My words flow over the rocks smooth and gentle things when what I want them to do is shout out loud avoid the boulders by a hair laughing hard and coax some stones to spin
____________________________________ The last line included at the suggestion of fellow poet Kort Fisher.
I didn’t know I loved the spirit in soil deep under reed marshes connected to it through my bones a vision of roiling life
I didn’t know I loved to sing that song could make me cry joy a quick moment on the backs of notes voices together light to dark
I didn’t know that I loved sense of place color memories until they were gone layered goodbyes in dim sunlight dusty motes on gray air
I didn’t know I still loved touch thought it dried and done but not forgotten only to find a fire so ready lit my blood sang even as I would cry aloud
I didn’t know that I loved words that they would fill every empty place pull me with them words from my eyes words from unheard thought
I didn’t know how much I loved my life sweet along with sharp and hard rushing in over tidal flats escaping just as fast that I could cherish it not just live it
____________________________________________ This list poem came out of a short poetry workshop taught in 2015 by the poet Doug Anderson. We read Things I Didn’t Know I Loved by the Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet, and were prompted to write our own list poem by the same title. This is the revised version.
The wolf throws her head back to howl rising out of crystal spikes and mimic trees a night when even lynx furred feet will freeze on snow glass visited in the dark by shapes the woods hurl quick half life images for the next morning with one of them shouting at the sky
A morning pink comet streaks the sky from left to right the sun still floating up the mountain’s eastern ridge reaches up to slit the tail its beam sharp enough to cut through falling silk
A mourning dove in my apple tree looks through the window its message meant to prod sun shrinks as the cold returns woods maple tops spike leafless now bronze oaks and candle beech stand guard water lilies sink into the pond again a scooped out moon brings frost bears already denned up the hill not quite past time for seeds but hurry or jays will bring their beaks
I was convinced she would never leave even though the truth of it ran alongside faster as she slowed in the end a quiet moment took the comfort of her large dog self and tucked it in the sky now her gaze is a soft kiss when the stars are watching
____________________________ We go outside to say hello on clear nights, Horrie and I.