poetry

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Mon 24 Aug 2020

Strawberries

Posted by PJ under black lives matter, poetry, quote of the day
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Random quote of the day:

“I do not want to be
the chalk-drawn street, the square
outline of our arms turn to one
smudge while we grow
cold in the blood, like the strawberries
we trowel between our mouths”

—Shayla Lawson, “Strawberry Swing”

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Key and Peele, Celine Dion, or Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

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Mon 6 Apr 2020

They care

Posted by PJ under my poetry, poetry
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Thu 2 Apr 2020

The River Beneath the River

Posted by PJ under my poetry, poetry
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Sun 29 Mar 2020

Who is this god beside me

Posted by PJ under my poetry, poetry
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Who is this god beside me in the cool green
garden shadows, this moss maker, leaf breaker,
slow chipper of stones who pools the rain in the
niche places, causes the flowers to raise weary
heads to the sun; this gentle, quiet god of
tiny miracles and mundane wonders who
we take for granted as surely as we take
the breath in our lungs and at our lips?

Is it the same Power and Glory who causes
leaves to glisten in the sun and dance softly
on the air? Thundering and booming, the
poltergeists of the air know this god’s name
but do not reveal their secrets to the unworthy.
They merely light the way for the rain this god of
little things wears so well: earth sifter, root maker,
creeper through the new grass, safe and hidden.

—PJ Thompson

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Mon 23 Mar 2020

You

Posted by PJ under my poetry, poetry
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You

are the most important person in the world
no matter who, no matter where
You
matter more than anything.
And you, and you, and you.
You
are a world of dark and light,
of stories infinite and particular
that no one else can remember and tell.
You
see the light in the way only
You
can see it, and smell the fragrances
of times past, uniquely your own,
speaking your truth, hands flying before
You,
the conjuring birds of storytime.
You
are everything to us, and we to
You.
We need each other in countless ways.
We can’t afford to lose
You,
You
can’t afford to lose us, each flower
picked before its time, a blossom
that will never grow again,
a world full and bursting that is only
You.

—PJ Thompson

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Wed 18 Mar 2020

The Descent to Human

Posted by PJ under my poetry, poetry
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The Descent to Human

The soul descends, the Kabbalah says:
the Tree of Life has roots in Heaven
while the branches hang like a willow bends
trailing green into the torrent of living.
In growing down, the lessons flower,
experience buds on each new limb,
and with this learning, bud on bud,
we know what it is to be truly human.

The soul descends, the Kabbalah says.
It does not rise on angel’s wings
hoary with light and tipped with music,
but wallows below in the muck and the mire.
In human necessity, our virtue grows:
transcendence is claimed only at bedrock.
In being ourselves, both dark and light,
in humanity, and humility, we ascend again.

—PJ Thompson

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Fri 13 Mar 2020

Dead Man’s Zen

Posted by PJ under my poetry, poetry
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Dead Man’s Zen

My dead friend wrote in the margin of my book:
“Nothing’s your fault, and you are responsible
for all of it. Maturity.”

The wolf stared at me and I got scared.
I cried, thinking my time was gone,
but time still ticked in my heart.
Time was not my problem.
What to do with time was my problem:
how to use it well, how to be used by it
and not mind so much.

The wolf still stares,
hungry, unapologetic, bluntly assessing
whether my tottering legs can outrun it.

But wolves aren’t hungry only for flesh.
Often it is for honesty:
sifting, weighing, natural selection.
They want authority and submission,
a leader to follow, or a pack to follow them,
arranged alphabetically.
They do not accept excuses,
or acquiesce with lies and self-delusion.
Their gleaming eyes know fraud,
and seek out weakness.
They hamstring the liars,
bring them to the ground
to meticulously devour pretensions.

Nothing’s your fault.
You are responsible for all of it.
Maturity.

Dead man’s in his Heaven,
I’m here with the wolves.
Be straight with yourself—
and get to work.

—PJ Thompson

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Wed 12 Feb 2020

Ahhh

Posted by PJ under poetry, quote of the day
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Random quote of the day:

“Poetry began when somebody walked off a savanna or out of a cave and looked up at the sky with wonder and said, “Ah-hh!” That was the first poem.”

—Lucille Clifton, interview, The Language of Life by Bill Moyers

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Key and Peele, Celine Dion, or Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

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Mon 3 Feb 2020

The things you most want to say

Posted by PJ under aging, my poetry, poetry
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The things you want most to say
about aging bodies
are not the things the world
wants to hear.
The world doesn’t want to hear
about aging bodies at all
because
they might catch it,
some existential communicable disease
to which they have carefully
built immunity.

They are never going to grow old
because
their karma doesn’t stink,
they have always thought positive
thoughts,
taken good care of themselves,
eaten all the right things,
exercised daily,
shunned all the things
they were supposed to have
shunned
(but only in the most positive way).

How could they possibly grow old
unless
some evil-minded troll
foisted
it upon them?

How could they possibly grow old and
die?
How could they possibly
die?
How could they?
How could they
possibly?

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Sun 5 Jan 2020

Nehalennia

Posted by PJ under goddesses, my poetry, poetry
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Nehalennia

So much is lost, so much unknown.
You bear the fruit, you pet the dog,
you sit in silence, enthroned.
But unknown.

We parse together messages from air,
from goddesses who have come before,
but your secrets are yours alone.
And unknown.

Perched on the edge of the sea, your temple
reclaimed by water, and frail memory
washed away, into the rising foam.
You are unknown.

Yet your truths persist, in hearts and myth,
attributed elsewhere but living still.
Deep in the psyche and in the bone
You are still known.

—PJ Thompson

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