Category Archives: poetry form-minute

On Writing Poetry

Writing poetry can take us

right to the heart

of things, pushing

aside pretense

and posturing, laying the bare

bones of truth out

before us and

challenging us

to open our own hearts to the strong

fragility

of each pulsing,

precious moment.

                                                  JDG

“Let us remember … that in the end we go to poetry for one reason,

so that we might more fully inhabit our lives and the world in which

we live them, and that if we more fully inhabit these things, we might

be less apt to destroy both.”

            Christian Winman, editor of Poetry Magazine

The Living And The Dead

Among the row of bare-limbed trees,

one limb, broken

 from its base, still

 holds brown, stiff leaves.

 The others, stripped clean, await new

green of Spring, but

this lone limb clings,

as does its leaves,

to what no longer is alive,

the dead clinging

to the dead, held

by what still lives.

                                                    JDG

 

When The Eyes Don’t Have It

His eyes, fixed and focused, stare at

mine as though to

say,” Can’t you spare

a tiny crumb

for your friendly four-legged pal?”

When that tack yields

no results, he

tries another 

one. Edging close, he flips the plate

and deftly fields

the flying food

as I gaze, aghast.

                                                             JDG

A Body of Learning

When the body is out of sorts,

it’s hard to find

the line between

flee and wallow,

to come back again and again

to this very

moment, to not

add or subtract,

but just to breathe and be, breathe and

be, making no

demand that things

be otherwise.

                                         JDG

Undoing

Undoing holiday trappings

on a sunny

January

 day reminds  me

of how much I enjoy hum-drum,

unhurried days

when  nothing is

expected and

all there is to do is not much,

when there is lots

of time to sit

and come unwrapped.

                                                     JDG

What If

What if, after all these years, we

went back to where

we started from 

and picked up once

again that early fire of

desire – that

pure, strong, pulsing

urge to let life

have its say, and now to trust that

wisdom will guide 

the hand to reach

beyond its self.

                                                 JDG

Loud and Long

I opened my arms and heart to

the two year old

who stomps her foot

and cries, “I want 

to do what I want to do when

I want to do

it!” Sensing she

is finally

embraced after seventy long,

resentful years,

she settles down

and lets me grow.

                                                      JDG

Out Of The Blue

A boulder falls and blocks our path.

We can fuss and

fume, protest, and

blame, or simply

play a waiting

game. Still, things will

stay just the same

until we see

ourselves or the

boulder differently. Then out of

nowhere, new paths

appear and we

move on, renewed

 

                                                     JDG

Remaining Light

Driving west into the blue-black

evening,  I was

surprised at how

much light remained

after the sun had set, before

the moon arose.

In those times in

between, when we

can’t clearly see our way, maybe

there’s always more

light than we are,

at first, aware.

                                               JDG

Tea and Taxes

I picked a grey day to work on

my taxes. It

seemed fitting to

join with our fine

House of Non-Representatives

to find a way

to deal with tea

and taxes and

so I poured myself some Earl Grey

and tried to make

two plus two not

add up to four.

                                                      JDG