Poetica Magazine

To-wit To-woo

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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.

.

******************************************************

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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!

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**********************************************

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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.

.

**************************************************

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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.

.

******************************************************

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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.

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Peggy Landsman's web site is at:

http://home.att.net/~palandsman/