Poem 289 & 290 – The Curve & Three Words

The Curve

sometimes a safe space
is in the curve of a silent smile

it is not a room or a tower

it is in the tangible serenity of shared community
unmeasurable – uncomplicated
basking beyond language

it is good here
to be held this way

Three words – For Jim

Did you know that pumpernickel translates in German to ‘the devil’s fart’?
Did you know that Mary (Wollstonecraft Godwin) Shelley began writing ‘Frankenstein’ after she’d lost her first child?
Did you know that 1.5 million people have died from tuberculosis?

Ask a poet to write a poem and give her three words to include…
She just might deliver
It may not be hopeful or kind thrilling or spiritual

Or maybe it will be all of these things

Such a fine line of language connects us –
Devils deaths & the dance of discovery

oof. yup. yesterday, i forgot.

I mean, I wrote poem 289 yesterday. I really did! I just didn’t get to posting it. I remembered around 10:30pm when I had just snuggled into bed. It hit me like a blast of cold air – your poem, vee! you forgot to post your poem! And like a blast of cold air that no one wants to get out of bed and feel…I let it pass…closed my eyes and went to dreamland. I slept so hard. I slept in this morning….and now I’m catching up. And it’s okay.

Yesterday felt like three days so filled it was! And I just couldn’t get to everything. It is okay.

Today…is feeling like two days in one. The band of headache around my skull is stretching toward the bed…but not yet…not yet.

Thank yous first!

Thank you to the BookFest/Literary Arts Windsor family for another superb BookFest! Twenty years and counting! It was an honour to be part of the Portraits in Poetry panel with Marty Gervais and Roxanna Bennett, and moderated by the fabulous Dorothy Mahoney! Alexei Ungurenasu also shared their smiling face and kind words introducing Dorothy. Yay to all and to poetry!

Thank you to Christine Paris and Justine and the MHADFEST/Serenity Song Community Association for their hard work and wellness ‘wow’ at Lanspeary Park this weekend! We were grateful to share space with so many lovely folks, and to continue to learn about different ways to be well. (The wind gave us a good whipping, didn’t it?!)

Thank you to you, dear follower/reader/friend for sticking with me. Two hundred and ninety poems?! What?

I’ve been thinking about what I’m gonna do next year…should I keep writing a poem a day? Goodness…can’t think that far ahead!