Saturday, November 14, 2015

Anne Tibbitts writes



 Easter Sunday in the Fountain City: eleven verses of love song

One

I think I am walking boldly around on dangerous ground
But I won’t take myself away for now I won’t run
Like I’m used to doing, wanting to go fast with every fiber
Of my delicate being, afraid, scared like a spider on the wall.

I have forgotten how to be a woman because I never really knew how
In the first place, from the first time when I wasn’t ready and never could
Catch up from that. In my fourth decade, I can imagine, but not remember.

I feel like slicing a piece of wind from a bear’s paw.

Two
Is this a sweet dream, or a beautiful nightmare?  Beyonce’

Pinch me cause I don’t feel like what I feel is real
My heart is like a sponge all heavy and full of crevices
Where things hide and aren’t visible to the human eye

Won’t you take a sledgehammer and break me apart?
You can do this; I trust you
You have navigated and hiked and traversed through worse
It won’t be that bad. We might even find my heart is made
Of cotton candy and things can be real real sweet

Not full of the old hurt, the suitcases stacked
High to the ceiling, busting through and going halfway to the moon.
I thought I unpacked those old hurts long ago
But when I think of you
I have to wonder if this is a sweet dream
Or a beautiful nightmare. Glue my feet to the earth
For a while so I have a chance to see if I can stand.

Three

You rose from a river to find me in the confusion of woods
I took to you quickly like the way a summer thunderstorm
Just sweeps in and before you know it you’re caught in an unexpected
Downpour that you don’t mind getting soaked by.

Four

In a canoe, side by side in the sea
I’d fly with you in a little plane to the moon
Maybe we’d run into Amelia Earhart and could
Ask her where she’s been and why


Five

I see you by the campfire in your plaid shirt
Your hair glows with the warmth of open flame
Your eyes are still like a river to me
And even though I know how to swim
I’m afraid to fall in

Six

I see the full moon bright through the river trees
High up as we wait for the 6:30 bell—“Fish Now!!!”
Our waders  baptized
By the small wave of trout fin
Oh so lovely to be in
That depth with you (by my side)

I want to fall into waters with you
I want to eat apples by a ravine
Let’s go to Taiwan to the Taroko Gorge
Climb the red spiral steps winding down
A mountain side toward the hot springs

Let’s eat together every single meal
Like a sacred blessing
 And you in all your toughness
Will become the wild boy you always were in your heart.

Seven

I wanted you to become and still be that wild boy
and that’s how I always see you:  Outdoors. In the dirt,
looking at the sky, drinking pure Spring water and spring air,
wearing your shirt sleeves in the chill and loving every minute of it.

I wanted you to become the wild boy you always were in your heart
and when I saw that in you I began to wonder why
I couldn’t start becoming a wild girl in my heart, wearing my waders with sparkly pretty earrings and carrying pink lipstick in my pocket
but still putting the bait on my own hook,
still slitting my own fishes throat.

Eight

Pear blossoms fill the air
So many tourists straggle everywhere
An Indian shop sends sandalwood into the streets

Nine

You still live a world away
Come visit and stay awhile
Let’s go to the Pisgah National Forest in
North Carolina let’s go to Amsterdam, let’s
Go to a lake and find fish shimmering on the ends of our hooks
Everywhere we go, we’ll  feast on wine and homemade bread

Ten

Become the wild man, now. Eat firewood for breakfast.
Break a tree in half just by looking at it. Split the river in two
Just because you can.


 This licensing tag was added to this file as part of the GFDL ...

3 comments:

  1. "I’d fly with you in a little plane to the moon
    Maybe we’d run into Amelia Earhart and could
    Ask her where she’s been and why"
    Between 1930 and 1935, Earhart set seven women's speed and distance aviation records in a variety of aircraft. In 1932 she became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic solo, setting off from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, and landing 14 hours, 56 minutes later in a pasture at Culmore, north of Derry, Northern Ireland. When a farm hand asked, "Have you flown far?" she replied, "From America." She followed that feat by becoming the first person to fly solo from Honolulu, Hawaii to Oakland, California, then flew solo from Los Angeles to Mexico City, before making a nonstop flight from there to Newark, New Jersey. By 1935 she began thinking about the "one flight which I most wanted to attempt – a circumnavigation of the globe as near its waistline as could be." Around-the-world flight had already been accomplished, but hers would be the longest at 29,000 miles (47,000 km). A twin-engine Lockheed Electra 10E monoplane was built to her specifications. Fred Noonan was chosen as navigator; he had established most of Pan Am's China Clipper seaplane routes across the Pacific. Their first attempt ended with a crash on takeoff in Hawaii, but after repairs the duo set off again, this time in an easterly rather than westerly direction. They flew from Oakland to Florida and then left Miami on June 1, 1937. After numerous stops in South America, Africa, India, and Southeast Asia, they arrived at Lae, New Guinea, on June 29. The remaining 7,000 miles (11,000 km) would be entirely over the Pacific. At midnight GMT on July 2, 1937, midnight GMT, they departed from Lae.Their intended destination was Howland Island, 2,556 miles (4,113 km) away, a flat island that measured 6,500 ft (2,000 m) long and 1,600 ft (500 m) wide. However, their last known position report was near the Nukumanu Islands, about 800 miles (1,300 km) into the flight.She lost radio contact at 8:43 AM and disappeared into legend.

    Taroko Gorge is nicknamed "The Marble Gorge," but "taroko" (actually, "truku"). Though the scale is different, its scenic quality resembles the Pisgah National Forest in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Elevations reach over 6,000 feet (1,800 m) and include some of the highest mountains in the eastern United States. (Mount Mitchell, the highest mountain east of the Mississippi River lies just outside the boundary of the national park.)

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  2. There are so many wonderful moments in this poem

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  3. The American national park is named for the biblical Mount Pisgah, Some translators of Deuteronomy translate the word as a name of a mountain, usually referring to Mount Nebo, the highest among the Pisgah summits, directly east of the Jordan River and just northeast of the Dead Sea. In Hebrew "pisgah" means "summit" or "peak," describing a mountaintop or range, but In translation itl ost its meaning and became a mountain's proper name instead. At Mt. Nebo, God commanded Moses to climb up and view the Promised Land.

    "Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the LORD showed him the whole land—from Gilead to Dan, all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Mediterranean Sea, the Negev and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar. Then the LORD said to him, “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.” (Deuteronomy 34:1-4)

    Mount Pisgah was also one of the locations from which the Moabite King, Balak, tried unsuccessfully to persuade the prophet Balaam to curse Israel: "So he took him to the field of Zophim on the top of Pisgah, and there he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar." (Numbers 23:14).

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