Happy Poetry Month

I'm in just under the wire, but April has been National Poetry Month.  Pratie (who always has something fun and amazing up at Pratie Place) posted two wonderful poems by poet laureate Billy Collins and that got me thinking about the whole subject of poets and poetry.  I don't read much poetry, much to the chagrin of my sister, who in addition to having a lit degree is a fine poet herownself.  So in celebration of poetry month, I will share two of my favorite poems by Tracy (she of tracyradio fame).  Enjoy!

I am
a poet and a priestess
mother daughter sister whore
a swimmer under water
a fast walker when ashore
pounds of pennies in my pocket
the bluff that never folds
a noticer of beauty
all silver and no gold

a barefoot crone slam dancing
on truth’s fine and hollow edge
going grey in battered blue jeans
singing loudly on the ledge

out of date and still in tune
cause I know all the words
a nesting empty nester
I fence with time’s broadsword

I am
nosy and noisy
obnoxiously opinionated
a silent watcher at the gates
of rain and shadow and snow
and birds in leafless trees
of suns thundering past and the breeze

starry night gleam in my daddy’s halo
crabapple tears from my mama’s eye
metal magnolia blooming every year
the product and sum of all my fears

a mirror measuring too many men
a mockingbird in too many hands
the rocking horse who drank upstream
magic realized and never seen

I am
a timely stitch piercing the side
of the Savior Divine
a wreckage of mended parts
a chip off the chopping block
a rhymer of riddles
with no answers for free
I am
a poet and a priestess
still the home sweet home I plan to be

the summer bobby died

the summer bobby kennedy died
barefoot hippies invaded city lake
to us they seemed as harmless
as the fishing we did there
with our pillsbury biscuit dough bait

i was seven

the summer bobby kennedy died
i almost drowned at the beach
my daddy moved out
it was the summer before the second grade
and i learned to swim

father’s day, first day of vacation
when daddy hauled me out
i was blue and he was damn near dead
aunt dot fetched the lifeguard
everybody thought i was dead too
til i bit his finger

i only remember
swirling in the ocean
screaming for daddy
for mommy
for help
swallowing salt water
with every plea

i wasn’t allowed in the ocean again that year
and when we went home
it was to a new house
and my daddy didn’t live there

he saved my life
and later all he would talk about
was that sonofabitch standing near me
as the wave lifted me up
pointing and saying there she is
but not lifting another finger
to help

nobody saved bobby’s life

and when we asked mommy
when daddy would be home
for dinner
she said
he’s not coming home

she was lying on the couch crying
just a little pregnant
with the little sister
who would bring daddy back

by then
i was in a new school
bobby was dead
and buried with his brother
liberty justice hope
and the democrats

we couldn’t afford the county fair that fall
had to buy a new refrigerator
we blamed it on johnson and high taxes
and we elected nixon
and my daddy got pneumonia
and fell headfirst into the bathtub
gave himself a concussion

one rainy groundhog sunday
after the inauguration
granny took us to see
The Horse In the Grey Flannel Suit
while my sister was being born
by then i was eight
and i could swim

and granny brought over our first phonograph
and 45s of Harper Valley PTA
and Last Train to Clarksville
and i dreamed i was gidget
or a boxcar child
or ben franklin

we moved to a bigger house
and signed petitions to
free Lt. Calley
and lost a second cousin in Vietnam
and daddy’s daddy died
three years
after turning the firehoses on
civil rights marchers

he outlived bobby
and saw johnson fall
and voted for nixon
the first republican
he ever voted for
and the last

they made me kiss him in the casket
and we sang for the love of jesus
in his all white baptist church
and we pledged allegiance
to our almost all white schools
liberty and justice for all like us

and the summer after the summer
bobby kennedy died
i swam in the whites only pool
and my daddy taught us to bodysurf the ocean
then moved out again

the summer after the summer bobby died
it was the summer before the third grade
and i was eight
and i could swim

Comments

[Lynda]

I love these poems! Thank you for stopping by via Michele. I always enjoy my visits to your blog. Always.

[Pearl]

Hi from Michele's meet and greet today. Happy Poetry month. I admire the I am from poem. It's got lovely turns and images.

[Kimberly]

These are wonderful. Your sister and I are the same age, and her memories of being a child in the South in 'the summer bobby died' resonate deeply with me.

[Tammy]

Great poems!

Michele sent me. :)

[vegemiterules]

Both poems touched me, but the one about "the summer that bobby" died bought back so many memories of where I was in my life at that sad time. I have had a pleasant visit via Michele's M&G, nice to meet you.

[BlogCruiser]

A lot to those poems, thanks for sharing them. Hello, Michele sent me.

[Suzanne]

thanks so much for visiting! I love poetry, and wish I could write more of it! I'm afraid it would be too smartelicky if I did! ha ha... I think i'll just stick to my blog. Thanks for sharing!

[Erin]

oh, such good poems!!!
i'm here via michele, and i really like the quote you have at the top - that is so cute!!!

i hope you had a great weekend!

[Cyn]

She writes beautiful poetry. I love the part about watcher at the gate...

[colleen]

empty nesting empty nester...barefoot crone slam dancing...It all seems to fit like an extension of my post today (about retiring) and the one for tomorrow (about age and dancing)that I just wrote. Your sister sounds great. I wish mine made me great CD mixes. It's been along time since I've even listened to music, what with having a live-in foster care resident with special needs. My brother Dan used to be the one to keep me up with the music scene...sadly, passed away a few years ago. Oh how deep the blood bonds go!

[colleen]

PS just read the second one! RIGHT ON!

[franchini]

Lovely words in that poem. Very lovely reading.

[Lora]

Thanks for sharing your sister's poems. They are very different from one another. The first poem is very clever and really needs to be read out loud. But I think that "the summer bobby died" is incredible. I'm much younger and from the north, but I still identified with it.

[wavybrains]

Awesome poems. Thanks for sharing :) Thanks for stopping by via Michele.

[Ellen Britt]

I never cared much for poems either, that is until lately. Last year, I lost a dear friend and a wonderfully talented poet, Bonnie St. Andrews. She opened my eyes to the medium. Thank you for the opportunity to read these poems...they are lovely.

[sleepingmommy]

beautiful poems. I wish I took more time to read and savor poetry. My favorite poet of all is Maya Angelou.

Thanks for visiting me via Michele, I am glad I got to visit your lovely blog and share such wonderful poetry.

[zee]

I definitely love that first poem! Thanks for sharing. :o)

[M3]

Very cool poems. Thanks. What a nice morning treat. Billy Collins is one of my fave's also. Went to a reading of his last month (my first poetry reading so I was kind of wary), and he was great, it was great, the whole thing was great. He was really funny actually, which wasn't what I expected. If anyone has the chance--go see him. Take care.