2010 APPF 8/2: “Only When Cut”
Only When Cut (8.2.2010)
Cradling the blood
in my palm –
a T-square cut,
a seeping skin –
I swirl the blood
in my hand, like
globules of mercury.
I hold my blood like
a living thing, coming alive
with oxygen
only when cut.
2010 APPF 8/1: “Sensory Overload (Hearing)”
Sensory Overload (Hearing) (8.1.2010)
Locusts & cicadas,
the hot running whir
like nature’s computer
overheating.
The molecules of breeze
coming through the
window screens.
The air is making love
to us all the time,
the unbidden smell-
memory
the closest you will
come to feeling like
you are only a sweet beautiful womb.
2010 August Poetry Postcard Fest
I’ve been looking for a way to stimulate my writing lately. Most of the pieces I’ve been working on during my Madwomen in the Attic writing workshops at Carlow have been old pieces, so it’s time to refill the well!
My instructor this semester, Ellen McGrath Smith, turned me on to the August Poetry Postcard Fest, in which, every day, poets send each other short, original poems on ordinary (or utterly strange) postcards.
As part of this writing and documentation, I’ll be posting the poems that I send away each day to far-flung places around the nation and globe. And I’ll post a poem or two of the ones that come to me.
The image with this post is of my postcards. Hurray for free postcards from Vistaprint.
Here are the first few poems I’ve sent so far:
Ripening (7.28.2010)
I am from the ginger,
cardamom, kale,
chiffonade.
I am from the summers
without clouds, the longing
for a parasol.
I am from bees dipping
into springloaded
flowers,
from legs covered in
sweat & pollen,
from the dog days.
*
Cutting the Cherries (7.28.2010)
A slip of the knife,
into blood-red flesh,
curving to lance the
sticky pit.
My hands covered
in violent juice.
Yes, I meant it,
this sweet popping,
excising the stone
from the heart
of summer.
Is it murder if it’s
delicious?
Summer in the City
Cardamom ice cream | Intaglio cities and trees | Violet brocade bags | Pistachio portobello pasta | Swedish owl paintings | 6, E, 1, 7 | Blossom, Aldea, Hawk, Pearl River, Uniqlo | Pear butter and sandalwood incense
Summer Evening
Strawberry rhubarb crumble, made with fruit “with the sun still in them,” as Dorothy wrote. Lilies the color of buttercream. A quiet night.
