Inch by Inch

Mistress Mary, Quite Contrary 2
Illustration by w:en:William Wallace Denslow (1902)

She sentenced herself to fall from Eden

to tend her own garden, to watch her bulbs

take hold, to stop saying “I’m Sorry.”

On a deep night that purred, the deed occurred:

unseen fingers gently removed her name

and untied links between the two gardens.

This is what I want!  She catches herself

and leans her crutch outside her garden gate

to plant both feet deeply, to stand upright.

You need this!  She reminds herself to stop

shaking, to work alone, to cook food stored

inside her bulbs, heart, lungs and memory.

What if …?  Shhhh … Ready?   She spits word seeds,

sprouts fruits and weeds, cultivates, and proceeds.

Posted for NaPoWriMo Day 29 and for 

the Imaginary Garden with Real Toads' Open Link Monday.

Copyright © 2013 S.L.Chast

Commencement

Adapting to the changes of the year, month, day, hour, O!
You hold on tight to prevent flying off on a tangent.

But in time, life is so full you forget to regret

And instead smile at the sweetness of

Your being in the world.

You, too, change by the moment—

As your mind moves so does the pen in your hand,

The shape of your silence, the pace of your breathing—

And I know you have a new idea, revelation, discovery, O!

Greatness of spirit accompanies your progress in the world.

Written for a student who misses me and posted in Poetry Pantry #152 at Poets United.

Copyright © 2013 S.L.Chast

On Earth Day 2013

Picked up trash

blowing in the wind

through my yard.

Recycled two cardboard

boxes of lecture notes

used twenty years ago.

Separated the garbage to

remove empty yogurt and

water containers, to fold

cereal boxes, to stack the

news, to mulch coffee

grounds and tea leaves. 

Remembered farm landfills 

burying cans and bottles, 

garden mounds mulching peelings

and steel drums reducing

paper to cinder and ash

(fertilizer and snow melt).

Worried about teaching notes:

Are they more flammable 

than refuse of daily chores?

Posted for Open Link Monday at Imaginary Garden with Real Toads and for NaPoWriMo  Day 22.

Copyright © 2013 S.L.Chast

Poetic Love

http://www.wikihow.com/Declutter-Your-Drawers

Tired of limbs, leaves, and buds, suns, moons and stars?
Stock your poem with magnets, and bottle caps.
Ask what a cow might jump over if not
clumsy and lazy, pregnant or grass full
and ready for milking. Make piles of things
from the backs of drawers and cabinets
like paint cans, matchbooks, dead moths, rubber bands.

And still the seasons and planets will turn,
leaving your piles and inquiries senseless
and easy to toss in the trash, clever
but too inactive to word lines, too
disinterested to show love's beauty. 
Distance is necessary for verses,
as are seasons, tree parts, universes.



Posted for Poets United Poetry Pantry #145, and also linked to NaPoWriMo Day 7 where the prompt requires each line to be a declarative sentence.  In this poem, I think there are a few.

Copyright © 2013 S.L.Chast