(photo courtesy of flickr user Tomsch)Moods
by Sara Teasdale
I am the still rain falling,
Too tired for singing mirth --
Oh, be the green fields calling,
Oh, be for me the earth!
I am the brown bird pining
To leave the nest and fly --
Oh, be the fresh cloud shining,
Oh, be for me the sky!
I must admit that I directly and intentionally plagiarized one of the best poets I know in this piece, my dear friend Laura. Her Venn diagram image has stuck with me ever since I first read it in one of her poems.
An additional note on this poem: it is not personal. That is, I am talking about no specific person, although it was inspired by recent events. A good man I have never met died last night, and this poem partially expresses my grief that I will not (until heaven) get to learn from him or thank him for some of the greatest blessings ever to touch my life.
(courtesy, flickr user *~Uplifting Arts~*)
They Say It Can't Be Done
There is nothing to connect our souls.
Not a rope, not a strand, not one fiber
that by tugging both our hearts may be pulled.
Our circles do not Venn-like overlap.
My friends know nothing of your friends.
and your mother does not know mine.
Our cities were built centuries apart.
The Zodiac sets us directly opposite.
It snowed when you were born;
it rained over me.
We are wholly separate.
And yet my soul cannot help
but fit inside yours, convex to concave.
But there is nothing to meld us
until I remember the grand order of things.
There are two threads.
We can start here, and move from here.
Just two, and in the midst of them
I stake my justified love for you.
Two things:
You see the sun.
I see the sun.
You see the moon.
I see the moon.
(c.l.)
helpless
caught in a cube of music
nose pressed to the transparent
wall of a world of dissonance
ears fastened to the porous
surface to hear screams surrounding
fingers touched to tears smeared
over the glass in hopes the drops
will quench the outer dust
hands sliding down condensation
clasping at cracked and empty
palms on the other side
feet kicking the base frantic
to walk beside the soles pulling
chains across the desert
(c.l.)
