Songs of Motherhood

IV. Word

(to my mother)

To thank you enough

I have finally found my way

            (my truth, my life).

I give you this oath

(which is your gift to me):

Although for every hour by which

I have shortened your life,

I would gladly give in trade

a day of perfectest joy,

instead, I will redeem

every minute of grief

you ever spent on me.

It is my griefs have saddened you most,

and ever having saddened you is my most grief.

I will set now all griefs aside;

I will be now as happy as you always hoped.

I have known you

longer than I have known breath

from the inside, out,

and still have barely the gist of you

(curious and humble,

grace seeking grace)

who gave substance to my idea,

knit me together

from threads of your own fabric,

then passed the needles on to me.

I give you this oath

which is now mine to keep

(your gift to me)—

and every day will now become

my mother’s day.

Songs of Motherhood

III. 

She teaches love

Sprung full-fledged into being
                       at the conception of her child
             and newly created at every
                                     new conception

             She, the goddess
             She, the universe
             She, all-provident womb
                       and totality of her offspring’s
                                     first self-knowledge

             Her gaze, the first mirror
                       seen over the horizon
                       of the soft, round taste
                                     of need satisfied

             Creatrix and creation indistinguishable
                       The mystery of her generosity is this:
 though giving ceaselessly, she makes no sacrifice
             All she gives, she gives to herself
                       through her creations

Her progeny spin out, as droplets of water
                       from the ocean
At the moment they are realizing their separate being
             she is recognizing the unity
                       of her essence with them

                       Becoming one by becoming many
                                     pupil and matrix
                                                  she teaches love.

Main Sequence

High above the ground
above the orange pink lavender freesia
layers of sunset
that lie behind the black palm trees
past the languorous eucalyptus trees
and the hovering moths that flicker
and past the collage of sounds
rising from the earth the blacktop
the chanting crickets
the warm-evening conversations
the clink of glasses
the traffic sounds
muffled by years-deep foliage
beyond the indigo richness
couching the pearl of moon
beyond breath
beyond reach
and beyond
a blaze a fury
of silence
heat of polymension
thickening in the mass of time
a glitter
a pretty
a diamond
an ancestor

A "main sequence" star is a star in its prime, emitting light and heat (and like most things, 

shrinking toward middle age…)

April Fool (a "haiku" cycle): XXX

Brush of fine gray hairs

Marking time in tiny lines,

My face, your parchment:

Dig not deep thereon.

Write "mirth" instead, and "grace,"

"Welcome," and last, "peace."

April that was here

Now shall pass into a May;

All shall pass in time.

April Fool (a "haiku" cycle)" XXIX

If there come a day
When I can no longer speak,
Read to me, instead.

Tell me what you know
Of yourself, of me, of us;
Talk about the world

And how it has changed
For the better, where you are.
Be my voice for me.

April Fool (a "haiku" cycle): XXVIII

The day's fine and hot,
And the reservoir is full.
Geese stand by the lake.


Centuries away, 
There's a different kind of
Connectivity.

April Fool (a "haiku" cycle): XXVII

Blown dust veils views of
Whitecaps on the Silver Lake.
Strange, hot winds breathe, "Change…!"

And mile-high mountains
Are completely hidden in cloud,
Unfamiliar.

April Fool (a "haiku" cycle): XXVI

Voluptuary

April's in love with itself,

Pollinating all.


Such a narcissist!
Frolicking with bumble bees—
Trollop in the raw.

Samantha Gluck, Collaboratrix Extraordinaire, was in the spirit, and gave us a second stanza! Poetry party! 

April Fool (a "haiku" cycle): XXV Middle School Guest Poets!

Photo Credit: National Geographic

Guest Poets, also Ghost Poets!

I heart Katy Hickman, who teaches middle school downstairs from me. Her students dash off haiku with, well, dash, and she's letting me share a few with you. But we're not telling who did what…

Lizards live on trees.

Certain lizards camouflage;

I wish I could, too.

What's analogy?

Comparing with something else—

That is the meaning.

Why have slavery?

No one should suffer that way—

We are all humans.

Live in the moment

Don't mind what the people say

You only live once

I will not divulge

my bizarre desire to sing!

I guess I just did…

April Fool (a "haiku" cycle): XXIV

Image: National Geographic

Delicate and bold,

April's hummingbird arrives,

Visits the flow'rs.

Quixotic, sublime,

Masculine, he is much like

Someone I once knew.

"You were fun at first:
Lots of laughs, cute debates, but
Now I'm bored with you."

All those things he said,
sharply focused, pierced my heart,
needlelike, precise.

He loved me the best
that he could, but the truth is:
he never knew me.

For L.

April Fool (a "haiku" cycle): XXIII

Whence unpromised rain?
April has dyspepsia, 
A gripe in the heart.

April Fool (a "haiku" cycle): XXII

Earth Day

Early morning songs

announce the joy of young birds

in green trees, blue skies.

April Fool (a "haiku" cycle): XXI

That April night, when 

My life was about to change,

I never knew it.

I thought to myself:

What would I do without you?

I could not go on.

April Fool (a "haiku" cycle): XX - Tanka

We enter this life

with nothing, and have to give

what we've been given,

so in sharing of ourselves

this tired world creeps heavenward.

April Fool (a "haiku" cycle): XIX

Tiger in April

Your prowl: strategic. Your words:

Insinuating.

There in the long grass

you couch in mock repose, eyes

upon your quarry.

You tell me you have

no ulterior motive;

what should I believe?

April Fool! [not] (a "haiku" cycle): XVIII

Apostrophe: cinquain, American style

Fly, black

and fizzing here

and there, harrassing my

hard-earned, longed-for lunchtime quiet:

buzz off!

April Fool (a "haiku" cycle): XVII

   Violets are gone.

Roses are coming on, and      

     Gophers in the lawn. 

April Fool (a "haiku" cycle): XVI

She has no conscience.

April never held her tongue

out of mere kindness.

April Fool (a "haiku" cycle): XV

Candlelight, moonlight,

Filtering through the still leaves,

Make me feel at home.

April Fool (a "haiku" cycle): XIV

Out in center field:
The start of a good season.
Crowds cheer, "M! V! P!"