When Sometime Comes

 

Thinking Back

—Poetry by Joyce Odam and Robin Gale Odam,

Sacramento, CA

—Photos by Robin Gale Odam

 

 

 

CRICKET
—Joyce Odam

I frighten myself with a cry
to see a huge bug, a cricket,

in the bathroom sink, unrecognized
when my instinct is to swish it away

through a mind-flash of colors and
strikes of mind . . .

and I get my breath back to recall
the long-ago—to think back to the

crickets singing—singing again
through the long-ago nights—

the night singing of the crickets
on summer nights,

truly missed so long ago when every-
thing was young and slow back then.

 

 

 

And I Get My Breath Back

 

 

MY FRAGILE MOOD
—Robin Gale Odam

The good tree
whispers
for the wind.
Eleven crickets
sing to my fragile mood.
The shape of you
lingers by my side.
Soon the mocking bird
will pierce the cool night.
I will shiver
and listen. 

 

 

 

Open Soon

 

 

      
ABOUT THE WEATHER
—Robin Gale Odam

I didn’t know what to say,
so I told you the morning was
lovely—pale sky, incessant drone
of distant plane, treetop full of
tiny buds threatening to bloom—
although I felt your chill, I could
always say something about
the weather.
                

(prev. pub. in Brevities, January 2014)

__________________

ANOTHER DAY
 —Robin Gale Odam

Ere long the sunset, but
time with you—the very phrase
is worth keeping.

 

 

 

 Strikes of Mind

 

 

SILENCE TO ICE
 —Robin Gale Odam

Come close,
let me speak of ice.
We answered
and old dream.
We slept
through it all.
It was long,
with flecks of contrast.
Our roots blended
like colors in water,
countless cycles,
water to mist,
rain to current,
depth to thought,
breath to heat,
vapor to love,
silence to ice.


(prev. pub. in Brevities, June 2011)

 

 

 When Sometime Comes

 

 

DEATH OR GRAVITY
—Robin Gale Odam

born to earth, our carbon
print—of course the rest has

escaped, something about our
affinity as her dna, the checks
and balances, and time.

i gave the other part to an
older poem who needs it more.

__________________

I REMEMBER SWEARING
—Robin Gale Odam

in another language—it was not in
words I understood but the surge of it
was exhilarating—evil stood behind me,
mimicking and memorizing promises,
and crying.

                                  
(prev. pub. in Brevities, October 2015)

 

 

 

 On Summer Nights

 

SO STILL
 —Robin Gale Odam

Eleven crickets are silent.
I sit with the good tree.
We feel the wind
listening.
We are so still.
The sky is crystal black.
We miss our mockingbird,
our leaves,
you

___________________

Today’s LittleNip:

FROM TIME TO QUIET TIME
—Robin Gale Odam

From the pyre, now his ashes on the
bureau. One candle lit from time to
quiet time—his widow.

___________________

Independence Day greetings, and our thanks to Joyce and Robin Odam for today’s poetry fest—there are, indeed, fireworks in their poetry and photos! (Love the crickets, our previous Seed of the Week!)

Our new Seed of the Week is “Safe Haven”. 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.

___________________

—Medusa

 

 

 

Remember...

—Photo Courtesy of Public Domain









 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For upcoming poetry happenings in
Northern California and otherwheres,
click on
UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS
(http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html)
in the links at the top of this page.

Photos in this column can be enlarged by
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