Find Me – Poem.

Find Me

seeking You in unexpected places

looking to recognise You in a lunchhour

..in a conversation, to know Your familiar hand

in a heartbeat, in a cityscape..

driving in smog-laden queues

in lonely offices, on a misty road. looking

at a prison, trying to escape my own

seeking You, I am lost

Recipe for an Episcopalian.

Recipe for an Episcopalian.

A Recipe for an Episcopalian

He used to leave the tomato leaves

To dry on the windowsill,

Separated,

The largest on the left,

Diminishing in size

Until there was just a scrap of green left,

The baby of the family.

Once dry, the leaves were so fragile

A strong gust of wind could crack them.

He put them into soups, sauces and

Sauerkraut: odd for an Episcopalian.

I remember his Sunday sermons,

Severe for a man who took such care

With the leaves of tomatoes.

But as we both grew older, and I learned

How the family had fallen apart,

I realized the importance of tomato leaves–

Making order out of chaos,

Letting the juices dry,

Keeping us all in line.

Jessica Anthony

Brooklyn, NY

 

 

Waiting Round The Letterbox

“dear boy

this is girl. my head is full of knowledge and my heart is full of feeling and somewhere in the middle it all is meant to meet. i don’t know where. there is no mapbook. so i get in my car and i drive. i drive to the east and drink coffee with my mother. then i sit in a lecture room with people who have no idea how noisy it is inside my head. so i drive west and look at the waves crashing. i go central and drink coffee in a movie theatre watching someone else’s take on life. i laugh a lot and then it’s dark and i drive through and around the city. i watch the lights and find peace somewhere. i drive south and say goodbye to more friends at the airport. and then i drive north and i find myself at home, writing you again. “

 

The Distance Of A Dove – Poem.

The Distance Of A Dove – Poem.

The Distance Of A Dove

When you hold me in

a love-embrace

and tell me

I am a tiger,

full of heat and spark,

it cannot make it any less

true when you tell me –

I am a bird

flying out of grasp

or a fish

floating out of reach.

 

When you are far from me,

when I am moving farther

I think I like to be

the tiger best.

Close enough to taste your skin,

full of heat and spark.

 

But I think also you

prefer my likeness

at the safer distance of a dove.