We who've joined
newest gathering , are just going along,
singing our 'Spirit-Cloth-Diaries' song.
Wherever we're going,
I'm happy as a kid with new wheels.
I've mulled another Indigo vat
in the deep side of my kitchen sink
gathered t-shirt projects
bits of cloth and things
bits of cloth and things
plant materials
begun doing
waiting
seeing
Life goes on with all it's other demands,
but when I return to my nest
sumac* waits for me
to bundle with and dip
unwrap and look
notice
bits of red and yellow
embedded there
embedded there
winged shapes
here
Meanwhile,
this
this
+ this
= this
Tomorrow?
You Begin
by
You begin this way:
this is your hand,
this is your eye,
that is a fish, blue and flat
on the paper, almost
the shape of an eye.
this is your hand,
this is your eye,
that is a fish, blue and flat
on the paper, almost
the shape of an eye.
This is your mouth, this is an O
or a moon, whichever
you like. This is yellow.
or a moon, whichever
you like. This is yellow.
Outside the window
is the rain, green
because it is summer, and beyond that
the trees and then the world,
which is round and has only
the colors of these nine crayons.
This is the world, which is fuller
and more difficult to learn than I have said.
You are right to smudge it that way
with the red and then
the orange: the world burns.
Once you have learned these words
you will learn that there are more
words than you can ever learn.
The word hand floats above your hand
like a small cloud over a lake.
The word hand anchors
your hand to this table,
your hand is a warm stone
I hold between two words.
This is your hand, these are my hands, this is the world,
which is round but not flat and has more colors
than we can see.
It begins, it has an end,
this is what you will
come back to, this is your hand.
is the rain, green
because it is summer, and beyond that
the trees and then the world,
which is round and has only
the colors of these nine crayons.
This is the world, which is fuller
and more difficult to learn than I have said.
You are right to smudge it that way
with the red and then
the orange: the world burns.
Once you have learned these words
you will learn that there are more
words than you can ever learn.
The word hand floats above your hand
like a small cloud over a lake.
The word hand anchors
your hand to this table,
your hand is a warm stone
I hold between two words.
This is your hand, these are my hands, this is the world,
which is round but not flat and has more colors
than we can see.
It begins, it has an end,
this is what you will
come back to, this is your hand.
*Sumac was gathered in Massachusetts. It makes wonderful pink lemonade
-just soak overnight-a handful in a big jar of water-
