“Poems are a form of music,
and language just happens to be our instrument – language and breath.
Terrance Hayes
Why, in the middle of your busy life, do you pause to read poetry?
Because poetry can remind us what matters, which is why I use poetry in my work. In a world hell-bent on filling space with activity, and silence with noise, this is a subversive act. Every poem here is curated with love. And my wish for you to engage with them, their beauty and humor, richness of thought and imagination, social courage and joy. May this be a space for the renewal of your inner life and outer life.
Image: Paul Cezanne, Still life, pitcher and fruit
April 2024 ~ The Zen of Tipping
April! Wow! It’s National Poetry Month! Plus April Fool’s and Earth Day!
And we have National Sourdough Bread, No Housework and Rubber Eraser Days!
And let’s all participate in Tell Someone They’re Doing a Great Job Everyday Day!
The Zen of Tipping
My friend Lou
used to walk up to strangers
and tip them—no, really—
he’d cruise the South Side,
pick out the businessman on his way
to lunch, the slacker hanging
by the Beehive, the young girl
walking her dog, and he’d go up,
pull out a dollar and say,
Here’s a tip for you.
I think you’re doing a really
good job today. Then Lou would
walk away as the tipee stood
in mystified silence. Sometimes
he would cut it short with,
Keep up the fine work.
People thought Lou was weird,
but he wasn’t. He didn’t have much,
worked as a waiter. I don’t know
why he did it. But I know it wasn’t
about the magnanimous gesture,
an easy way to feel important,
it wasn’t interrupting the impenetrable
edge of the individual—you’d
have to ask Lou—maybe it was
about being awake, hand-to-hand
sweetness, a chain of kindnesses,
or fun—the tenderness
we forget in each other.
By Jan Beatty, from Boneshaker
Copyrighted material; for educational/therapeutic purposes only.
For a plethora of awesomeness about National Poetry Month, go here:
https://poets.org/national-poetry-month. X, k
To check out the gigantic archive of poetry on my website, go here:
www.clearlenscoaching.com/poems/
March 2024 ~ Wonder Woman
Jeepers! This brilliant poem flows like a river. Such skillful alliteration and line breaks!
And it makes me wonder about myths that would serve right now as healing agents
for pain you and I hide from ourselves and/or others. Importantly, this poem
also makes me wonder what costumes we’ll wear to represent our chosen myths?
And Happy Womyn’s Herstory Month! XO
Wonder Woman
Standing at the swell of the muddy Mississippi
after the Urgent Care doctor had just said, Well,
sometimes shit happens, I fell good and hard
for New Orleans all over again. Pain pills swirling
in the purse along with a spell for later. It’s taken
a while for me to admit, I am in a raging battle
with my body, a spinal column thirty-five degrees
bent, vertigo that comes and goes like a DC Comics
villain nobody can kill. Invisible pain is both
a blessing and a curse. You always look so happy,
said a stranger once as I shifted to my good side
grinning. But that day, alone on the riverbank,
brass blaring from the Steamboat Natchez,
out of the corner of my eye, a girl, maybe half my age,
is dressed, for no apparent reason, as Wonder Woman.
She struts by in all her strength and glory, invincible,
eternal, and when I stand to clap (because who wouldn’t),
she bows and poses like she knew I needed the myth,
—a woman, by a river, indestructible.
By Ada Limón from The Carrying.
* Alliteration: the same letter or sound at the beginning of nearby or closely connected words.
* Check out the gargantuan poetry archive on my website.
* An all-time fav of mine. And enjoy the fantastic video playing behind these two forces of nature!
Sisters Annie & Aretha doin’ it for all of us!
February 2024 ~ Lines For the Fortune Cookies
O, Frank, my Totem Poet Animal, your words pinch me in the best way!
When you say my failures make you love me even more, my head tilts
and my tail wags. I love you more than drunks love booze, more than
a trillion valentines – even bigger!!! Please be mine! X, k
Lines For the Fortune Cookies
I think you’re wonderful and so does everyone else.
Just as Jackie Kennedy has a baby boy, so will you – even bigger.
You will meet a tall beautiful blonde stranger, and you will not say hello.
You will take a long trip and you will be very happy, though alone.
You will marry the first person who tells you your eyes are like scrambled eggs.
In the beginning there was YOU – there will always be YOU, I guess.
You will write a great play and it will run for three performances.
Please phone The Village Voice immediately: they want to interview you.
Roger L. Stevens and Kermit Bloomgarden have their eyes on you.
Relax a little; one of your most celebrated nervous tics will be your undoing.
Your first volume of poetry will be published as soon as you finish it.
You may be a hit uptown, but downtown you’re legendary!
Your walk has a musical quality which will bring you fame and fortune.
You will eat cake.
Who do you think you are, anyway? Jo Van Fleet?
You think your life is like Pirandello, but it’s really like O’Neill.
A few dance lessons with James Waring and who knows? Maybe something will happen.
That’s not a run in your stocking, it’s a hand on your leg.
I realize you’ve lived in France, but that doesn’t mean you know EVERYTHING!
The next person to speak to you will have a very intriguing proposal to make.
A lot of people in this room wish they were you.
Have you been to Mike Goldberg’s show? Al Leslie’s? Lee Krasner’s?
Now that the election’s over, what are you going to do with yourself?
You are a prisoner in a croissant factory and you love it.
You eat meat. Why do you eat meat?
Beyond the horizon there is a vale of gloom.
You too could be Premier of France, if only … if only…
By Frank O’Hara, from The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara
Image credit: Fortune CooKISS by Shu-Chang Kung, Treasure Hill Artist Village, Taipei
Your Turn!
Okay, y’all write your own fortune cookie fortunes! Solo, or with family or friends…whatever. Leave ’em in surprising places. Why limit ourselves to stuffing ;em in cookies! You have a future full of fun ahead of you!
Sign Up for Poem of the Month
Lucky’s Corner
A tasty morsel of poetic medicine from Lucky,
who now resides in the Spirit-World. Down the hatch!
“and nothing can harm you –
unless you change yourself
into a thing of harm
nothing can harm you.”
Carl Sandburg
TESTIMONIALS
“Krayna oozes creativity in the Poetry Playshops she leads, creating an innovative environment that is non-judgemental. So I feel completely safe and free to let loose my own creative juices. I always look forward to the next Playshop!”
Jean Harkin
TESTIMONIALS
“I was looking for a creative experience completely outside my usual practice of making visual, two-dimensional art. The Poetry Playshop I first attended instantly felt like a relaxed environment, strengthening my ability to hear my own voice. I allowed words and stories to rise to the surface in a simple and non-judgmental way. Witnessing others speak freely jostles things loose for my own creativity. I experience shifts after attending a Poetry Playshop. The untangling of conflicted thoughts and feelings often occurs. I believe this is so because I experience unguarded creativity in the presence of others. This deepens my understanding that we all have stories and sharing them is an integral part of our common humanity.”
Patricia Freeman Martin
TESTIMONIALS
“The Playshop experience is a beautiful balance of inspiration, structure and warmth. Thankfully, the space is safe for words to flow and without pressure to share. Krayna’s writing prompts are full of creativity and the poems participants do share are always a gift.”
– Mary Marquiss