Sunday, July 31, 2011

Brilliance...Loop Poetry


Come to me thoughts clear and wise
Wise of knowledge on things now known
Known for pondering subjects so deep
Deep in thoughts while other sleep
Sleep the dreamless nights of those
Those who trust that daylight will come
Come to wake them from peaceful slumber
Slumber that escapes my wandering mind
Mind that entertains restless dreams
Dreams of how to impart my feelings
Feelings that leave me in utter surprise
Surprise and wonderment at how my life is now
Now that you are no longer my brilliant dream

© NP

5/17/09

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Scattered thoughts

I spent a big part of my day worrying my thoughts as if I was counting the beads on a silken rosary, praying. I knew I had a whole agenda to accomplish today and I just couldn't quite make headway into the darn thing.
I decided instead to pull up my favorite pieces from the April 30/30 writes and post them here. The theory was that I would write 30 new pieces in 30 days to celebrate National Poetry Month. I do not know that I succeeded, but I had an awful lot of fun trying to write to a new prompt every morning.
I hope you enjoy my stopover as I enjoyed the re-savoring of the pieces.

NP

Thomas

Had you not been working in your lab
Would I now know your name?
Would we be intimates,
You, me and God?
Contemporaries in discovery
I can’t help but wonder
If this was just an accident
This knowing
That I don’t want to know
Of lymphomas and radiation
Naming the stages
So that I can mark the years
In infections and prayers

Some knowings are mask behind
Simple things
Colds, headaches, fever
Hiding from early detection
In over the counter treatments
How was I to know
At 29 years of age
What prolonged and acute
Actually looked like
Me in my life and her in hers
Passing and greeting
In texts and voicemails

Did God give you leave to
Find the door
Through which a loved one
Can exit to go back home?
I needed her to be here with me
But she was borrowed
And not mine,
A loan paid back with interest
I keep her passport on my dresser
The page is folded and stamped on
Her last stop, the “Hodgkins” line.

© NP 04/04/11

Night

Stars fall through my window
Attaching to holes in my eyelids
Bright

There are too many things to say
And yet I chose not to
Silent

Such are my bedtime stories
Though you will never hear me
Speak

© NP 04/06/11

EUCHARISTO...etheree



“Ann-full of Grace”

Body
And soul
Understand
Open handed
To give and receive
To DO thanks to others
Clearly my choice was to choose
Communion to community
Do I give that which I have received,
Or hide my gifts under bushel basket?

© NP 4/12/11

Jr league

Standing in the living room and
Staring out the wall to wall
Floor to ceiling glass windows
That overlooked the green grass
I tried to imagine me
Running out the side door
Just to chastise the bag boys
Who were far too slow in
Picking up wayward golf balls
Off my back lawn
Would I be wearing a
Cashmere cardigan of soft pink?
Or maybe a track suit in
An emerald teal with matching
Sneakers
Well, I decided
If it was in the morning
I would definitely have on
Fashionable heels and a
Skirt and blouse
He would then know I meant
Business
Especially since I would
Probably be late for a meeting
Which would throw me behind
In getting my hair cut
And the hospital ribbon cutting
It was then that I was pulled
Out of my reverie
To be introduced to yet another
Woman of no-color
Who, like the one before
Was excited to be the first
Chapter in the area to
Have one

© NP 4/20/11

nature


Grass is cleaner
Grass is greener
Greener days
Greener ways
Ways to know
Ways to grow
Grow few
Grow knew
Knew corn
Knew born
Born wheat
Born neat
Neat rice
Neat mice
Mice DNA
Mice RNA
RNA copy
RNA poppy
Poppy grown
Poppy sown
Sown food
Sown good
Good eat
Good meat
Meat pen
Meat hen
Hen egg
Hen leg
Leg of ham
Leg of lamb
Lamb in spring
Lamb is king
King of table
King is able
Able to change
Able to arrange
Arrange splice
Arrange knife
Knife removes
Knife proves
Proves that man
Proves he can
Can employ
Can destroy
Destroy implantation
Destroy creation
Creation
Implantation

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Friends

"love until you can't trust anymore"

It is not a matter of judgement between friends. We correct in grace and encourage in love. Words spoken must be kept in trust for the sake of the sharing and the promise of desire to be honest with ourselves and our bonekeepers. Is there anything in this world more precious than the freedom to be? Did not God himself, in his divine wisdom, not endow us with choice? That coupled with accountability to Him and to each other create the beauty in this world. It is only when the sacredness of friendship is betrayed that we understand the miasmic nature of this world and what our choices truly are.

Edens


Song of Solomon 4:16

Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.”

A wind bloweth gently

Stirring the hair

At the nape of my neck

Eyes closed I savor the scent

Of musk and spice and Africa

The loam of earth’s origins

Grown in fabled gardens

I await my beloved’s return

For reclamation

Prepared with anointments

Ruddy with ministrations

Fine gold braided in strands

At the secreted entrance

To a private sanctuary

Pomegranates lay heavy on boughs

Cinnamon studded with spikes

Of the finest saffron

Reddened apple bottomed fruits

And succulent peaches

The table set and feast prepared

Let my beloved come and have his fill

Awake fair winds

Bear him to his garden

Stir the petals gently

To release the spicy pungency

Of my ripened fruit

Grown from his careful tendings

Seeded for his palate only

© NP 7/2/11