Per mia figlia chi Roma mi mostrò ‘ It’s a strange courage you give me…’ All space is sacred space and all matter sacred matter though here in this hard city dirty with the grime of empire where what triumphs, Io triumphe, and what horrors have not been seen, space and matter appear more sacred, indeed, eternale. […]
In a well-known Taoist story, retold from Chuang Tzu by N. Kathleen Hayles in her book Chaos and Order, “Shu (Brief) and Hu (Sudden) go to visit Hun-dun (Chaos), who graciously offers them his hospitality. Observing that Hun-dun lacks the seven openings through which men see, hear, eat, and breathe, Shu and Hu determine to create […]
The Storyteller sat at the stern, usurped the silent figurehead, addressed expectant oarsmen, spoke words that dropped like cascades through a canyon, like light across a ledge, like the silent sinking of skipping stones; told honest tales of half-deceptions— the easy-forwards, the frictive backstrokes of the drifting way; told of the flowing ebb of changing […]
TOJ: When did your interest in poetry begin? DR: I was first conscious of the magic of poetry in middle school when a student teacher asked us to read Tennyson’s “The Eagle.” The sound effects in that little poem blew me away—so much power in so few words. But I think by that age I […]
Come walk with me along the way, that turns and winds so we can’t see the end, through bends, alluring in their folds and shadows. When the path seems to fade I’ll follow you up the mountain and over rocks since you like to go where there is no trail. And when we’re led to […]
I, I am Zimbabwean. I eat salads and pizza, and do not feel full without sadza. I sing Methodist hymns and avoid all but vernacular choruses. I wear jeans but would not be caught dead wearing anything except a skirt. I drive an old car and a donkey cart. I fetch water in tins on […]
Noah Genesis 7:11- 9:20 (1) Imagine watching the sun Arise, After weeks and weeks Of rain— Watch it rise Over the fields Of faceless, shifting Water. Your landscape then: The sun’s hot eye Marking trails of fire Across a liquid plain. In dreams you hear The drumming rain Nailing a lid of silence Over the […]
Lonely I’d rather never see a majestic eagle’s flight, Or a spider’s web, kissed with morning dew. Better always blind, than see and lose your sight. Better to imagine, better if you never knew. I’d rather never hear a hyena’s lonely call, Or my friend’s infectious laughter. Better if you never heard a sound at […]
Eve Tangled vines Enshrouding breezes Cool with dew drenched berries, The morning’s glory Slipping through The lingering summer stars, To touch the face That every child Forgets upon awakening But longs for In our lonely days The mother who was ours. Golden, scarlet Midnight sun Wellspring of all beauties, She who was And then was […]