Comments for Jonathan

Jonathan -

My favorites:

Wolves

The Poets

Growing Poets

My friends are beginning to die

to dance
[though don’t need last stanza maybe – perhaps combine with “A Poem for Mandy”]

Planning the Shot

film haiku

Take me to America

Apples
[like the unexpected way it unravels!]


------------
Fave lines from others:

The Toads of Hamburg

If you were to ask one of the toads
it would simply swell up, affronted by the question,
and burst. This line of inquiry
will get us nowhere.


We must trust in science.
We must trust in our leaders.
We must trust in the government.

We must trust that, one day,
things will return to normal.


Until then,
the crows feast.

------------
my bones so

but the thought of
my bones

moving under
my skin

breaking
breaks me

inside

------------
Cooley in Germany

scoffing at the wind (this is nothing
on the prairies the wind will
well the wind will blowhard
knock you over it will
the wind if the winds will it
if it’s the wind’s will)
but they just smile
not understanding
these poets—such exaggerators
they say

------------
Cold

There are words. Carved in the walls.

Listen. Lie still. Lie down.

To a colder place. I will take you. Then. If you are. Cold.

------------
Among Roses

We will bleed from you such small amounts
And so quiet, the softest of pain

----------
Tired

Take the penny.
From my mouth.

Hold me.
Close.
My eyes.

----------
Best of luck with all your Projects and going back to Skool!

Comments for Myra

Myra -

I've listed my absolute faves first. If I just have the title, that means I liked the whole thing - I've also listed some favourite lines from some that jumped out at me.

-------------
Water Falling Lavendar

Away With Leave

Good News From Duckie

So It Is [with editing, this will be even stronger]

Reading The Names


------------
Planting time

How can the spring drunk hand
not touch,
not push
the roaming root to it’s new
warm place?

Guide the root to reach
for the juice that will spread and rise
through the already up reaching
already eager signal
green text message flashing in each
flowing vein.

------------
A Little Help

The plants are in and watered,
little deposits of dirt and roots
promising to be more if tended.
It took a friend to help me step down

to the place where the bare soil waited,
fertility confused by it’s unbroken surface
when all I needed was the helping hand
of a younger body’s frame


my helper some of another harvest
did I have enough guts to venture out
into the small garden space awaiting my touch
listening for the sound of the hand hoe

hitting against the wood edge of the barrel
the root bursting herbs erupting
in my hands like rumbling
volcanoes of stems and leaves

no longer content to shelter beneath
the surface. Tomorrow will find
the living leaf rivers flowing from the beds,


---------
Half a Hundred

The party
seems to have lasted
so much longer
for us all
than the invitation
indicated.

------------
Fave lines from others:

Jumping the Gun

I feel wrapped in their
city love, the nesting pair
of love birds who call
me Mom. I am a giant
Chimichanga of love.

------------
Meeting On The Road
[Just went to Tulsa for the first time last month – was fascinated by it]

The city passes barely noticed
Like another attendee at a conference,
“My name is Tulsa,”
when only movement matters—

------------
Pondering Sorrell

Good cooks require courage.
And abundance

------------
Picnic Effervescence

their fragile wishes
out into the fully leafed treetops
delicate and sharp edged
trusting the grown-ups
to make bubbles possible
for awhile longer.

--------
What We Eat

or have we turned more meekly
into the flock of mindless sheep
I once recalled,
all lining up for the
humming of the shears?

------------
Enough For Me

Water like liquid diamonds
falls from so many taps—
gratitude and astonishment
continuing.
I know I have the only
Blessings I need.

------------
Dusk Ablaze

When day has slipped its foot
into the bath of night
and stars call down
to whatever bits of light are left
pooling at the edge,
then the ground shimmers
and yellow rises flashing

as if each
petal of the dandelions
has taken wing,
the blinking

lights rise bright
against the darkness
dancing a quest for life.
Some stay moored to the earth,
blinking back, twinkling
like tiny candles
showing the direction home.

------------
Drops of Day
[like how this one relates back to “Enough for Me” and “Dusk Ablaze”

----------
Circuit

Speaking only made my voice
carry old truths
back to the women who had
always known them
guarded them
and merely needed to be
reminded of their own gardens.

------------
Before Paper Cranes

Is this island of a body calling
back waves from that day
before my birth
broadcasted eternally
received in our bones?

Wonderful dying flash
fluttering last light
turning all to ash as
blood cloud umbrella closes
over a charred city
folding surprised citizens
into burnt creases.

===============
Hope this helps! Good luck with venturing out into publishing!

As we edge out ever farther from May...

I've got comments for Myra and Jonathan, which I will post now. And I'm working on Paul and Ariel (though I know Ariel's already culled and started editing!)

Also, I fixed the setting on comments so we know WHEN people commented!

I would welcome even just a list of a few favourites from mine, as I'm culling and editing, and am curious to know which poems people felt were most worthy of pursuing and putting more work into...

Hope all is well with everyone and you're getting out to enjoy summer!