“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” ― Margaret Mead
New Haven, Circa 1971
That she would consider it
“the amazing city”
is about as ironic
as the wry half smile
on her 5-year-old face.
She didn’t see the
protests, trials, riots.
(She never does.)
Only the possibilities.
The lofty towers
and filigreed intentions
of a something that
seemed larger than life.
Of a something that indeed
seemed “amazing.”
But what’s in a word?
the poet asks
with a similar smile:
amazing…..astonishing
half…..not wholly true
wry…..sardonic
ironic…..absurd
Poem ©2017, Jen Payne
You Made Your Bed
Waking up beside a mistake
one has little choice but to make the bed
tear off the sheets and start fresh —
hospital-corner fresh —
pillows creased with a firm hand
or
with a broad arc and breath
reset the sheets askew, awry
as if that was the intention all along
messy, made, come what may
Poem ©2017, Jen Payne. National Poetry Month, 30. Image: Bed Making, Stanley Spencer.
Chanting
Without the luxury
of love,
lone willet
calls into the fog
and I respond,
as if our one and one
make two.
A mystic algebra,
always searching
for the missing,
lone willet
calls into the fog
and I respond.
Poem ©2017, Jen Payne. National Poetry Month, 29. Photo ©2017, Jen Payne.
Friday a.m.
thunder echoes
willet song
distant gull
waves
red-winged song
rains down
fog lifts
the day!
Poem ©2017, Jen Payne. National Poetry Month, 28. Photo ©2017, Jen Payne.
Lofty Gulls
In moves akin
to Sister Bertrille
the seagull
lifts and hovers
lifts and hovers
lifts and hovers
then lands on
a wing and a prayer:
“Thank god for
Field and shore
and sand.”
Poem ©2017, Jen Payne. National Poetry Month, 27. Photo ©2017, Jen Payne. For you novices (ha!) see Sister Bertrille reference here.
and then there were eight
After Adam and Eve upgraded,
do you think they longed
for the unencumbered days?
Those quiet times before
buttons and zippers
and technologies requiring
such labored maintenance,
such frequent attention?
Did they think, often,
that it would be much simpler
to move about this world
without needing to
dress for success
dress up
dress down
dress to kill
dress for dinner
undress
redress.
Were they ever-seduced
by the need, the speed, the ease?
Or did they Think Different,
see past the bill of goods —
understand the lure, the hook, the catch
for exactly what it was:
the shiny object,
the pretty distraction,
another Apple, another sin.
