Posted tagged ‘dVerse Poets Pub Open Link Night’

Two Step (Completely Revised, Renewed, Sorry)

June 20, 2012
Revised Two Step

For those interested in a writer’s process:  writers (at least writers like me) sometimes overwork things and completely mess them up – especially at 2 in the morning.    So below is a poem previously posted in a much different version.  I’ve gone back to something more like the original; it’s a Father’s Day poem which is probably why it was difficult. 

Two Step

You could never really manage more than a two-step and even that stumbled to its own chuckled beat, your movements accented with a panache of abashment.

And I would watch from the sidelines, sometimes with my own more snarky embarrassment, being young and indentured to the Gods of Cool.

But the truth is I didn’t snipe much, knowing even as a teen that I could never embody such goodness, my edges just too sharp, like my mother’s nose, my own elbows.

The only time I even came close was later, when you could no longer walk, barely stand, and I brought you those old songs (Glenn Miller, your remembered sound of hope in hard times, having made it across the Channel ’44), and your feet, though unable to truly press the floor, would shuffle in that same old just-off beat, arms lifted.

And whether or not heaven is an actual place–I hate to say that I have my doubts== at least I’m not sure about one with dance floors–I feel your pulse in my head today, Father’s Day, the air around me as tuneful as those hollowed instruments = and am mindful of the resurrection of love, that incredible two step of gift and receipt only in your case it was giving mainly –that’s what you did, and perhaps why your movements always seemed a bit unbalanced, dancing.

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(I am reposting this for dVerse Poets Pub Open Link Night and  Tess Kincaid’s MagPie Tales.  The picture is Tess’s prompt by M.C. Escher.  I am also linking to Emily Wierenga’s Imperfect Prose .)

Two Step (Go to Next Revised Post)

June 20, 2012

MagPie 96- Wearing the Trousers in Macbeth (In English Class With Two Ringed Braids)

December 20, 2011

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Here is a poem for Magpie Tales 96 and also dVerse Poets Pub Open Link Night.   This is based on a photographic prompt from Tess Kincaid, which was of a woman in a shadow that appeared to be a beard.  (It’s not so clear in my version above.)  Below is my poem:

English Essay In Two Ringed Braids

In English class in post-colonial school,
the study of idioms, literature
and exposition are assayed with
diligence: “some
complain that Shakespeare is
dull as ditchwater but in
the pages of MacBeth
may be found
a rip-roaring
ride.  Lady
Macbeth wears the trousers
in the family at the
beginning of
the play, but by Act V,  Macbeth
has taken the trousers
back while the Lady
throws the baby out
with the bathwater, as it were, going mad.
Macbeth, in the meantime,
adds suspenders
to his belt, killing one and all
till he feels as certain of
the throne as Bob’s
his uncle, but he cannot
see the forest for
the trees, coming
to a very bad end.”

The girl writing the essay wears
her hair in braids, which curl into
two ravenshone rings, elastics
camouflaged, in
each case, by
a large white bow, looped
to emulate both butterfly
and lotus,
wing and bloom,
and too, the “x”
of “betwixt,” all
in one
fell swoop.

And now a question for decisive poets and readers out there–I contemplated changing the last couple of lines to refer to the “cross” in “betwixt” rather than the “x”.  That seemed a bit heavy-handed to me, but I am curious to see if anyone thinks it would be an improvement.  Also toyed with “braces” in place of suspenders, but, well, I live in NYC.  Thanks much for your thoughts.

(And please please please check out my new comic novel NOSE DIVE on Amazon if you have a mo.)

The Kind of Epiphany I’m Looking For – Chocolate Happens and More.

November 8, 2011

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Here’s a poem I’ve been playing with for the last few days. (Anything but work on old Nanowrimo manuscripts!)

Though it’s still rough, I’m posting it today for the wonderful dVerse Poets Pub Open Link night.

Epiphany

I would really like to have an epiphany
that doesn’t involve the realization
that death happens.
Why can’t my great enlightenment
alert me to the fact that
chocolate happens?
That peppermint explodes in the mouth?
That eggs are unblinking
(until the yolks crack)?
And that the love that always forgives, that is,
the love you give to me,
is not like the sun at noon–everywhere–
but rather a pale pre-rosy dawn that
barely nudges the landscape, lifts but an
edge of shadow, illuminating
the flickering eyelids of
only one–a poor light sleeper, who,
at the waning
of stark night, feels the glow of your hearth
at her side, and inside,
the sudden certainty that even
that star whose contours
cannot be traced
in the quotidian sky
pulses on.

Unable to Change or Fix Life Poem–Yellow Glads–Grasping At Straws (And Contentment)

September 17, 2011

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The political scene seems too grim to even contemplate these days, so turning back to poetry. Poetry! And iPad Art! Although this poem is fairly serious too– Any suggestions, comments, are most welcome, particularly with respect to title.

There

There is so much in life
we cannot change or fix:
your dear friend stacked
with flowers, yellow glads
and lilies white, the green baize
cloth that masks the upturned
earth; the tumor that
takes over a torso, the still
familiar face that can’t digest
the body’s betrayal;
time spent more carelessly
than cash (loose minutes
rarely found in turned-out pockets);
all those difficult years
when contentment was there–
there–there within our grasp if we had just
grasped less; the
flotsam jetsam straws we clung to,
drowning rafts, that
sparkle now in the current of all that’s past,
catching against far shoals, banks, shores–
there–there–there–

(As always, all rights reserved.  Karin Gustafson)

(If you are a reader from the wonderful dVerse Poets Pub, the link to the train poem which I should have written and posted today to participate in the Pub is here.)

AND NOW!  I am posting this one to the dVerse Poets Pub Open Link night and also to the ver supportive Promising Poets Parking lot (blogspot).    Thanks for the opportunity.