USA

mandimoon@aol.com

A Forgotten Peace

Sunlight thrills across summer air
Rivers sing on their sparkling way
And the air smells rich of the dank forest floor
It's an aura in the air, of silent joy
Pierced by a starling's melody, or a breeze,
or footsteps on leaves
Gentle ripples on a wooded lake
Here on enduring mosses, trees like altars,
And peace.
Yes, this forgotten word
Only remembered in the resonant sensory smile
Of the forests which are thinnning bleakly
Into some city night of screams and steel
A city so desperate, desolate, dying
Where myriad people of maimed, stained skins
Are vying on a sea of violent thrashing limbs
Foaming at the mouth, throaty threats
In ten thousand tongues of slang, gangs, blood
This is not peace
This is a flood of broken humanity
A tortured death
As rain falls with gentle, nourishing drumtaps
In some wooded grove long forgotten

The Spirit of a Woman

A mound of dough that's yielding, warm and dense
And worked by tender fingers, floured palms
The kneading motion known since earth commenced
This constancy, like waves, this rhythm calms
Her flowered dress of fabric soft and thin
Her breathy humming, mellow, swells and sighs
Fine moisture beads her pinked and fragile skin
Like gentle rain flung from abyssal skies
A belly, swollen, mountainous, and taut
That dares to foster life upon this earth
Through moments during which her spirit's caught
In agony and miracle of birth
The palpitating motions of the moon
That tremble in the soul and on the breath
Wet breath on lovers' lips that's parted soon
By riptide currents, changing hearts, or death
The ocean's edge, this salted, silken sand
Caressed by feet, once tender, toughened bare
The waves rinse clean exquisite, floured hands
That soothe a fever, tangle with the air
The air that whips her hair as storms do seas
She turns her face against the preying wind
Squints at the ocean's edge, which foams and flees
She walks like this through all that God will send
The blows that taunt ideals and flatten dreams
She's daunted by the endless, windy beach
Insistent swells with which the ocean teems
She struggles on, to something out of reach
And then she spies a seagull, wings outspread
Bird's throaty caw exalting blissful flight
That dives from wind to ocean, no with dread
But joy, abandon, liberty, and might
She'd had her arms wrapped 'round her 'gainst the cold
But raises them, Athena's shining wings
And dances, barefeet joyful, striking bold
On sands as fine as flour, and she sings
She sings a rhythm, her commanding force
That governs moon, the pulsing of the tides
That governs heart, and life's exalting course
The sinful, aching, purest heart abides
Her odyssey's as great as searching ships
But intimate, more sacrificed, made small
And yet, that rolling rhythm in her hips
Like waves, that free, give birth, to love, to all
The hips, curvaceous, fine-boned, plump or frail
They're rolling, swaying, dancing to the beat
Of supple dough, of birth, romance, the tale
Of softly striding, bare undaunted feet
The elements of life caress, command
And woman, she endures, fierce and whole
She yields to ocean, winds, and shifting sand
Her soaring, tender, ageless, rhythmic soul

Disjointed

Lone stunted pine on a wind-pummeled bluff
Dull coins jangled, measured in a palm. Not enough.
The meek, incessant scratch of tree limbs on a window pane
The slow, singing turn of a rusted weather vane
Soiled, thin-soled sneakers on a closet floor
An unanswerable knock at an impenetrable door
The embers of some forgotten fire
Trapped in a frail chest: desire!
Tossed on a desk, a chewed-end pen
Nervous fingers on a shot glass, swirling gin
Knees drawn up to a trembling chin
Come morning, bare feet on cold floor, yet again
Hands clasped impotent, jut fingers, in prayer
Eddies of breath on the icy air
Total silence, save a rapid heartbeat
An empty seat
Solitude is on the edges of life
Raspy in the ribs
When a painful gasp is drawn
From an aching soul
This deathly still wasteland
An imagined touch
On a curled-fingers hand

Evolution of a Girl

Have you ever walked into the wind
Staring into the sky
Vowing to live hugely
Yet terrified of the affirmation?
This is my life.
This tender way of striding, tentative steps
And these eyes awash in wonder
To embrace the world, or to confront it blushingly?
This is my question.
A dance that is awkward but eager
Have you ever flung yourself onto summer grass
Been surrendered to the sky?
It's heaven!
But the stormclouds roll forward cursing
Inspire awe, daunt to the quick
And I quake
Dreaming awake
Demons' shadows loom across my eyelids in sleep.
Torment--
My hopeful soul! Am I helpless?
I am restless.
Wondering here, and wandering, into the wind.
I must trust to the end, sing with conviction
Until the melody lifts, and the nightmares subside
Some silver might pan out of the stars
Fall onto my awestruck lashes
Make me invincible
Yet softened by the sweet earth
 

© All Copyright, Amanda Gladin-Kramer.
All Rights Reserved. Printed By Permission.