maureenstclair.com

Poetry as Practice

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

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