| Posted at 01:21 AM on November 04, 2009 |
To-wit To-woo
.
Dostoevsky,Kurt Vonnegut, and I
spent many afternoons together.
We talked about life and death,
Kilgore,Grushenka,...
and why,
.
when I Iooked through a telescope and saw
Globular Cluster M13 in Hercules,
what I felt
was love.
.
We talked about loss,
that special dust
so many works of art
crystallize around
like snowflakes,
.
and the wisdom of striving
a little less for perfection
and a little more for plain good....
.
Forty years disappeared
like the past lives of novels
I had read again and again.
.
And then, one morning, I called my two friends
to say I couldn't make it
to our next tête-à-tête,
and just as I hung up the phone,
.
my head split wide open
a tremendous, tall tree burst right through--
complete with green leaves, fat golden fruit,
and the seasonal bird.
.
I tap-danced to that sweet bird's tune--
to-wit to-woo, to-wit to-woo--
then climbed up the tree
straight out of my mind
far past the two sides of the moon.
.
******************************************************
.
Gertrude
.
. .
What did they say about Gertrude Stein?
If she were skinny, she'd be fine.
.
What did they say about Gerty's hair?
If she had more of it, she'd be fair.
.
Everyone sighed at the size of her thighs;
In philosophy she took first prize.
.
Gerty Gerty Stein Stein Stein
Never toed that fine fine line.
.
Gertrude the short-haired, Gertrude the fat,
Thank you for writing. Thank you for thriving.
.
Thank you
for seeing and being and being for being and seeing like that
.
Like That!
.
**********************************************
.
One International Women's Day
.
.
Sometimes there is nothing to do but get drunk
and listen to Mahler's Fourth.
.
Sometimes there is only Papa's Vineyard cheap white wine
and too much rain to bother.
.
Defrosting my freezer,
Confronting my anger,
I'm letting it all melt away.
.
Claudio Abbado conducts from my turntable
"Des Knaben Wunderhorn."
.
In heaven we begin again!
Frederica von Stade is our leader.
.
**************************************************
.
Earworm.
"If just once, on the same Friday night, every Jew lights the Shabbos candles, the Messiah will come."
--An insistent Hasid on the street in New York City, almost forty years ago.
.
.
Glenn Gould stopped playing Beethoven
My CD player died
.
Every light that was shining
Suddenly blinked off.
.
The world was washed in darkness
Like before the Old Man punched his time clock.
.
It was cool in my dark, silent space
Cool enough, and peaceful .
.
I sat awhile thinking of Eve
In the garden at nightfall.
.
All at once, it dawned on me
This was Friday night.
.
It had been ages since I was a child
Watching my mother lighting the candles,
.
Joining her in singing the blessing--
After "Ah-men," we added "Ah-women!"
.
Before too long, Glenn Gould was back playing
And there was light again.
.
I took a shower, took my time,
Washed my long brown hair.
.
"Baruch atah adonai..."
I could not get that blessing out of my mind.
.
I stood naked in the shower,
Not at all like Eve
.
In the first spring rain.
.
******************************************************
.
Divine Reveille
.
.
Richard Tucker returned last night
At the third blast of the horn.
.
He was big as a world
His voice, the boundless horizon.
.
Richard Tucker sang.
I thought my heart would break,
.
And every time he came
To the end of another aria,
.
I didn’t know if I could bear it. .
Richard Tucker picked me up,
Put me in his pocket.
.
Desert wanderers, unscrolling their prayers;
Star-crossed lovers, singing their prayers,
.
Had already made it homey in there.
.
Richard Tucker laughed,
Light spilled around us like tears.
.
That was when I lost it.
.
Laughter like love is dangerous,
It topples us over into the unknown.
.
I stretched myself thin as afterlife time,
Grabbed hold of one long golden tassel
.
That hung from the edge of his shawl,
Swung straight out of his pocket.
.
And then, I started to fall.
.
Peggy Landsman's web site is at:
Categories: Poetry
