The Mind
—Poetry by Joyce Odam and Robin Gale Odam,
Sacramento, CA
—Photos by Robin Gale Odam
SPRING
—Joyce Odam
before it was light
it was love’s notion
allowed to love’s innocent
play at “love at last”—one
side will crush the other, fall
and try again . . . and again—
spring or any other sweet-
mood-romance, will go all
squirrelly again and wounded
lover will lie back with wiser
worth of meaning, and his
heartache all wise again
—Joyce Odam
before it was light
it was love’s notion
allowed to love’s innocent
play at “love at last”—one
side will crush the other, fall
and try again . . . and again—
spring or any other sweet-
mood-romance, will go all
squirrelly again and wounded
lover will lie back with wiser
worth of meaning, and his
heartache all wise again
The Sake Of Mercy
SLEEPLESS
—Robin Gale Odam
The fragile mechanics of pain and the
psyche—the gauzy connection to the dark
The wind of thought—the lift, the senseless
grab-and-run, the indiscernible mar of it
Songbird before dawn—caffeine,
dishes in the sin
—Robin Gale Odam
The fragile mechanics of pain and the
psyche—the gauzy connection to the dark
The wind of thought—the lift, the senseless
grab-and-run, the indiscernible mar of it
Songbird before dawn—caffeine,
dishes in the sin
Hope Is A World
I WISH
—Joyce Odam
I hope/want for all the wonderings
of life and loveless love.
How so that? And I don’t know, time
climbs with me and asks what I want
and I don’t know, I want it to
let me know—
and it does not know. Hope is a word
to capture and explain. There is pain
in that, and life hangs on with me,
it’s play-mate or it’s woe-mate,
wanting what it wants and it
should know.
____________________
AWKWARD
—Robin Gale Odam
in the dream of climbing
the air, the awkward importance
of height and the senselessness of
dimension—the indiscernible falling
just before waking into the unex-
plainable measure of daylight
—Joyce Odam
I hope/want for all the wonderings
of life and loveless love.
How so that? And I don’t know, time
climbs with me and asks what I want
and I don’t know, I want it to
let me know—
and it does not know. Hope is a word
to capture and explain. There is pain
in that, and life hangs on with me,
it’s play-mate or it’s woe-mate,
wanting what it wants and it
should know.
____________________
AWKWARD
—Robin Gale Odam
in the dream of climbing
the air, the awkward importance
of height and the senselessness of
dimension—the indiscernible falling
just before waking into the unex-
plainable measure of daylight
North North-west
BUOYANCY
—Robin Gale Odam
senseless gaiety, sheer wall of
compromise—the indiscernible
worry of conflict
—Robin Gale Odam
senseless gaiety, sheer wall of
compromise—the indiscernible
worry of conflict
The Old Prayer
IF THIS TWILIGHT
—Joyce Odam
Where does it go, the old prayer, the old
“for the sake of mercy”
where does it go?
The words are spread over the mind
like falling like fainted gulls made of
slow, indelible ecstasy.
If this twilight takes them
under its broad wing under the darkness,
may they be simplified
into landscapes and drawings.
(From Lemon Center for Hot Buttered Roll 1975
by Joyce Odam)
___________________
PASTEL
—Robin Gale Odam
Tents, sleeping bags.
Backpacks, chairs.
shopping carts—
indiscernible contents.
Infant crib.
—Joyce Odam
Where does it go, the old prayer, the old
“for the sake of mercy”
where does it go?
The words are spread over the mind
like falling like fainted gulls made of
slow, indelible ecstasy.
If this twilight takes them
under its broad wing under the darkness,
may they be simplified
into landscapes and drawings.
(From Lemon Center for Hot Buttered Roll 1975
by Joyce Odam)
___________________
PASTEL
—Robin Gale Odam
Tents, sleeping bags.
Backpacks, chairs.
shopping carts—
indiscernible contents.
Infant crib.
The Indiscernible Script
FOR THE SCRIBE
—Robin Gale Odam
Grave is the act of the scribe—
the trembling note for the score,
the restless phrasing in the stanza, the
deepest mark for the indiscernible script
_________________________
Today’s LittleNip:
SQUIRRELLY
—Joyce Odam
If ever there is irony wherever
love is sane and meaningful to self,
or length without a clue or length
beyond the breakless heart of
one’s old truth, the sky will burst
and likely you and it will rain.
_________________________
Thanks from the Kitchen to the two Odam ladies for their poetry today and for Robin’s photos! Our new Seed of the Week is “Chip Off the Old Block”. Send your poems, photos & artwork about this (or any other) subject to kathykieth@hotmail.com. No deadline on SOWs, though, and for a peek at our past ones, click on “Calliope’s Closet”, the link at the top of this column, for plenty of others to choose from. And see every Form Fiddlers’ Friday for poetry form challenges, including those of the Ekphrastic type.
Be sure to check each Tuesday for the latest Seed of the Week.
A quote from Google: “This year, the Holocaust Days of Remembrance are from 16 April 2023 through 23 April 2023, with the observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day taking place on 18 April 2023. In Hebrew, Holocaust Remembrance Day translates as, “Yom Ha Shoah.” Holocaust Museum LA has a variety of programs coming up, beginning today; see https://www.holocaustmuseumla.org/upcoming/. See also Michael H. Brownstein’s poem in yesterday’s Kitchen at http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/2023/04/squirrelly.html/.
_________________________
—Medusa
Grave is the act of the scribe—
the trembling note for the score,
the restless phrasing in the stanza, the
deepest mark for the indiscernible script
_________________________
Today’s LittleNip:
SQUIRRELLY
—Joyce Odam
If ever there is irony wherever
love is sane and meaningful to self,
or length without a clue or length
beyond the breakless heart of
one’s old truth, the sky will burst
and likely you and it will rain.
_________________________
Thanks from the Kitchen to the two Odam ladies for their poetry today and for Robin’s photos! Our new Seed of the Week is “Chip Off the Old Block”. Send your poems, photos & artwork about this (or any other) subject to kathykieth@hotmail.com. No deadline on SOWs, though, and for a peek at our past ones, click on “Calliope’s Closet”, the link at the top of this column, for plenty of others to choose from. And see every Form Fiddlers’ Friday for poetry form challenges, including those of the Ekphrastic type.
Be sure to check each Tuesday for the latest Seed of the Week.
A quote from Google: “This year, the Holocaust Days of Remembrance are from 16 April 2023 through 23 April 2023, with the observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day taking place on 18 April 2023. In Hebrew, Holocaust Remembrance Day translates as, “Yom Ha Shoah.” Holocaust Museum LA has a variety of programs coming up, beginning today; see https://www.holocaustmuseumla.org/upcoming/. See also Michael H. Brownstein’s poem in yesterday’s Kitchen at http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/2023/04/squirrelly.html/.
_________________________
—Medusa
—Photo Courtesy of Public Domain
For upcoming poetry happenings in
Northern California and otherwheres,
click on
UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS
in the links at the top of this page.
For more about National Poetry Month,
including ways to celebrate, see
https://poets.org/national-poetry-month.
And sign up for Poem-a-Day at
https://poets.org/poem-a-day/, plus
read about Poem in Your Pocket Day
(this year, April 27) at
https://poets.org/national-poetry-month/poem-your-pocket-day/.
Photos in this column can be enlarged by
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.
Northern California and otherwheres,
click on
UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS
in the links at the top of this page.
For more about National Poetry Month,
including ways to celebrate, see
https://poets.org/national-poetry-month.
And sign up for Poem-a-Day at
https://poets.org/poem-a-day/, plus
read about Poem in Your Pocket Day
(this year, April 27) at
https://poets.org/national-poetry-month/poem-your-pocket-day/.
Photos in this column can be enlarged by
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.
