ToThePoem - a place for poetry

A warm day, When the sun was moving slow overhead My teacher and I played in the yard, A ball was spun with anger, even hate,   And a tail of ferocity like a frozen heart   Of ice Gleamed behind it,   Spectacularly, Striking me in the eye. Leaving me black and blue. A comet. Who’s not in awe of a comet? The bruise filled my vision And narrowed. I was in awe of it still. Glistening icicles, sparkling diamonds. I watched the slow drip and drop  As tears from One man’s sadness, Cascading across the driveway And running quickly into Pores in the pavement. The same slab of concrete where my brother and Sisters and I rode big-wheels And lay on our backs Watching the sky roll by. The summer ended and came autumn. Another teacher was sent my way And said, “You are exactly the student I was looking for. Get into my box, Under my wing.” My legs were long And needed to stretch. I was getting a crick In my neck. The sidewalls collapsed One day in the rain, As weak cardboard does...

A note was left On the fridge that Said I’d make it Soon To that place where The edges are rubbed out The walls have vanished Puffs of smoke keep moving Toward light and darkness. I wondered about it And felt a strong dejavu. Kept moving To that place I think I’d known. I got into the studio And moved with brushes Paints and all sorts of things On hand. My fingers became loud With voice And closed up over my throat. I’m alone in this place I’m traveling to with the scent Of paint on my tongue And the rubbing of canvas, It sometimes is a great hurt. I touched the breast of solitude And pressed against her chest with My cheek Lovingly held her there in This room with no walls. We centered in on vastness And I let-go my brushes in to space And felt never again The desire to be up and around others With their stories and Dramas and likes and dislikes And closed rooms Like chai...

The cross country Drive went off without  A hitch. Much kissing.  You parked down near my tailbone And camped out behind my spleen. You walked desert roads  And I listened with a cup Pressed up against my belly To your singing.  And then you exited through my pores Like a vapor  And for some damn reason I built wings for you to fly And helped you get them  On your back. Gave you the final push off Saying something like,  “Be free! Be free!” From me.  And I burdened myself With another cup against My belly,  My heart, My throat My head.  Kept hearing the same old song.  Until I watched magnolia leaves Turn brown And realized it was all enough.  Im going to throw these keys out now.  Throw them out the window Down my spine to be eaten by my stomach And  A permanent neutrality will come  To be.  What am...

At first you were a cliff A mountain  I dared to scale you. I did.  And then you were a cloud A vapor I reached to contain you. I did.  And lastly you were invisible A ghost I tried to be in you.  I did.  Refrain  From containing What is and is not. You must let go And let flow The great nature. So the mountain can be And the vapor can move And the ghost can have rest Within. Oh great love. You pour into yourself For eternity  And feel your own great breadth Over and over Like a circle chasing its beginning.  stephanie lorentzen-jordan

Separated at entrance The birth departed And raced up from my tailbone to the top most tip And out like smoke. I forgot you, Forever, afterall.  That’s how it felt. How it seemed. Until I waded in a pond As a full grown woman And my feet saw the reflection Of the blue heart  Vibrating, pulsating The mirrored waters And you ran up into my veins There. And settled up into my spine There.  Again. Forever, afterall, You stayed with me. The children rubbed on you And lay their soft skulls against you As we read books and Told stories. You spread thick Like a paste f ull of  Ash and liquid rock And smooth marble And rolled through us  Like an apple  Breaking from branch. Ready. Gather up. Eat. Eaten. And we sometimes entered into Behind doors of  Schools and  Cars And said yes to long linear roads That led to  nowhere-conversations  And nothing...

Into the box Went the coins, the things  Remembered And the nourishment.  The flood waters rotted the bottom out. And left the ground full of gems. I walked on them and cut my feet. The children trailed behind Wading in my pools And I led them. My hair blew in their faces. And I held the branches of majestic trees Back for us.  Opened passages and doorways Through mountains and dark waters.  Called unto clouds and moons For us to travel upon. And the sun filtered through our  Skin and thoughts All the way to the marrow of that Something. That one thing. That Nothingness.  And the children at that time,  As the minstrel played the breaking tune, Brushed my hair from their eyes  And parted. And we softened the world  With our tender sleep. “We are fully awake now and one.” Cried the everything within us.  And remnants of that box And coins floate...

I searched the surface Of the earth with blind eyes, Feeling the land to  Find your hands resting there. [Raised up over mountains  Pressing on pastures.] I found them not.  I dematerialized to  Become sky and Meet your mind there, To wrap my  Tongue around and give Voice to the ghost within. [The blue and white Folding over us Like lovers in sheets] I found it not.  My heart hardened And crumbled around  Others Like bread left for birds.   [You were lost to me.] Until wings brushed my face As gentle as wind through pines And woke me from a deep sleep. You followed my crumbled heart Back to its beginnings And pieced it together,  Knitting it with your smile Your eyes,  Your thoughts I had hoped to meet.  And you loved me there Like that sky I had climbed into  On my own.  You laid on top  Of me like snow drifts Covering ...