January 2023
Bio Note: With the shortened days I find it hard to get things done; prioritized for me are a walk outdoors, and some sort of poetry related activity. I keep eyes open for glimmers of good and hope, and add them to a constellation in the crisp night sky. Poems are like hugs, even the tough ones. Thank you all for writing and sharing.
Enough is Enough
Two Volcanoes Rumble Into Action in Russia’s Far East
—APnews.com 11/20/2022
War rages and ravages, and
the round Blue Planet bursts into protest.
Long-seething volcanoes begin to erupt.
I will cause a roiling rumble of my own, Earth says.
Perpetrators of pollution and plunder:
Your callous violence spews noxious
toxins from weaponry and destruction.
You want to kill? then I shall show you death
at a scale beyond your ken.
Red hot lava bleeds down my thighs
to cover you in flame.
Your hideous, imperious, murderous ways
shall be the limit to your days. I will bury you
in shame.
Into Morning
At dawn,
the horizon fills with pink
then periwinkle.
A radiant peach glows behind the pines across our street.
Next, purple octopus stretches amethyst arms wide
and along the horizon-line of hills, rooftops and pointing trees.
Peach’s glow, calming now, dissipates.
Ribboning lavender tentacles lay a path into this day’s sky.
In a boat of assimilating colors, I watch, flowing into morning.
Shiny Lessons
But like crow I collect the shine of anything beautiful I can find*
Oh my. This poem I’ve read—
its last line sending an arrow through the heart.
This gloriously precise expression
of a lesson learned is a gift that waited for me,
silently, peacefully, and powerfully, knowing
someday it could reach me, and some day…
I might share it
with my beloved
and/or, bare my own lessons,
written & burnished shiny with care,
calling to another: You there!
*from: The Path to the Milky Way Leads Through Los Angeles Joy Harjo
©2023 Marjorie Moorhead
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