Poetry is an exorcism

 

Unspoken thoughts 

Writhing in the 3 am 

Shadows swirling round

Inside my head

A sudden chill 

A knowledge I’m not alone 

A ghost that is breathing 

Down my neck 

These demons masked as memories 

Seek to take my peace 

But poetry is an exorcism 

Line by line the ritual purging 

Writing not to remember 

But to clean the house 

The blank page becomes a sacrament 

A blessing calling forth 

The phantoms 

Make them words

Similes and metaphors 

Thus I cast them out 

Trapping them on the paper  

Haunting thoughts 

Walled in a stanza 

Bound in black ink 

Stopped by salt upon

The doorframe of my heart 

Now my head is still

My lips are quiet 

I possess myself 

October lives in me

October lives in me 

Bright blue sky

Orange, yellow, crimson soul

Shiny with love 

Bursting with joy 

An absolute revelry of life  

It lives in me — 

Even the brown falling leaves 

Discarding what no longer serves

Knowing they will fertilize

The growth of wisdom within me

October is a time of 

Harvesting the fruits and spreading seeds

Every wild plant scattering its future 

Planning ahead 

 I live that promise of 

Renewal and hope 

October is the weather 

Of my spirit 

It is the landscape 

Of my heart 

Decorating early

November approaches 

Fall behind - my favorite day

Just two weeks away

At the store, Christmas trees

Stand proudly on display 

Already - 

Aisles begin to fill with Santas 

Snowmen, cozy slippers

Ready to wrap as gifts 

Today I do not despise it

No rush, no criticism

Of commercial pressure 

Only anticipatory joy - 

Peace on earth 

Is possible 

Goodwill toward men

Is not a myth 

So here in October 

I dream of holly and lights 

Planning for once 

The last trick or treater

Has left my porch 

With candy in his bag 

Waiting for the clock to roll back 

And once I’ve reveled in that extra hour 

I’m putting up the tree 

Setting up the manger 

Hanging a wreath on the door 

Singing carols in the car 

For I believe 

I believe the Promise 

My heart prepares Him room 

With gratitude

Defying the dictators 

Dirty dealers 

Genocidal heretics 

I’ll pray for Palestine  

For Ukraine 

For all of us reaching toward a world 

Where human dignity is sacred  

I’m decorating early this year 

Flipping off the fascists 

With holiday cheer 

Magnetism

Action at a distance confounds me

Same as Isaac Newton

And even he could not explain

Invisible tethers across

 An empty space

How can we be in alignment

When we are so very different

Yet when you are near me

Toroidal loops are sweeping

Me into your web

Drawn into your presence

Every nerve on high alert

My skin sensing your skin

Crying out to touch

The physics of resonance

Hardwired attraction

I am helpless

My fingers seek to run

Through your hair

I pull away, I want safety

Yet chaos tells me

Polarity cannot be

Isolated

You are north, I am south

Mirrored

Somehow exploiting yet 

Aligning to protect

Our vulnerabilities

Are you iron?

Am I a lodestone? 

Electrified, magnetized

When you wrapped your arms

Around me and taught

Me self-defense

But it's the tangle of you and I

That I need to defend against

Because if your leg touches mine

I might disorient

And pull to your north

This terrifying magnetism

The gravity of longing

Wavering in the static

Holding my breath against its power

Is my self-preservation

Strong enough to resist?

You called me honey

Casually

You called me honey 

Seeing the worry in my eyes 

Your words reached out

With the warmth of a hug 

These caressed my ears

With unspoken stewardship

Remembering the first time 

With shaking hands 

You stood at my door 

Cold, bringing me seeds 

Insistent that I take 

The small gift proffered 

Like a wild seed yourself 

The wind had carried you to my porch

With the asters and beggarticks 

Invasive, persistent, naturalizing yourself 

Patiently worked into the soil 

Sometimes impatient for the harvest

Or just for me 

To see the myriad of your acts of care 

Hungry for me to notice and

To care, too — and I do 

Yet can you see the red flags flutter 

In that same wind that carried you here

Red like fire  

And sparks that fly free

Can burn down a house

This fire flares with your frustration 

Why is it I’m so hard to read? Because 

Fear does that, it makes a mask 

Not to hide from you, or trick you

My skin remembers how quickly 

Embers burn and scar 

It shields me from your heat 

I fear being consumed 

Knowing clay, when it is fired 

Never melts again 

But it can break…

So casually you call me

Honey

Make me want to lean in 

Lesser Burdock

Lesser Burdock

Call it wild rhubarb 

Imagining a taste 

That is sour…

But with some sugar added 

Creates a tasty pie, yet…

The name is a tease 

Because the taste is of earth and nuts 

And the wild is the way 

It clings to everything 

Casually you came 

A thorny hitchhiker 

Hitching a ride on my dogs

Finding the soil 

To your liking 

And me? I found you

Rustic, untamed

A velvet anchor in my clay

Not easily uprooted

With an aggressive beauty 

Unapologetic of its presence

Sharp barbs getting in my skin 

Skeletal brown burrs which persist 

Even when I think 

I’ve torn you out 

And  so I found your alchemy 

Medicinal roots that run deep 

A scourge, a healer 

Resilient survivor and 

Sudden nuisance 

Tangling yourself in my hair 

Lesser burdock? 

Nothing less about you 

Fiercely, quietly attaching yourself to me

Long after I thought

I’d walked away alone  

(iykyk)

The puzzle with the missing piece

Once I needed answers 

I needed resolution

I needed the heavy 

Conversations 

Twisting, writhing 

Painful truths 

I was participating in a quest 

For making sense 

Yet I  found that …

Some things are senseless 

Sometimes a puzzle  is  

Missing pieces and so 

One simply must throw 

It away 

My warmth and patience 

Once met hurt and indifference

Kindly, and the missing cooled 

The heat of anger

“Why did you?”

Sent me outward

For understanding 

That never came 

I’m not sure when or how or why but

One day the question changed

And so did my direction 

I’m okay with finding 

My own answers 

Wrestling with 

What access to me 

Is worth 

On this new journey I found 

Freedom, without residual bitterness 

Soft heart, careful life 

Centered, safe - the hurt is gone 

No repair needed

A door that remains shut

Because I closed it 

And threw the key out

Along with that puzzle 

With too many missing pieces