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Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Start of the Long Day

—Poems and Photos by Joyce Odam, Sacramento



COME AT ME FROM THE MORNING

come at me from the morning
I will meet you like a
shawl

slip under my arm
I will tell you my heart lives
and you must
save it

hear me tell
of my beautiful lame life
that I am comparing
to this hard life that no life
can follow

you are in wonder-light
a real hero
such a long mountain away

but we will marry
I am the place you come to
I am not tired of waiting
you are faithful

______________________

AS STRANGE AS LIGHT ON A DARK
MORNING

I am unable to feel my shadow
on the white mirror.

I am wavering with movement not my own.
How cold I feel.

Death puts its arms around me and I weep
and am not comforted.

                                                       
(first pub. in Lines Against Death Mini-Chap, 2002)

_____________________

DECIDING THE MORNING

And who am I dreaming to become—
heaviest in sleep—lost in my own mind,
waking to a closet closing after me.
Where have I been,
and who,
and who were those others?

Start of the long day begins heavy
with a glance at the window
to see what sort of day I will enter.
What will I wear?
What will I do?
Which plan is more important than another?

____________________

IN THE MORNING

the sun will be lying
across the windowsill

and the cat will be
stretching herself awake

and the coins you left
on the table will be gone

for I am a thief
and poor as you

but you have given me
permission

because last night
you pressed my hand

that was still wet
from the tears on your face







SOFT RAIN POEM

Blue mottled street,
midnight
or so,
stars
smearing down
to the pavement
where
shadows
             tremble,
                       tremble,
till
the light
begins to shift into gray
fusing with the grainy dawn.

____________________

THIS DARK-SKY MORNING

wobble-voiced again—
old morning rooster

what does he crow about
—ruling the silence

—comforting
the sleepless

with his unmelodic and
somehow plaintive crowing

____________________

FOUR A.M. AGAIN

The intrusive cat—at my elbow, attentive to
my silence, filling my space, cleaning her fur.
                                 .
I must love what I love, but nothing fits—the
darkness has a crack of light, and the light has a
patch of darkness—fabric and thread, pulling
and holding.
                                 .
Nothing is mine. It all belongs to the figments
and the realities—like this invisible mosquito—
so intrusive, so intrusive—to my poem.

____________________

Today's LittleNip:

DARK MORNING

The 6:30 bird
twirping nearby . . .

a late owl
with its mournful voice . . .

all so tentative—
all so brief and lonely . . .

___________________

—Medusa, with thanks to Joyce Odam for today's poems and pix! Our new Seed of the Week is "The Telephone Rang..." (Or should we make that smartphone?) Anyway, whether it's a text or an old-fashioned dingalingaling, some messages can still jolt us, for better or for worse. Send your poems/photos/artwork about this or any other subject to kathykieth@hotmail.com/. No deadline on SOWs!