Denise Levertov. "Aware." Poem.

Aware 

When I found the door
I found the vine leaves
speaking among themselves in abundant
whispers.
My presence made them
hush their green breath,
embarrassed, the way
humans stand up, buttoning their jackets,
acting as if they were leaving anyway, as if
the conversation had ended
just before you arrived.
I liked
the glimpse I had, though,
of their obscure
gestures. I liked the sound
of such private voices. Next time
I'll move like cautious sunlight, open
the door by fractions, eavesdrop
peacefully.

___

©1999 Denise Levertov. from The Great Unknowing: Last Poems. New Direction. 2000.   

More Nobler (a poem)

More Nobler

I used to kick my mother.  

Don’t tell me you were 

nobler in the womb. 

I used to imitate the moon 

phased round dark light 

all through my gestation.  

In fluid floating and 

sprouting struck out  

at poor Ma, she so like

a Greek, bearing.

__

by Sarah Sarai.  

Book Release Party for Sarah Sarai's Geographies of Soul and Taffeta

Join me for the release party for Geographies of Soul and Taffeta, Sunday, May 1, 2016, 5 to 7 p.m., Zinc Bar, 82 West Third Street, New York, New York. 

Guest Readers: Jane Ormerod, publisher (great weather for MEDIA) and poet; Jee Leong Koh, publisher and poet (Financial Times best book 2015). & Tony Dohr - series host!

Jane Ormerod, a knockout, as always

Jee Leong Koh, dashing of demeanor

Tony Dohr, Zinc Bar series host & fan of the six-legged

The Facebook Invite

New book: GEOGRAPHIES OF SOUL and TAFFETA by Sarah Sarai (me) #poetry

Here is a photo of my new book, Geographies of Soul and Taffeta, hard at work and ready to be of help. Geographies is published by the wonderful Indolent Books, a new publishing venture of wonderful poet Michael Broder.

Geographies at artist Chrisopher D'Amanda's work space.

To order a copy, please visit Indolent Books. Click!

Poem: Francine Sterle: "Making a Cross." The cross as archetype.

I have no trouble understanding why or that some people, many people, don't like crosses. Because: history. But the form, the outline looks archetypal to me, an ancient shape, primitive in that primitive can be pure; an embrace. A form that predates history or lives in spite of history, as archetypes do. And that's what came to mind when I happened on this lovely poem by Francine Sterle. Her collection housing this poem is reviewed in Boston Review.

Making a Cross

Of 385 varieties, to make the simplest

all you need are two sticks:

one vertical; the other, horizontal.

Call one time; one, space or

life—death, good—evil, male—female.

You choose. Any polarity will do

as long as the cross-piece cuts across

the one upright. Now, it's a human form

with arms outstretched. Rub them together.

A couple of sparks, a few more,

a flash of light, a slow increase in heat,

and radiating around you: uncontainable fire. 

____

Francine Sterle. From Every Bird is One Bird (Tupelo Press).

Copyright 2001 by Francine Sterle.

Photo of used, abandoned crosses in London is from Carol Gallagher's blog, Mama Bishop. 

if sometimes in the night / I rouse you RILKE Book of Hours

You, Neighbor God

You, neighbor God, if sometimes in the night
I rouse you with loud knocks, I seek you only
because I know you are alone and lonely,
because your scarce heard breathing seems so slight.
And should you need a drink, there's none to hear—
your groping finds no cup—the long hours darken.
Give but a little sign. Be sure I hearken
always. I am so near.

Between us stands a wall so mere, so fine,
so casual, that it might take
simply a call from your lips or from mine—
and it would break
all noiselessly away.

Your images between us stand like clay.

And every image hides you like a name.
And if the light in me is made to burn,
whereby my depths your instant self discern,
the brilliance spends itself upon their frame.

And then my senses, that so soon grow lame,
apart from you are exiles, hopeless of return.
______
Rainer Maria Rilke, The Book of Hours, I, 6

Being a believer is like loving a career criminal: I am interviewed at The Volta blog

I was interviewed by Jon Riccio, poetry editor at Fairy Tale Review, for The Volta blog. Click here:  INTERVIEW Future & Foremost \\ Sarah Sarai to read it.

Jon's smart questions got me rolling. For instance:

JR: Your book features God, angels, Shiva and saints. To what degree do world religions influence your poetry? 

SS: The Future Is Happy also makes mention of Jodie Foster, Spinoza, Descartes, Aristotle, Denzel Washington, Count Basie, Ingmar Bergman, Jimmy Carter. By “your book features” I take it you mean that The Great Else, the Cosmic Lunacy, God, are given a greatest weight in the collection, something I like hearing yet which makes me nervous. I’ve more or less always been a believer in The Awesome Power. Alas, being a believer is like loving a career criminal, or being one of those women who takes up with the incarcerated. Do dykes do that? You are giving me ideas! Sometimes I am disinterested in poetry that doesn’t reach for wisdom and sometimes I am annoyed with myself for falling into a pit of cleverness. Once a Swedenborgian, on hearing my mother was a Christian Scientist and my father was Jewish commented, “You were released to wander.” Nailed me, in life and writing. 

Streaming audiobooks: I can read again!

This beautiful sketch of Solzhnenitsyn is by Khylov, a storyboard artist and illustrator.
More of Kylov's brilliant work is at https://khylov.wordpress.com/tag/cintiq/   

As an editor, I am paid to stare.

Staring, along with various of my analytical skills and the detritus of a major in English, pays my rent, but also strains my eyes.

Because of eyestrain from staring at, most recently, two computer screens plus a laptop, all day, I went through a period of illiteracy and stopped reading to watch streaming services - Netflix and Amazon Prime. Lots of what I saw and will continue to see was terrific, I am not foreswearing, but watching is not the same as the engagement reading offers. I missed the words.

I checked the library website and discovered I could check out streaming audiobooks online, free. To date, for me, audiostreaming works best when there is no plot. I haven't successfully listened to a full novel, yet. What I have heard excited me, including Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago, read in an authoritative and snarky English accent - snarky because Solz. relies on sarcasm as a way of presenting the mass arrests and disappearances in Russia/USSR. There is no way I could have deal with this in print - I have read too much of government horrors. I didn't even listen to the all of part 1, just 3 or 4 hours. The book has been on my list for a long, long time. Audio, I now realize, is the best way of tackling it.

I wasn't being graded. I didn't have to turn in a report. I am an adult reading at the end of her day. I will check out parts 2 and 3 and I look forward to that, spacing the atrocities. Perhaps I will check back here as my experience with audiostreaming expands. I am going to buy earbuds for my phone so I can walk and listen. We'll see, and hear.

warsan shire's poem "what they did yesterday afternoon"

Araweelo Returns WIP (see below credit) 

what they did yesterday afternoon 

by warsan shire

they set my aunts house on fire

i cried the way women on tv do

folding at the middle

like a five pound note.

i called the boy who use to love me 

tried to ‘okay’ my voice

i said hello

he said warsan, what’s wrong, what’s happened?

i’ve been praying,

and these are what my prayers look like;

dear god

i come from two countries

one is thirsty

the other is on fire

both need water.

later that night

i held an atlas in my lap

ran my fingers across the whole world

and whispered

where does it hurt?

it answered 

everywhere

everywhere

everywhere.

Warsan Shire’s poetry and words can be found on 

http://warsanshire.blogspot.com/

http://warsanshire.tumblr.com/

Warsan Shire was born in Somalia and raised in England. Her poetry has been featured on the Poetry Foundation website.
"Araweelo Returns WIP" is copyrighted by somaliart at:
 http://somaliart.deviantart.com/art/araweelo-returns-WIP-somali-art-498728859