The Passionate Crone (poetry): November 2014

28 November 2014

Storm Watching

I sit outside in the cool,

in the rain and lazy thunder,

under the wide overhang

of the back verandah.

My companion stretches and shifts

on his blanket, attempting calm.

But his sister was the brave cat.

Without her, he's uneasy.

So we come inside from thunder

and spraying, pelting rain.

I like all that — but he, I guess, has no need

to prove himself to me. He knows

I am very tender of him, I won't

challenge or scorn or compete.

Instead I usher him in, get him settled.

Then I find me a spot on the front verandah.

I see him through the flywire

draping himself inside the door,

looking out — near me
in safety. We are both content.

Both dVerse and Poets United, not surprisingly, are asking for gratitude/thankfulness poems right now. Perhaps I can sneak this in, with the idea that contentment qualifies!

18 November 2014

On Coffee — haiku and tanka

After looking at beautiful tea haiku in the journal brass bell, I was inspired to create some about my preferred beverage, coffee. I couldn't resist making some tanka on the subject as well.

morning coffee

the daily news

on facebook

***

coffee

black and hot

his eyes

***

he liked it

‘black as sin, hot as hell,

strong as death’

but coffee wasn’t

the drug that killed him

***

he orders

two-shot espresso

mine is

skinny cappuccino

can we be compatible?

4/11/14

black coffee

at my elbow

black cat

sprawled beside me

morning can begin

***

new morning

strong black coffee

sipped slowly

5/11/14

suddenly

the coffee tastes bitter

lonely morning

7/11/14

10 November 2014

To Describe This Garden

I've been going through old journals. Among other things I am finding poetry I didn't know I was writing — such as this, which I'd now call a prose poem. I haven't altered a word.

To describe this garden — the constant ruffling of sunny trees, light moving on water in the pool, the gloss of green, wide sky, sometimes birds … Swallows that skim the pool even when I’m in it, playing in air and water. Big starlings trotting and squabbling under the bushes. Slow grey doves. A quick wattle-bird with trailing tail.

I like the way the sky takes up a lot of room, even in the squared-off picture framed by my doorway. When it’s dark, and the trees are merged black walls and towers, the sky still soars in all directions. The traffic is almost silent, dogs bark now and then several blocks away, the stillness could be far from suburb and city.

When I swim, I look up at clouds and trees, or stars, and it might be Mataranka Springs, it might be Bali …

— Beaumaris, 15 January 1987

Submitted for Poets United's Poetry Pantry #226

6 November 2014

The Dead Woman

The dead woman
wants to embrace you;
she is watching
as you sleep.

The dead woman
regrets that her children
are no longer babies.
She wants to hang on.

The dead woman
smells flowers with gusto
taking long sniffs,
then tastes them.

The dead woman
has no hat for the sun.
She lets the heat
burst on her face.

The dead woman
in front of the television
sits without turning it on.
She has x-ray vision.

The dead woman
is a camera. She dreams
of a hoard of images
and snaps and keeps them.

The dead woman
bailing herself out of jail
tells herself that the rain
will wash away prison stink.

The dead woman
is laughing
because being dead
is nothing like she expected.

For a dVerse prompt: write from the perspective of dead man, or woman (based on Marvin Bell's 'Dead Man' poems). I wrote this when I was very tired and half-asleep, so as to let the ideas well up from the subconscious. I wanted a different kind of logic from the everyday.

I discovered the form needs a part 2: 'More About ...' It is here.