The Melting World

REMEMBER THIS 4 a.m. She’s awake, taking notice. A hollow, repetitive thud of water tumbles, one poorly insulated wall away from her head, from the clogged gutter down onto a plastic cover caulked over the basement window. She remembers to tell the landlord to clean the gutter. By morning she’ll forget. She turns a fan […]

Thank God writing poems saves me from despair. All is well at 3:41 a.m.

Most of you might have seen these two pieces already, but since I never got around (’til today) to post two links to work published at mnartists.org–here you have them: The Trousers and Birdman Be well and think happy thoughts! Peace out.

[Another poem by my son] HOPSCOTCH I feel happy When I play Hopscotch It’s long Jumping Jumping Red, blue, yellow, green Squares, rectangles, and numbers Hop, hop, hop, hop, hop Chalk is Pink, yellow, green, red, white, blue

Photo: extra-long hopscotch pattern drawn by my son My son had a poetry unit in his class the past two weeks. His first poem he wrote was called Peace Poem. He recites it as thus: Peace Poem Love Hugs Sharing Taking turns Trains Traveling Peace The second poem he composed with me while we drove […]

I came across T-chan, age 7, reading Robert Bly’s book, Morning Poems. He read silently, his mouth shaping out the words. It’s the first time I ever noticed him reading one of my books. It makes me wonder what else he has been reading when I wasn’t around. I am so proud of him. A […]

I need to gather energy around these shoulders like a cloak of clouds plump with rain. I am the thunder and lightning to come and the purple silence that follows. My eyes remain sharp-focused on the prey, which is, after all, a potential life, my heart, a reason to live. I track what moves inside […]

Below are two drawings my son made back-to-back as he examined himself carefully in the mirror both during a brief crying jag and after his full recovery. He labeled them accordingly.

photo by keiko fukue 2007 The recipe to life isn’t complex. A few basic ingredients: clean water, food, shelter, and hugs, blended with generous dollops of humor, compassion for the downtrodden, respect for all life. Cultivate the seedlings of self-love with care. Sprinkle yourself with red pepper upon a dark occasion, and pour on the […]

(University of Minnesota Arboretum in autumn, 2006, photo by me) This poem is a prayer for space and solitude and I have built it word by word, star by star, leaf by leaf, and snowflakes times thirty three. It stands here like a red brick house constructed with sturdy hands and baked in the oven […]

Up in that land where bears snore under branches, bellies full of blueberries, where a ferret in a white fur snowsuit bounces across the fields of fresh snow, and the heat of its small engine emits bursts of mist from its throat, Uncle holds in two hands, like a prayer, a white coffee cup full […]

(painting by me) My Ears A dog is barking terrier terror and the sleepy young man jumps into a jumpsuit of fear before crumpling and slumping away. My ears heard it happen and told me so. They are my little boys eager to help. They sweep floors, humming, chittering about who said what on that […]

Mirrors At breakfast I told my husband about a study showing vegetarians have high IQ’s and in the matter of a few sentences I had begun to talk about cannibalism practiced among starving WWII Japanese soldiers on a remote Pacific island. I am my mother’s daughter, I concluded when he waved his hand as a […]