Tag Taurus

* gratitude with Marilyn Nelson

José Angel Araguz Leave a comment
* words in the Slipstream *

* words in the Slipstream *

The above is a photo of the latest issue of Slipstream – which I am happy to say includes my poem “Burial Clothes”.  A quick leaf through upon opening the package the issue came in introduced me to fine poems by Terry Godbey and Rita Moe.  I’m waiting until the weekend to dig into the rest.

Contributor’s copies are one of the unique treats of getting a poem published.  You get to see who’s in the neighborhood, whose poem lives next door to yours.  The whole thing is humbling as you realize that every page contains a bit of aspiration and a whole bunch of effort.

In that spirit, this week’s poem is all about gratitude.  Marilyn Nelson takes us from chore to genuflection down on a microscopic level, showing how life takes us where life is.

**

Dusting – Marilyn Nelson

Thank you for these tiny
particles of ocean salt,
pearl-necklace viruses,
winged protozoans:
for the infinite,
intricate shapes
of submicroscopic
living things.

For algae spores
and fungus spores,
bonded by vital
mutual genetic cooperation,
spreading their
inseparable lives
from equator to pole.

My hand, my arm,
make sweeping circles.
Dust climbs the ladder of light.
For this infernal, endless chore,
for these eternal seeds of rain:
Thank you. For dust.

**

Happy thanking!

Jose

* who we are & Yannis Ritsos

José Angel Araguz 1 Comment

Protection – Yannis Ritsos

The sky bends over us, responsible,
as our poem bends over the sadness of mankind,
as the sensitive, initiated eyelid bends over the eye,
protecting the pupil of the eye from the dust,
the improvised light, the hardly perceptible insects,
so that the eyes may open again forewarned and free,
each time the chance comes to view the miracle of germination
and to herald their smile to another.

* eye see what you mean *

* eye see what you mean *

Something about Yannis Ritsos I keep coming back to.  Perhaps it is the earthiness of what he writes about.  Above, you have a meditation on eyelids as I have never read before.   The tender eyelid as protective.  I mean, that is what it does, some part of me knew this – but this gives it back to me.

Cool.

Here’s another short dose of who we are.  The lyric below takes me to somewhere lonely through an indirect path – through an impossible image I am given very possible feelings.

*

Recollection – Yannis Ritsos

A warm aroma had remained on the armpits of her coat.
Her coat on the hanger in the hallway like a drawn curtain.
What was happening now was of another time.  The light altered faces,
all unfamiliar.  And if someone was about to enter the house,
that empty coat would lift its arms slowly, bitterly,
and silently shut the doors once more.

***

Happy shutting!

Jose