by Jana
“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way–things I had no words for.”
~Georgia O’Keefe
A favorite poem of LDS artist Minerva Teichert, Eugene Field’s “Red”:
Any color, so long as it’s red,
Is the color that suits me best,
Though I will allow there is much to be said
For [...]
[Note: Photo by Mrs. Maze on Flickr]
What does it mean to ‘be strong’?
When I think of strength, bulging biceps and loud voices come to mind. It seems a very masculine characteristic. Yet I desire strength. To gain it, I lift weights and learn to speak confidently. I assume an assertive and [...]
I’m sure that everyone experiences symptoms of OCD, or else has at some point in their life. I mean, I don’t know a lot about mental illnesses, but I feel the restless leg, the compulsion to check every unread email, and distinct and desperate desires to have things done, checked off, put away, etc. (and [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 5 so far )There is light in the tips of the little plastic fibers
that splay out from the top of the cheap party-favor toy
when you turn on the switch. It is multi-colored neon.
You click off then on again. It is purple. Off. On.
Then red. Off on. Orange. On and on it changes
going through a complete color wheel.
It runs [...]
I have lost an elasticity
from the skin in my fingertips.
Sometimes they bleed
or ache, openly.
It feels like something
that happens
to make me realize
there is this other kind of suffering.
But should I endure it silently
until I die, it will remain
the reminder that pain is real
and sometimes has
invisible reasons.
Comments, criticisms, and questions welcome.
{Photo by Man Ray, Hand on Lips}
God would be the first to
agree that we should’ve been friends by now
but there is always that awkwardness,
really. Or,
it is just me?
Even our children sense it, their
little faces with some knowing quality
like lifting light with their
eyes.
I dreamed I was visiting
your house
while your children napped
and you were anything but awkward
with my own never napping son.
You were [...]
On “Flaming June” by Frederic Leighton
Sleeping in a corner at noon on a bench
Too small to stretch her full 5’11”
Her full figure
I warm my hands quietly up close
To the reaching oranges climbing
The resting light
Afraid my presence is enough to
Disturb a rhythm of sleep or
Is she too deep
Shallow in slumber and curled
In summer windows
At odd angles
1998
***
I [...]
I’ve been particularly interested in the translation of poetry ever since I took a World Lit class in college. I was especially drawn to the Russian poet, Anna Akhmatova, who wrote hauntingly beautiful poetry. In the class, I was exposed to a few different English versions of her poems and was intrigued and [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 5 so far )For the love of a tree, she went out on a limb.
For the love of the sea, she rocked the boat
For the love of the earth, she dug deeper.
For the love of community, she mended fences.
For the love of the stars, she let her light shine.
For the love of spirit, she nurtured her soul.
For the [...]
I felt like posting some poems today written by others, rather than anything of my own. I chose these three because they have each been influential to me, religiously, and otherwise. But mostly religiously. The thing is that I have posted them in the order I encountered them. I feel like I’ve been through a [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 7 so far )
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