Sauna
The sauna.
Fire. Water. Stone. Air.
I see eyes peering at me
through the blast of furnace mist.
I look for my place
on the plain wood benches,
eager to join the ranks of heat disciples.
Longing for the moment when churning elements
will clean this clogged and bilious brain.
Oozing neuron messages burnt up by birch wood flames.
Steaming empty cortex
breathes a sigh of silent clean relief.
04.18.2024
Inpsired by News Time for Serentiy, Anyone? - William Stafford
Moon
I’m standing here on this hill with the wolves.
They are here to bay to you, Moon.
I am here to ask you, Moon, to please come to our aid.
I have a job that’s not for the sun in all her surface blazing glory.
No, for this illumination, we need your silvery rays and dusky spirit.
Pray, flare upon our earth when the sun has said goodbye for the night.
Use your metallic power to pierce dark wells of ignorance.
Liberate imprisoned jewels of wisdom that lie there waiting to be released.
We need all the carats of insight that can be gathered
to save ourselves from suffering.
No, sun can not do this job.
These dingy pockets know too well how to hide brilliance in the shadows.
But they will have no defense from you, moon.
Your icy dark power will reveal them sniveling in their corners.
Like knows like.
They’ll have no more places to hide
when you turn on your pulverizing radiance.
08.10.2023
Inspired by How to Spend a Life by Gail Onion
It’s Alive
Once our life gets into it
the poem rises up from the paper.
Just like Frankenstein's monster,
it moves off to live on its own.
Just like Frankenstein’s monster,
the poem says
“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”
The poem may be ugly,
may move in jerky movements,
but you no longer control it
and damn it, it's alive!
The poem may support peace,
may wreak chaos and havoc
(perhaps you should have used a pseudonym)
but you no longer control it
and damn it, it's alive!
03.12.2021
Inspired by Living Things by Anne Porter
Gone Fishin’
Oh, not having a mind.
Now there’s a dream.
Or at least a mind on pause
so my feelings can emote in peace,
without mind interrupting
with judgements, opinions and suppressions.
Or at least a mind vacation
so my body can enjoy in joy
without mind blabbing about plans, projections and permissions.
Or at least a mind gone fishin’
So my soul can be
in peace.
11.16.2023
Inpsired by The Red Poppy by Louise Glick
Beings
Happiness doesn’t do.
Happiness is.
Happiness stands there soaking up the sun,
stretching out every luminous petal,
sharing its intoxicating scent,
being itself.
Being is enough for happiness.
We can do that.
I know we can.
We are human beings.
08.03.2024
Inspired by So Much Happiness by Naomi Shihab Nye
I Too Bite the Juicy Fruit of Poetry
To Molly Peacock
Before I encountered you
I dreamed of poetry as a distant peacock
in a foreign land with the foreign language
its iridescent feathers of blue and green unfurled.
You handed me a peach with a flaw.
Half-opened, inviting —
yet one bite could pose a dilemma.
No wonder Prufrock wandered,
longing to decide,
but for you, a red tinge, a hint
to a new world.
“Relish the peach” I heard.
Now I look at leaves and fruits,
stones and stars, each a poem.
October 2023
Check out more of Anna's poetry on her website: https://www.annapoetry.com/
You can also find this poem in Anna's 11th poetry book, Truth in Slant, which will be published by Frontenac Press in 2025.
Living in reverse
Gone now, is a kind of expansiveness and ambition that filled my earlier life.
Gone now, the exuberance of youth with its infinite possibilities.
Gone now, the fresh enthusiasm of my young body.
Now I find a new kind of personal expansiveness that I wear more lightly than years ago. Content in my own skin, I can feel myself identifying with timeless truths; like the wisdom of water as it moves, like the power in being content with who I am, and facing the world without undo aversion or clinging.
Now, as choices narrow, I find pleasure in being limited, allowing me to focus on the few things that really matter.
Now, as my bodies abilities decline(slowly, please) I find joy in slowing down and passing along some of the lessons learned to my child and to all the children of this world.
10.01.2024
Tsunami
A tsunami crashed over me without warning
It’s been a month of them
Wave after wave
Tossing me to and fro
Battering me from all sides
Just when I think the sea of life has calmed
Another wave hits
Knocking me down
Pushing me under
Battering me from all sides
I’m treading,
Waiting for my lifeboat to pick me up
Holding on for dear life
Praying that the waves will stop
Battering me from all sides
7.30.2024