June 2021
Bio Note: I wrote this poem with my Writing for Healing group in response to a poem titled The Work of a Poet that I brought in for us to discuss and write about written by the great poet, Diane Ackerman. I had the idea to imagine what the coat of a poet would do, what it would look like, and how it would work in the world. Here is what came to me. I’m grateful for the positive energy that came to me through Ackerman’s poem.
Incantation
The coat of a poet is patchworked, warm,
full enough to fit everyone inside.
We rest together in its tent of permissions
and omissions, admissions, intuitions. Paisley
confessions. This inviolate space, this human-errored space.
We are fledglings huddled in its skyscrapered air, smell
of planets, of earth musk. Listen to the banter
of Spring as she loosens her leaf-felted robes.
Birds flicker all around. Moles dig in.
Beneath this coat we eat chocolate dipped in more
chocolate. Sweetness spills, drops of honey
fold into spiced tea. To soothe our plaid misfortunes.
The coat of a poet has seams for fears, tears, for blisses,
kisses of silk on skin. It breezes smoke out of pockets
and into a glossy night. When we sleep, it’s a love,
or a friend, rests on a hook. If sleep is outside
the window, it’s our weighted blanket. Morning
comes, wearing woolly sunlight lightly around its shoulders.
©2021 Phyllis Klein
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It is very important. -JL