Equal treatment
Leaves in autumn
fall as they fall.
There’s no trumpet playing
or woman in black interpreting their pattern on the pavement.
They had their tree time
and now that’s over.
Every leaf is satisfied.
Every leaf has had a chance to bud
and a final fall.
We see this equal treatment
from Mother Earth’s loving hand,
and sigh with recognition.
We know she gives us similar portions of
precious time and earthly space.
Sue Cohen, February 13, 2025
Black Dog In Muddy Weather
For Quinn, my dog
He hops out the boot of my car like he always has,
thrashes his thick club of tail at the cold air, warning
that joy is on the way.
At some point in life I forgot how to play, but never him,
blessed angel who warms my bed and cleans my plate,
they didn't watch the gate when this one got out of heaven.
Miracles occur, and this one is mine, and he trots over there
to sniff dirt or let a stranger stroke his head,
paws disgusting with February caked in the grooves.
I don't care, I don't care, I simply don't care;
if I can watch a creature love the idea of life,
let him roll in whatever he pleases, it's of no consequence to me.
Sam Woodbridge
Food for Thought, 6 February 2025
Prompt poem: Black Rook In Rainy Weather, by Sylvia Plath
Bandages
I bring bandages for hearts broken by departures from ancestral homes.
I bring bandages for feet without shoes cut by rocks at the shores of dangerous seas.
I bring bandages for children who long for mothers’s, fathers’ arms
I bring bandages, triple antibiotic ointment and gauze wrap
I will hand these out to those of us cut by vicious mouthings and poisonous eyes
I hope my bandages will stop the tears of fears, not knowing what is ahead
Bandages for cuts and bruises from life was we know it
For generation 2000 now, for this one world off kilter
Muster courage, pray for guidance
Hold hands.
Daniel Raskin, 02.13.2025
caves
‘These are my caves’ I gesture with outspread arms
to the rooms where I drown, revive and drown.
Dark waters never heard low tide
Waist deep in the basement
Welcome to sludge life, baby you'll hate it here.
But look at me, trying anyway
Nothing to prove
No one to prove to
And still failing along the bell curve
of trial and error
Cataclysmic outlier.
I tuck in my corners like envelopes smothering
scented letters to nobody
Climb under myself
Perceivable dimensions reduced like sauce to resuscitate
Cocoon the bed, floor of the sea
You know where I'm at
You know where I be
It's so over; we're so back.
Dry yourself off: it's the year of the snake.
---------
Sam Woodbridge, January 16, 2025
Inspired by: Inner Acreage, by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
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.