Day 30, P.A.D. Challenge: Letting Go

Letting Go

she is pure potential,
my sacred fool,
when i draw her card
the room spins,
the red legged mockingbird
laughs and cries.
she dares me,
close your eyes,
and jump.

Day 29, P.A.D. Challenge: And Suddenly...

And Suddenly, Attabeyra

and suddenly Attabeyra
stepped a bare foot
through the green curtain
into my living room
i knew who she was
by the manitee skulls
that roped her neck,
the way her skin burned red
in the morning light.
i gave her a chair,
she gave me a book of stories
written on manioc leaf
in birthing blood,
tales that called me by
my earthling name.

Day 28, P.A.D. Challenge: End of the Line

The End of the Line

when you get there
see the beauty
of the open space,
breathe,
taste the honey
of the empty air.
this plane of white
in between word and line
the poet made
is a sacred space
where you can rest
before taking
the next step
on your journey
along the pathway
through the poem
that leads you home.

Day 27, P.A.D. Challenge: Hopeful Poem

Hope Embodied

a woman writing is always in a state of hope,
even when her poem is a photograph of the moment
when all hope was lost.

a woman telling her true story in places
where truth can get you burned
is hope embodied.

i hope like i breath but deeper,
go through, this is the only way out,
believe, the poems tell me, and i do.

Day 26, P.A.D. Challenge: More Than Five Times

A Thousand Times

i hobbled down
Cocteau's hallways
in shoes that were
too small for me
a thousand times
before i remembered
i could choose
to wear a size seven
if i wanted,
i had the power
to walk pain-free.

Day 25, P.A.D. Challenge: Inspired by a Song

The Mummer's Dance (by Loreena McKinnet)

loreena, white witch,
your springtime mummers
come to dance
a circle around me
when i play your song.
i am headlong like the deer,
then the circle takes me in.

rabbits run the barrow,
eggs crack open in the nest
when you sing,
and all the pretty dancers
spiral to the drum,
i am wild to remain forever,
weak when the music ends.

Day 24, P.A.D. Challenge: Evening Poem

Evening

sun, lay down your head
but don't put out the light,

songbird, you still have time
to fly away home, to feed your babies

before the night coming on.
children, come outside with me,

look to the eastern sky,
soon-soon, there will be stars.

Day 23, P.A.D. Challenge: Exhausted

Exhaustion

that was the darkest forest
i ever traveled,
a place my mother called
"nervous breakdown,"
perpetual night and no one
there but me
and a thousand ghosts
i could not see.

Day 22, P.A.D. Challenge: Earth Poem

Earth Poem

love me the seasons of the Caribbean year,

the springtime mango flower blossoms,

the burning poinciana fires of summer,

autumn's baskets of green pumpkins by the sea,

the magic of a backyard Christmas orange.

sing me the spirits of the island forest,

grandmother pines ring your manitou bells,

spin me the wheel that is womanish, ancient,

receive me, your daughter, release me again.

Day 21, P.A.D. Challenge: According To...

According to Family Lore

she lived deep in the island woods,
kept horses, wore pants, i know this about her
but i don't know her name.

i think of her often when writing,
its not that i hear her calling that shakes me,
but silence where her voice should be.

Day 20, P.A.D. Challenge: Looking Back

Looking Back

looking back is fine as long as
i'm looking through pink glasses,
remembering is cool just as soon
as i plant my feet like rooted trees
in the solid ground of today.

Day 19, P.A.D. Challenge Name the Name

Mary Magdalene

remember the moment
Mary Magdalene told the prophet
her mother was a priestess
of Ashtoreth, his mother,
the way the sun flashed,
the way the mountain breathed,
the way she took on glamors.

Day 18, P.A.D. Challenge: To .....

To Believe in Chickcharnies

the thing about me is,
i really do believe
there are chickcharnies
living in the ferns
outside the writing room window.

i don't talk about them
within family earshot,
all that eye-rolling annoys me.
to believe in chickcharnies
is my secreted right.