Listening to my body

My body is talking again. My lungs
are whispering secrets. My heart
says “what? what? what?”
but my lungs have each other.
They keep on whispering.
My feet want to tell the story
of the day. They are always working,
they grumble. My thighs
just roll their eyes. They know.
My stomach is quiet,
he’s listening. Sometimes he
grumbles like a toddler,
sometimes he snores
like an old man, but tonight
he’s quiet. All the long,
slithery length of guts
is neatly packed away, sleeping
like a drawer of underwear,
and my lungs keep whispering.
My bones know something,
they feel it, but they don’t say
anything, they can’t quite name it.
They keep straight backs,
stiff upper lips. They keep
their gaze ahead, but my lungs,
ah, my lungs keep whispering
their secrets.

A body poem for Grace at dVerse

wine

I’m yearning to sit
in a golden square
in the late afternoon light,
in that warm silence
that comes out of love
and needs no words.
I’m longing for a sip
of yellow wine, cold,
with condensation forming
on the curving glass.

Quadrille for Linda at dVerse

laundry 2: how to wash the moon

handwash only

gently gently

wring out a cloud –
a white one –
and warm the water
gently

add a handful of may,
or blackthorn,
or lilies
a pinch of starlight

lay the moon gently
gently in the bowl

let it soak
let it sink
let it rest
in the warm water

hold it up to the window
gently gently
use your fingertips
rub away

fear
pain
despair
grief

rinse the moon
in clear, cool water –
water from a running stream
a holy well
a tumbling rainbowing waterfall

hang it in the sky
to dry

A second laundry poem for Whimsygizmo at dVerse.

laundry 1

the sheets came in
smelling of clean
of breeze
of light

so now our bed
smells like springtime

A laundry poem for Whimsygizmo at dVerse/

First blossom

The tree in the top corner is always the first to blossom. Its blossoms are the palest of all – the faintest wash of pink. It’s badly placed, battling with alder and birch to find light. Everything around it is brown. Buds are starting to swell, but the other trees are holding back, contemplating things. There may yet be frost, the nights are cold, we are still teetering on the edge of spring. While they hesitate, the wild cherry leaps in, joyfully, its blossoms a valiant, defiant banner of hope.

first blossom
are these snowflakes
or petals?

A haibun for Frank at dVerse, on the classic subject of cherry blossom.

My daughter is getting ready to go out

I would have been gentler
with your knots and tangles
if I had known how soon
you would be curling,
straightening, colouring –
I would have
left them to form wild nests
and strange brambles,
I would have let birds sing there,
let flowers bloom.

Mish is hosting at dVerse tonight, and our quadrilles are based on the word “knot”.
.

This being human

This being human is all about telling stories,
it’s travelling in a twisting caravan
across the desert, depending
on each other for flour,
for water, for a soft red blanket,
for bandages and apricots.

What currency do we have,
but stories? The story of “Good morning”
“How’s this for weather?”. The story of
“I love you”, the story of childhood,
the story of how to stay safe,
how to be eat well, how to survive
being lost, how to hold tight
to someone’s hand.

It’s whispering
our stories at night, the stories
of stars — of men, and beasts
and gods, and flaming suns.
It’s singing our stories as we wash our plates,
as we wait for tea to brew,
as we clean our shoes.

It’s shouting our stories in anger,
It’s crooning them in love. It’s sitting, silent,
round the campfire, listening.
We are stories, wrapped and tangled,
offered with love or fear or laughter.

This telling stories is all about being human.

For Kim at dVerse – a poem that begins “This being human is…”

Swift song

I am swift in flight,
born to pierce the air –
the sky weeps blue tears
and I am one. I am
the screaming in the wind,
the sunlight streaming –
I am an arrow shot
from sunrise to sunset,
the shot that
starts the summer.

My quadrille for my own prompt! My first quadrille prompt for dVerse. Come and have a look!

Moon quadrille

On winter nights I often
see the moon, caught
in the branches of a tree.
I wonder if she’s trapped
there, or embraced?
I should know. She
always rises, bright
and free. I should remember
that it takes a planet
to entangle her.

A quadrille for Merril at dVerse, where our word is “embrace”.

How do I write about war?

All I have is memories of memories –
like feathers, plucked and swirling –
the fires they lit at the end,
in places that had been kept dark
for years. Dancing. My father
handing over hollowed bread,
a telegram that broke a woman.

Bodies in the water.

The horses, being led away,
through the farm gate. Lost.

A city full of women. Children
without fathers, running wild.

A man walking. Feathers

that we grasp and grab. We press them
into wax, make wings of them

knowing that Icarus will fall.

Bjorn is hosting at dVerse, and asks us to write about war. I found this a difficult prompt. As I say, I only have memories of memories about war – my parents’ experience of WWII as small children, stories I’ve heard from that generation and the generation above.