Poem, Prosody and Rhetorical Strategies, ...
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November 13, 2009
- After Chagall A man grips a woman by the shoulders On a bed in the open air, a courtyard With a wall no taller than their knees stopping No one from getting in or seeing them there In the middle of a town blue as the sky, An anxious overcast blue, both of them clothed, Both of them solemn and seated, ...
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November 12, 2009
- A poem from "Bloody Heaven", my manuscript-in-progress. I plan on posting these on a regular basis - kind of a drip-feed virtual poetry reading. This way, you don't have to leave home and sit in a noisy coffee-house, you don't have to sit through the open-mic and the sales-pitches - and if you don't like it - well, you can get up and leave any time you like and nobody will think ...
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November 12, 2009
- When I am an old woman, I shall wear wine-dark velvet in a retrospective style, with plumed hat, tilted at a rakish angle and toss off a brandy in one go. And quaff champagne because the sun is shining, or the rain won't go away, or because a deadline has taken wing for distant climes. I shall ...
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November 12, 2009
- Memories of 1963The crop was heavy that year.Rain had come in torrents,and then left.Green stalks and dried mudbecame an endless blanket of white.It was the beautiful land of cotton,under a blue October sky.The pickers stood nervous in line;lean men with hungry eyes.Loads of sacks and sweatsat waiting to be weighed and paid.Mama kept her sharp eye on a rusty scale,paying ...
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November 12, 2009
- I Am Not The DreamIn your reality, I have no pulse. I heard you whisper. Did you know I felt you whisper? I heard you whisper my name, and you put it to a dream.See the swell of my warm lips, the fire of my father’s eyes, the sure lift of my mother’s chin? Blood rushes here;the blood of a thousand generations of proud lives in me.And I begged you. ...
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November 12, 2009
- UnredeemableI am awake; faint the scent of Old Spicelingers from my lucid dream.A long moment of tranquility gives wayto realization, as I feel his hand move up the curve of my waist to cupa breast I know still belongs to you.I want to stretch my hand to the horizon,cup the round melt of early morning sun,and squeeze it to soft, safe darknesswhere there is no guilt or need for ...
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November 12, 2009
- I want to write a poem. I have written some. They sound like sadness. Like happiness. Like deathly smirk. Taunts. Caresses.I want to write a poem now.I can do it.As I poke a sharp nail into anotherAnd wait for pink to turn to red to turn to a squirt.And wait for my toes to curl and sleep like a baby.And wait for the eyes to stop thinking…Wait! Eyes think?Mine do.My eyes think, I can see them ...
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November 11, 2009
- I write many different kinds of poems, but one kind involves poetry about jazz and various jazz musicians. This week (11/11/09) and two of the last three weeks before that some of these poems have been featured on podcasts at a website here in Los Angeles called City of Angels Music, a guide to the local jazz scene. Here is the link: http://www.avantradio.com/cotamusic2/story.shtmlThis ...
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