Friday, July 30, 2010

is it really Friday?

Yeah!  That means poetry.  My gloxinia is blossoming in celebration that not only is the week coming to a close, but also this month.  I know it's not healthy to wish away bits of life, but it is a relief to turn this calendar page.


always, at the end of every day

It comes to this: the fall to bed. Despite Herculean hopes to repair
the broken furniture, to birth works of unassailable beauty,
despite a heart with its tongue out, panting for love, or the hawk stare
we train on our most extravagant intentions. Despite the toothy
rigor of the bad habits we can’t break, and the soul-trials of discipline
which repeatedly establish our guilt. Despite these wayward exiles from joy,
we fall to a set of pillows, cotton sheets, a mattress, and make a cocoon
of our bodies. We won’t admit it, but we’re designed for rest, too, a buoy
to save us from the rough seas we insist on weathering. Look how little
it takes for that kind of surrender. How easy we can be, how gentle. 



This poem was written by Maya Stein, a San Francisco poet and writer who I am most pleased to say is coming to Saint Meg's in September to do a creative writing workshop.

Happy Friday everyone!

2 comments:

  1. Whoosh, and there went the month.

    I hope you advertise the writing workshop heavily -- get the community running to join in! I've only ever sat through a poetry workshop in college -- for English 102, actually -- and I took a poetry class from IJ, but poetry for me is so instinctual I'm not sure I'd be able to sit through a workshop. However, her style is so inventive it'd be interesting just to hear her speak.

    Have fun.

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  2. well, she's not just doing poetry so I think it will be a great workshop. She's limiting the space as well.

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