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