Thursday, March 31, 2011
A new poem
URBAN SNOW (March, 2011) We hike in snow Complaining of ice Through a park whose usual gate Is closed Across an empty golf course A still in and black and white, Evergreens black brush strokes Black against the white of snow Then At the edge of the greenbelt Darkness forms four legs, Then another Holding still; Coyotes! Hands screaming with cold We fumble with cameras, Knowing they’d flee Yet the young female ventures close enough To see the banked fire In her amber eyes, The detailed grain of her coat In shades of lichen and fallen Leaves. We gaze at each other In silence, Our breath a fragile bridge across the divide Between us Though she is watchful she is Almost indifferent to our bundled shapes, our dangling cameras, Our boots worn from other trails It is our turn to be old, To rest in this moment As if it were a dream we couldn’t quite remember Though I can almost feel the cold thrust of her nose in my hand The musky thicket at dusk The bones of feral cats Ringing like bells in her blood The wild thickets of hunger and Lusts are not strange to me, Nor the call for a mate That never answered. Karen Sykes
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Poem for the Dead
This is a new poem about an old theme - loss of a loved one. I've been trying to write this poem for about five years to no avail.
Then tonight, it came to me almost word for word from wherever the words come from.
I thank the Muse.
Karen
A POEM FOR THE DEAD (for John C.)
You did not know we were there
In our suits and high heels
Gathering like crows
At dawn
Enclosed in a casket
Your eyes closed against the light
You’d have hated that
After all you lived your whole life
With open eyes,
Balls to the wall
Triple-A personality with
The heart of a thistle
Yet enough fire
To kindle
Hearts into conflagration
And kindness enough
To rescue a kitten
From a tree too high to climb
No tree too high for you
You swung from broken branches
As light as a wren
With chainsaw roaring
As if to bring a city to its knees
Or the women
Who loved you too long
And there were always
Women
Now the sons and daughters
Gather,
A freckled daughter-in-law with tear-splashed
Cheeks
Already a mother
And another on the way
A son who loved you so hard
It turned to hate
Two ex-wives
And a lover
Later
Now you will be alone
For the first time ever
Under the earth you loved so much
You wore it
Now there is nothing to do
But throw red roses
At your casket
As if they were words.
Karen Sykes (aka Karen Waring)
Then tonight, it came to me almost word for word from wherever the words come from.
I thank the Muse.
Karen
A POEM FOR THE DEAD (for John C.)
You did not know we were there
In our suits and high heels
Gathering like crows
At dawn
Enclosed in a casket
Your eyes closed against the light
You’d have hated that
After all you lived your whole life
With open eyes,
Balls to the wall
Triple-A personality with
The heart of a thistle
Yet enough fire
To kindle
Hearts into conflagration
And kindness enough
To rescue a kitten
From a tree too high to climb
No tree too high for you
You swung from broken branches
As light as a wren
With chainsaw roaring
As if to bring a city to its knees
Or the women
Who loved you too long
And there were always
Women
Now the sons and daughters
Gather,
A freckled daughter-in-law with tear-splashed
Cheeks
Already a mother
And another on the way
A son who loved you so hard
It turned to hate
Two ex-wives
And a lover
Later
Now you will be alone
For the first time ever
Under the earth you loved so much
You wore it
Now there is nothing to do
But throw red roses
At your casket
As if they were words.
Karen Sykes (aka Karen Waring)
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