Listen Child

I read a poem today and decided
I must deed it to some lost, lonely
fatherless child… to brace her
along her stony path …

Listen child, don’t forsake
your aspirations or buy the social OS
Just let this poem play you like a
musician her viola, reframing lonely
into solitude and sanctity
Let it wash you like the spray of whales
Let it drench your body in the music
of your soul, singing pure prana into
the marrow and margins of your life
Let your shaman soul name your muse
Discover the amethyst bliss of words
woven from strands of your own DNA

Yes! I read a poem today and decided
I must deed it to a lost fatherless child

© 2011, poem and photograph, Jamie Dedes All rights reserved

WEDNESDAY WRITING PROMPT

As we celebrate International Women’s Day and our own lives, the lives of the women we know and the lives of the women who came before us and fought for our rights and the resulting benefits to our children, I wonder what you – male or female – would like to bequeath to the next generation and generations to come. What lessons would you want to share.  To help yourself along imagine perhaps what you’re older self would like to tell your younger self. Share with us in prose or poem. If you feel comfortable, leave the piece or a link to it in the comments below so that I and others might enjoy it.

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HEADS-UP SAN MATEO CALIFORNIA: – Join PEACE ACTION SAN MATEO CALIFORNIA in celebrating International Women’s Day 2017 on the sidewalk – at 3rd Avenue and El Camino in San Mateo…in front of the Bank of America building.

Bring your signs and your spirits to recognize women’s achievements and to inspire actions for the advancement of women’s equity and parity, human rights, a peaceful world, and healthcare for all (just to name a few concerns).

Everybody is invited to be there from 4:30-6 PM! Date: Wednesday, March 8, 2017 -16:30 to 18:00

ALSO SAVE THE DATES: 

Monday, March 20: A Talk About the U.S., NATO and Russia with Peace Leaders Kevin Martin and Reiner Braun. Details HERE.

Sunday, March 26: Toby Blomé of CODEPINK on Drone Warfare. Details HERE. (Click on the title in the blogroll to your left.)

To find your own local Peace Action affiliate link HERE. I imagine there are others celebrating today too. 

The recommended read for this week is Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast by Pulitzer Prize winning Megan Marshall who studied with Bishop at Harvard. This biography is richly spun,  energetic, engaging and even inspirational despite the breathtaking depth of Bishop’s losses, her sense of marginalization and her head-long push into alcoholism. Indeed, some of the inspiration comes because with all her loses, Bishop managed to hold poetry tight. Her poems were for her a charm “against the loneliness they often expressed.” The book covers Bishop’s relationships with other poets and her romantic interests, the last was for me the singular wearisome downside, much overrided though by the book’s pleasures and values. It is laced with Marshall’s own stories and together the lives of these two bare witness to the power of words to give shape, sense and meaning to life. We come away with a strong sense of Elizabeth Bishop, one of America’s most extraordinary poets. A page-turner. A must read or everyone who loves and writes poetry.

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9 Comments

  2. Hello Jamie. My contribution to this weeks challenge is

    . one thought .

    torn paper
    may be fish.

    important work
    or less.

    crumpled,
    memory
    of silk.

    to place in reverence
    or start the fire.

    i have learned
    not to believe
    all i think.

    anna.

    sbm.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  5. Hi Jamie. Here is my contribution to today’s prompt

    We Must Avoid

    doors that open too smoothly,
    scissors that open too well,
    doors slam in your face,
    scissors cut you to strips.

    Words that come too easily,
    stories that come ready made,
    success handed on a plate,
    accolades sent too soon

    poetry that slips off the tongue,
    without hard work and sweat,
    words that bother the reader,
    with too much work to do,

    poetry without music and rhythm,
    complicated images and phrases,
    not asking if it’s boring,
    not being entertaining enough.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Thank you!