Last month, I wrote about a new project I have been playing with which is to re-write biblical verses as spiritual poetry rather than follow along with stricter translations (although truth be told, my translations have never been strict). My… Read More ›
April 2021, Poem Visibility is this body opening against itself over and over… an existence moving through fibers was the one thing I had. When was the time…breathe in? Breathe out. My existence to myself was the most political act…. Read More ›
Dead CedarWeek after weekheat, wind, sun,shrinks vernal pools. Ditches are dry.Denizensof wet forest,masked gold leaves,seek shallow depressions fed by Spring. One night theheat wave breaksI smell rain,hear hoarse croaks.I stand thereswallowing soundinhaling fragrant airLamenting absence –so many voices stolenby drought.
I began writing quarterly posts for FAR in July 2012. The poems below are selected from journals kept during these nine years. As indicated, I searched for the words goddess, women, woman. April is poetry month, but I also realize… Read More ›
I awakened under cloudsfeeling respite from fierceheat in April that forced maple, birch, beech, and poplar to bud and burst. First we planted Balsam seedlings; He climbed birch to saw off dying trunks, some broken beyond recognition, wreckage from the… Read More ›
Thinking about the discourse between spiritualists and victims of harmThinking about accountability and prison abolitionThinking about how white supremacy tells us people are disposableThat they–that we, don’t matterThinking about “don’t speak ill of the dead”Thinking about “honor your ancestors”Thinking about… Read More ›
They didn’t know I was a mermaid. That I had a siren song. That I could lure, and I could kill. And that I would eventually because – I was a mermaid. When my father tried… Read More ›
I longed to re-visit the desert – my first journey left me with a longing for wide open spaces, a blue sky dome, a bowl of stars at night, so to return 25 years later was to complete an unfinished… Read More ›
A fellow college classmate, Diana, and I wrote this poem together as we were inspired by the likes of Adrienne Rich and Sara Ahmed. We wanted to touch on the animosity between trans folk and cis women that often exists… Read More ›
Can I recall a time when my resilience surprised me? My mother always said, “If you feel bad, go out into the garden and eat worms.” Sigh. We didn’t have a garden. My resilience. My head hits the counter, as… Read More ›
1. The papaya, the lemon, the squash. The everything going bad—not yet. I can pickle anything I can save—still. And I am never still. Still…at sixty-four here I am. Rise. This is age—still. 2. I have a passport to somewhere… Read More ›
The Cottontail watched me climb a steep hill to meet her at the Cross – road. She split the stone. Datura delusions emerge from this bloodline. I stumble down down down… Her feet beat a mourning drum I’m in free… Read More ›
On the path through the pines I see clumps of moss scattered, an old tree trunk is raked as if with claws; clumps of downed bark food for the earth. My heart soars. Wild hope pours through me like… Read More ›
— for Alex, a nurse I met who is also a poet, and all nurses I heard that you are a poet and a nurse. I imagine all the nurses who also are something else—a chef, a Mom,… Read More ›
A Ladder to the Stars Every evening at twilight she climbs a ladder to the stars… Venus is her guide … As the Evening star (who also rises at dawn) this Goddess of Love is her Muse. As a woman… Read More ›
List for today: Rescue tadpoles from the evaporating puddle in the driveway. Look for pink roses in the field. Look for wild strawberries along the road. Listen to the crows in the compost pile and try to identify them by… Read More ›
Today, I bring you an old old story from Scotland. It explains how and why winter became spring. Cailleach is another name for the Hag – the archetypal Crone. She represents winter. Brigit is the forever Maiden and stands for… Read More ›
In a recent interview about my current published paper and my life’s-work, Sawbonna, which is a model of both social and restorative justice, I was struck by how being locked down due to this global pandemic not only rips us… Read More ›
In times of stress, I like to count syllables. It soothes me the way the click of knitting needles might soothe others. Finding rhymes is also calming. Below are poems in forms that require syllable count and/or rhyme, the last… Read More ›
I knelt beside a sprinkling of deer fur dotted with delicate snowflakes. Don’t take a picture of that, my husband said, people will think it is gross. I don’t find it gross. I find it curious. I find it surprising…. Read More ›
For this month’s blog my wife, the poet Kimberly Esslinger, and I have written a joint poem— Walking in Moonlight Before the Pandemic and what is done to the least of these…. Where is the god of woman…. Read More ›
In these United States we are wondering if a woman is electable. Is she likeable enough? I donate to a woman candidate and I have put a sign on my front lawn with a woman’s name on it. I’m a… Read More ›
As someone who spent my prepubescent years watching director Gillian Armstrong’s “Little Women”, I was eager to see Greta Gerwig’s newly released version. Previously unexplored contours of each character, and of my changed perceptions, were made visible through this iteration…. Read More ›
I want to be a lonely mystic dwelling in devotion, constantly dialoging with divinity, drenched in wonder, and doused with delight in knowing my place in the family of things. I want to weave spells from wind and wildness, soak… Read More ›
Can I empathize with your feeling, your interest in this? Be sound, my heart that feels the beat of yours as my own. I would like to be human one day. Let my prayer be not please, for, I fear… Read More ›
Imagine. A relationship. So painful. So needed. Never. What it needs. To be. Yet the Desire. For what. For what. Imagine. A relationship That’s not. Doesn’t exist. Isn’t. A relationship That strives To go. No where. A relationship Of fear…. Read More ›
I never considered myself one of those people who gets really “into” Halloween. But, as one might expect having an eight year old, especially an eight year old who celebrates her birthday shortly before the holiday, has made me much… Read More ›
If I Tell You If I tell you what I feel Don’t be offended or take on some sort of guilt. If I tell you what I feel Don’t think that my feelings imply blame. If my feelings rise to… Read More ›
As Above So Below Yes, I believe we are made in god’s image. If god is the wild, passionate, loud, sexual, sizzling, dancing fires of creation. And should I ever forget my fiery, heavenly vision, the sun comes out every… Read More ›
If you are somewhere: a movie theater, festival, mosque, temple or church, bar (especially a gay one although it could be any bar –cheers), concert, elementary to college classroom, or any other public space in America…and someone starts shooting, shooting… Read More ›
