Tuesday, February 28, 2012

THIS WOMAN'S LIFE

Photo/painting by S. Auberle

THIS WOMAN'S LIFE
(a cento)
How did we get to be old ladies--my grandmother's job--
when we were the long-legged girls?
~  Hilma Wolitzer
It's a pickle, this life.
All day the stars watch from long ago.
The brightness of the day
becomes the brightness of night
and I do not regret the passage of time.
Sometimes a moment is a monument--
an old moon, lying akilter

among a few pale stars,
twenty six willows on the banks of a stream
to which the small hum of bees wing.
Everything about you, my life
is both make believe and real,
but the future has arrived

and it is not unbearable.
I almost glimpse what I was born to.
The earth, with others on it, turns in its course.
~  mimi
for those of you unfamiliar with a cento--the word comes from the Latin for "patchwork" and it simply means a poetic form which consists of taking one line from a selection of poems and combining them in a new way.  Only one line per poet is allowed...it is a recognized form, first used by Homer and Virgil, so it's good enough for me!

Sunday, February 26, 2012

THE MOUNTAIN

Photo/painting by S. Auberle

"Growing older
is like climbing a mountain:
the higher you get,
the more strength you need,
but the farther you see."
Ingmar Bermgman

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

ASHES TO ASHES

Collage by S. Auberle
(an old poem resurrected)
ASH WEDNESDAY  


Church of the Holy Angels
I’m six years old
kneeling before an altar
fingers rubbing my forehead
fear chilling down my back.
The priest whispers above me:
ashes to ashes, dust to dust…
 Ash Wednesday
Church of Red Earth
I’m sixty-something
kneeling in a crater
where lava once poured down.
I rub dirt on my forehead
find a potsherd
and remember
those buried beneath me
their sins and bones
only red dust on my jeans.

mimi 

Sunday, February 19, 2012

A TURNING NIGHT OF STARS

Digitally altered photo by S. Auberle

This moment
this love
comes to rest in me.
Many beings
in one being.
In one wheat-grain
a thousand
sheaf stacks.
Inside
the needle's eye,
a turning night of stars.
Rumi

Thursday, February 16, 2012

THAT KIND OF DAY


Photo/Painting by S. Auberle

a cardinal just flew away
as if he couldn't bear
all that gray
it's that kind of day...
mimi

Monday, February 13, 2012

FOR YOU, A VALENTINE

Artist Trading Card by S. Auberle

THE ONLY DANCE
(a cento)

There is a poignancy
in all things clear,
and the eye gets used
to disappearances,
but all gets watered,
sooner or later, with tears.
Still, this is written
on the back of everything--
the only dance is love...
mimi
    

Thursday, February 09, 2012

POETRY OF ORANGES

Photo by S. Auberle

Italy, Cinque Terre region...a little inn at the top of the cliff...where I discovered these luscious fruits for the first time.  The room was dark, a bit musty, and the bathroom postage stamp sized, but o, the balcony--as big as the room, pots of flowers around the walls, the blue Mediterranean below, and on a crooked table, a bowl of blood oranges.  And now, in the heart of an icy Wisconsin winter, a bowl of sunshine on my table...

Monday, February 06, 2012

HAIKU MOON

Photo by S. Auberle

a ballet of swans
across the spring moon
night's curtain falls...
~ mimi

Saturday, February 04, 2012

ZEN CROW

Artist Trading Card by S. Auberle

the branch is black and bare again:  a crow
shook down its coverlet of powdered snow!
Ho-o
I was recently introduced to the lovely art of artist's trading cards--miniature works of art that may never be sold, only given away or traded.  This is one of my first attempts (using a rubber crow stamp) but I am enchanted by the idea...if anyone out there wishes to trade cards, let me know...