New(er) Poetry

Hello, friends, I haven't been inspired today in any particular direction, so I thought I'd share some of my more recent poems. I'll have to think how/when to post earlier work. I continue to find great joy in writing this way...I recently read that poems take us out of time for a little bit, much like the few hushed, warm days after a baby is born. What a lovely picture!

What Is It?

These shallow breaths are not

milk and honey I'd hoped for,

praying strength to spread

cream cheese on toast

what I'd planned.

Yet these rapid heartbeats burn

wisps of incense

in a place I am finding

is holy.

The smoke from your cloud today

singes my throat but this

manna strange somehow still

fills me.

                     -Winter 2012

Metamorphi–

This cocoon closes

bloody. I can't tell

what flows thick 

from these knuckles

banged senseless and

what seeps 

from your womb-walls,

hot-cradling me. 

                     -Spring 2012

I Have No Poems About Jesus

I realize this paging through my pittance of black pixels

strewn across white pages in hope

that some will take root.

I read of redemption, communion, the kingdom;

there is Moses, my father; no Rabbi in sight.

The New Jerusalem seems safer,

stained glass and sand sufficient.

No need to touch nail holes,

struggle to name the One

who offers flesh as food,

who tells me I must hate

the one who bore me

but who lets whores

kiss his feet before

he dies.

I have no place to lay His head.

I touch the hem of His garment for healing.

To get closer means His smell might

mingle with mine.

                                 -Summer 2012