February 2024
Bio Note: The events of October 2023 shook me, like most of the world, so I wrote about it. I was inspired by a poem I read, called “Why I Write”, so I wrote my own version. I keep walking, I keep writing. My book, Every Small Breeze came out late 2023, and will be followed by What I Ask in Spring 2024.
October 2023
My head hurts
taking in an unfolding and building avalanche
of disaster.
My heart breaks
as acts of evil and harm bring on more
harm and destruction.
There is no solution that will erase
the killings. The misery will last for generations,
trauma stitched into their veins.
The only hope is to stop. To begin to repair.
To cleanse and salve
to cradle and hug.
When will that start?
When will violence and vengeance and harm
abate? Will humanity abide?
Any Day’s Treasure
pantoum
There’s a walk I take, every day.
A regular route, uphill to reservoir and back.
I’ve been walking this walk for years.
When the sun has risen, chased away any fog, but shadows remain,
I head uphill to the reservoir
to feel centered, calm, and free.
When the sun has chased away morning fog, but shadows remain,
my precious time
to calm, feel centered and free.
The sidewalk stretches out, a path in front of me.
Precious time.
Pulse flowing from heart to limbs,
the sidewalk path welcoming me.
This repeated walk, my reliable pleasure,
coaxing flow from heart to extremity.
An every day walk, the jewel in any day’s treasure.
Why I Write
ars poetica, inspired by Bunkong Tuon
To connect with the sky
and its particular weather
today, in this moment.
And the earth; its growing things.
To remember that is also me,
a growing thing on earth,
living through many weathers.
To hear these thoughts
not only in my head, but heart.
To anchor myself
in this day, this moment,
and also know it is fluid.
To be, and give
love and wonder
simply by wading in my humanity.
Our humanity, reader…
yours and mine.
To wade in the thick of it, together.
©2024 Marjorie Moorhead
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the author (email address above) to say what it is about the poem you like. Writing to the author is what builds the community at Verse Virtual. It is very important. -JL