She speaks a various language.
Bound in the bardo bereft
vaguely present, almost dead.
For fucking shining aloud
let me
back in. Come again, sweet terror
Carve my shadow on your cave walls
Render me a soul, source me
mystify, crush, obscure me
in that deep gorge
confine, stretch, reveal me
Let me wobble
stand.
Details shift. In my Earth days
I admired your clouds, your starry nights,
dew on a green field. Once
I saw a four-legged future
bucking goat girl—
lost bride tramping
veiled in dandelion fur.
I am she who prays you,
breaks your water—
a brook sluicing blood song
scoring your legs, O Organ Mistress
grant one more red escape.
Birth me again!
Let me abandon all hope and
Enter here
kiss the mouth of the new world, suckle its air
emerge dark-eyed in a slick white coat, braying—
a knobby-kneed girl with a pink tongue
water beading in my beard.
Title: From a Mary Oliver poem, A Meeting, 1984
Epigram: From a William Cullen Bryant poem, Thanatopsis
Isabella Ides is a poet, playwright, and novelist. Most recently her trilogy, White Monkey Chronicles, was awarded the 2019 Jemma Prize for Speculative fiction and has garnered critical praise for its multi-culturalism and feminist depiction of radical spiritual hospitality. Isabella is looking forward to the premier of her newest play, Jo & Louisa in July of 2019. Winner of several theatre accolades, including a Critic’s Forum Award for Coco & Gigi, and Echo Theater’s National Big Shout Out for The Early Education of Conrad Eppler, Isabella is also the author of a collection of poetry, Getting Dangerously Close to Myself, the creator of the acclaimed Magdalene Mass. www.WhiteMonkeyChronicles.com
Isabella, this poem speaks with an awesome voice that reaches down into the dark fecund soil of the soul. Thank you & Blessings.
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Thank you Majak. This cri de coeur ripped from my soul and its passion took me by surprise.
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