I am learning mantras
And rubbing them
Like oils into my skin
Mine is a good body
And the world,
Wondrous as it is,
Is made more so
When I am in it
These are my balms.
Let them be salves
For the cracks in my soul.
on blooming:
lessons
i learned from the
pavement: life continues
to bloom; even through cracks in the
concrete.
Re: Old Age
Day 8- Write a cinquain on a topic of your choice.
maybe
she lost all that
weight so you could get used
to seeing your giants shrink to
nothing.
To The Stump In my Garden
Day 7- Take a walk until you find a
tree you identify with, then write a poem using the tree as a metaphor
for yourself or your life.
tree you identify with, then write a poem using the tree as a metaphor
for yourself or your life.
To the stump in my garden that has begun to sprout
Mere days after its branches have been shorn:
Teach me whatever lessons you have learned
How to give thanks for your still solid roots
And how to recalibrate the hardened fibres of your bark
And make life once more.
Lemons
Day 5- Write a three line poem about
lemons without using the following words: lemon, yellow, round, fruit,
citrus, tart, juicy, peel, and sour.
My mouth puckers at the taste
But it is not without a lesson:
Take nothing without a pinch of salt
lemons without using the following words: lemon, yellow, round, fruit,
citrus, tart, juicy, peel, and sour.
My mouth puckers at the taste
But it is not without a lesson:
Take nothing without a pinch of salt
In Your Old Age
Day 3- Find the nearest book (of any
kind). Turn to page 8. Use the first ten full words on the page in a
poem. You may use them in any order, anywhere in the poem.
kind). Turn to page 8. Use the first ten full words on the page in a
poem. You may use them in any order, anywhere in the poem.
Senescence is the great equaliser.
great men, average men,
men of faith, men of none
living life with the promise
that some of its secrets will be revealed
but all you will ever learn
are verbs like forgetting
and dying.
Upon Review
Day 2- Who was the last person you texted? Write a five-line poem to that person.
I cannot write about you.
I cannot write about you.
Poetry reveals truths
And I cannot hear those truths
Without revealing hurts.
I still have not healed from your last wounds.
Light Pollution
“the light reveals all
sins,” she always said. but the
dark shows me the stars.
Back Home
(Lyrics from Back Home by Andre Tanker)
i went away / i leave an i come back
home / i come back to stay / i must see meh way
home / i come back to stay / i must see meh way
It feels as though every time I leave, it takes
longer to come back.
longer to come back.
first six months, then nine, now ten–
as if they have been grooming me to leave
forever.
forever.
I ask myself how people could leave for years
and years and never look back?
and years and never look back?
not even once?
But the truth is, it gets easier.
What is one year more when you’ve been gone for
five?
five?
or ten?
or twenty?
i went away / i leave an i come back
home / i come back to stay / i must see meh way
home / i come back to stay / i must see meh way
Each time I fear that she
will not take me back.
will not take me back.
I think anyone who has ever left home for length of time can tell
you about that fear
you about that fear
that you have changed too much to go back to the place
that you cannot call it home without a sour taste in your mouth.
You don’t live somewhere without it changing you and can’t come back
without those changes
without those changes
Whether is a yankee accent, or an expectation of something better.
i went away /
looking for another home / tried to run away / run way from my destiny /
looking for another home / tried to run away / run way from my destiny /
Yuh see, we is d people who does come back sayin ting like
“Well back in Canada…”
“Well back in Canada…”
in another world /
a world that was strange to me / tried to change myself / change my identity
a world that was strange to me / tried to change myself / change my identity
But what we doesn’t tell yuh is how we don’t fit there either
Because whatever Canada or New York or England or other northern
promised land we have created
promised land we have created
Despite the efficiency of public transit or the cheapness of “food”
We know that we will never really be more than our hyphenations
Than our exotic accents
Than our otherness.
Calling there home gives you that sour taste too.
You can’t live somewhere without it shaping you, and you can’t leave
without taking whatever idea of home you had with you.
without taking whatever idea of home you had with you.
i went away / i leave an i come back
home / i come back to stay / i must see meh way
home / i come back to stay / i must see meh way
Alphabet Love Song
Alphabet Love Song
(For PC 37, 38, 39)
A B C D E F G H… H… H…
H has become too heavy a letter for me.
Home, heart, hurt…
Heavy because home is where the heart is
And being here has halved my heart hundreds of times
So each of you can take it home with you.
And with your heart in over 80 countries,
There can only be hurt.
A B C D E F G H I J K L
Hurt and longing.
Longing for those you may never see again
And for those whom seeing everyday is still not enough,
Longing goes hand in hand with leaving and being left
And we learn to get good at that here, don’t we?
But there is also love.
So much love that it makes all this heaviness,
all this longing and leaving,
worth it.
So much love that it makes sense that I’d need
90 heart horcruxes to deal with it
and I know that whether I’m in
Argentina or Australia,
Zimbabwe or Zambia,
That there will always be love
And there will always be home.