Inspired recently by a dear friend, who writes a poem every morning as part of his early morning practice…. poetry as practice!
Connection
Hand
touches
space between
shoulder and elbow;
A smile
‘we share
similar work,’
she says
barriers crack
spaces open
hearing
feeling
seeing
thinking
through
one
another
Denial
Two-year study
presented
One in three
women and children
will be
sexually assaulted
in their life time
From the mouths of some
Nah man. They lie.
They lie.
One in three
Women and children
Sexually assaulted
They lie.
From the mouths of denial:
‘And what about the bigger islands
a murder
everyday.
rape,
mob beatings
of those who love differently?’
‘And what about America?
What about over there?
where men
old and young
carry arms
into schools
music festivals
churches and shopping centers
and shoot and shoot and shoot
‘And what about
those countries over there
where they let their own people
starve
wipe out millions
with machetes
sell out there own people
to slavery?”
Is this what denial looks like?
Is this what scapegoating looks like?
Passing the buck?
Sweeping under?
Are these
single story blinders?
Making people
Cry out
‘Look look
over there
over there
but
never
over here
over here’
A Sunday with Friends
Stone painted mandalas reaching
Coffee and home made bread offering
Ancestral hand-carved faces peering
Poems, songs and tai chi sharing
Cashew and sapodilla circling
Gift of living, dying, returning
Corner sunk couch
Honey color guitars
Generous chords
strung and sung
Sitar peering
Song circles planning
Homemade umbrellas performing
Upward slip sliding
Glorious goodbyes flexing
By Maureen St.Clair