The Winter Of A Potential Malcontent

February 13, 2014February 13, 2014 ~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ Leave a comment

For a long and frozen moment
Moments of dark and cold fall over us
Weapons of malcontent
I might have known
War zone trauma
Traumatized by Pax
So close to peace, its wretched name
Trees break, grunt, moan
Fall from the sky, war wounded
Like bombs extinguishing
Life from the day
Exploding
Last week’s tulips bow in mourning
My shoulders
Rise to my ears in fear
A mortar of pine and oak, ice and pine
Will land on this
World of mine
Repetition of a death march
Battle weary are we

The talking head said
To fight cabin fever
Stay hydrated, move,
Stimulate your mind
All creativity is drying up
Going up in smoke with the fire
That is now our world, hovering round
The hearth of the home
2014 reeks of 1814

No power no water
No light
Disconnection sets in
Dirty and cold

The piano, frozen
As am I
Spoiled by Pandora and Spotify
Times like this we wish
We could remember to play
Ebony and ivory

The winter will not be a victor
I refuse to bow down and give in
Lonely and cold
Dark and restlessness
Quiet and routine bully my soul
My white flag, were I to raise it
Would not be seen

We are adrift in a sea of white
And grays color the soul

Though I know Spring, like the tide will rise
And the sun will burn
Ice will melt
And yes
We will dance and feast, warm our souls
On the heat of the earth
The tyranny of the urgent is ruling the day
Heavy handed and cruel
I will not lie down in defeat

For these are the days
The right here times
When the battle is on
And in full swing
I armor up with
Flashlight in hand
And the words
Always
Words will shift the balance of power
Ravenous and hungry
I devour her words.

At first I sat with “Booked”
In my hands
Propped in the threshold of the front door
Squeezing the light out of the day
As the earth stood nearly still
When an early visitor came to call
Nightfall
And darkness
And I like a child rolled up in a ball
Fought hard against tears
Formed from the words
As they lept from the page

I battle-scarred

Seeking solace
I remain
Held captive, nearly numb
Frozen in place

Now thawed by Prior
And her words
Held
In a warm embrace
Safe from Pax, seeking
Peace
Inside the pages

Of “Booked”

Sepia Tones

January 24, 2014January 24, 2014 ~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ 3 Comments

Sepia Tones

Living slow, writing fast

It was more of a feast than a fast
Living slow, slowly living, lead to writing
Fast
The comma and correct grammar mean everything,
Change the meaning in a New York minute
But this is poetry
I digress
Then go came along

A distant cousin to wait
And then the cold
Which was more like an artic covering

Margins grew wider
Yet like the moon
Poetry waxed and waned

And then in the slow fade
Of the day
Words fueled more words
Infusion of encouragement
Stoked the flame
More hat tips
And head nods
A symphonic explosion
Of pure unadulterated
Grace

And surprises
Peek-a-booed into her soul
And in the shadows she
Began to see

A poem
Neither slow nor fast
But traveling just right

And in the sepia tones
She found inspiration
Dancing in the shadows of the roman shade
Of light
That whispered stop and stare
There is poetry in the window
There
Framed
There are lines that
Need a home

And the muse he whispered:
You will find a
Poem shivering, cold
And waiting there
Penned like hieroglyphics
Piercing through
By light of day
Blanketed by quiet
Wintry air

A poem raises
Up her golden brown
And faded head
In tones of sepia
Freshly inked
Nuanced meanings
There

Living slow, writing fast.

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Responding to the poetry prompt, sort of, from the creative folks at Tweetspeak Poetry “How To Read Poetry” #howtoreadapoem in celebration of the release of Tania Runyan’s latest book “How To Read A Poem”

Remembering Pink Among The January Blues

January 23, 2014 ~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ 2 Comments

Remembering Pink Among The January Blues

Cold crawls down my throat
And freezes deep
Among two winter-laced lungs
Hope frozen but for
A moment
Thawed by the chambers
Of a rapid beating
Heart, pumping, forcing
Red, shaded crimson
Rises to my cheeks
And to my nose
And colors
Pink the tip

And I
I purse my lip
Just like the winter
Bloom

And I am
Slowly
Thawed, outside and in
By warm remembering

Of faded valentines
Bows
Posted on the mailbox
Declaring that a daughter has been
Born
Of salmon rushing up stream
Against all odds
And flannel p.j.’s worn
In college
Days of shades of
Pink

And every year she comes
When hope is all but lost
She pushes through the cold
And frost
And hangs a hundred blooms
Whispering that Spring
Will come, it always does

And thaws the coldest soul
Stuck in the middle of
A million signs of
January
And her deepest
Shades of blues

Why I Chose Go And Other Unanswered Questions

January 22, 2014 ~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ 1 Comment

Go doesn’t appear
As the opposite of stay
Always

Somedays it is synonymous with
Life and yes
Sometimes it is on the flip side
Stagnate

Go is brave on days
And it is walking timidity
Other times
Vertical in fact
But longing to be
Horizontal, in a state of quiet repose
Of all the words in all the world
Go chose
me
To walk out 365
Sleeps
To go dreaming and go waking
To go running and go crawling

Go said let’s say yes more
And no less
Take a chance and take a turn
Pull up to the banquet table
With a fork and knife
Dig right in to life
Cut it to the quick

Go says yes
Start with desert some days
Ride into the wind
Tears burning the cheek
Swim against currents
Against the howling wind
And walk in the rain
Even the thunder
Without a bumpershoot and galoshes
Now and again
Write a song
And sing along to the song
On the radio, loud and off-key

Eat with a friend
And not alone

When you are but two
Letters in a sea of verbosity
You risk being over simplified
And when you back up and go in reverse
OG
You sound like a caveman, man

Go can
B
Complicated too
Going out on a limb
Now and again

But don’t get me wrong
We are getting along
So far
Just fine
Me and Go
Go and I

We’re linked arm in arm
Side by side
Shadow and friend
Going this road
Together
Not alone

Even when we go
Nowhere at all
Anchored in our
Going nowhere state
Up to our elbows in
Pluff mud like
Quicksand
Sinking
Going nowhere fast

Go sings a melody
Backup
Sweet harmony
Happy as a sidekick

Go and I
Tandem diving
Into the teacup
From the high-dive
I had no chose but to
Go
Chose me.

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