PEACE OUT
I'm off to Peace College for the North Carolina Writers' Network spring conference. I'm not much of a networker, but the fall conference was really useful and I did meet some great poets who are now friends. I'm looking forward to hearing James Applewhite and Peggy Payne at this one.
Here's a poem for the road:
she picks a flower
without thinking
and slows her father up
all the more
so he snatches
there is no other word for it
then throws
the flower down
next to where it once grew
yanks the white
of her arm
her brother stumbles
to keep up
in silence seen
from here
in his fear for her
in his relief that he
is forgotten
just behind for now
what her father says hits
again and again
and I recognize it:
my own cowering
my own unloading
on too slender
shoulders soon
to remember too late
picked flowers can't
be planted again
Here's a poem for the road:
she picks a flower
without thinking
and slows her father up
all the more
so he snatches
there is no other word for it
then throws
the flower down
next to where it once grew
yanks the white
of her arm
her brother stumbles
to keep up
in silence seen
from here
in his fear for her
in his relief that he
is forgotten
just behind for now
what her father says hits
again and again
and I recognize it:
my own cowering
my own unloading
on too slender
shoulders soon
to remember too late
picked flowers can't
be planted again
posted by J.B. Rowell at 7:34 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks Carter - glad you came by and commented!
After spending 2 hours in James Applewhite's workshop today, I'm ready to write a poetic series - well, maybe not until this summer - but my mind is starting to turn around various themes.
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