Tag: Poems

HEART TURNING

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

1

the next afternoon’s commute
some necessary grounding (even for a bird or sunlight

the worst New Hampshire and Massachusetts flooding
since the hurricane of ’38
(10 inches of rain, a record

mostly a funk – everybody in Meeting

“I’m alive but I’m not living”
a quote from Iran

LOOSE
ENDS
(will the clutter ever end?

2

the drive north, in desperation / desolation
my heart turning toward the green Old Ways

I’ve always been a night owl

maybe Laurie was the last stop or opportunity
for the glitzy road
Yuppie / Muppie
I seemed to desire

my life now more stripped down, practical, earthy
in Rachel’s manner
compost bins and raised beds
this old house / its endless repairs

let’s go for a swim

3

sharp light and air
high wispy golden and rose clouds
lots of pale blue
plus the mountains

fresh from the pasture
the herd you keep milking
silage to store for winter
to empty, come spring

in moonlight across my estate

To continue, click here.

PRELUDE & FUGUE 47 /

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

beach umbrellas at the foot of the sagging pier, forever
towels wrapped in ribbons on a sandstone floor

*   *   *

don’t know this beach as a sandstone floor
how long a floor measures good fortune
wrapped in sandstone ribbon
this beach a long floor
doesn’t good fortune wrap itself in ribbon
knowing this how long
a good beach wrapped sandy fortune

kiss my face running with
new black Eagle purity at the soapy foot
of umbrellas she’ll kiss my

pure soapy Eagle face
while umbrellas run with new black
at her foot I’ll kiss this

new black soap opening
umbrellas forever facing
my Eagle kiss in the foot run pure

soap face Eagle
umbrellas run at the foot
forever new black

~*~

Poem copyright 2016 by Jnana Hodson
To see all 50 Preludes & Fugues, click here.

 

STARTING OVER DINNER

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

the scene broke up the night D and V
connected the same time R and M did

all in one apartment . for me
only torment and loss

her haunted poster of the gaunt Gypsy
came off the wall a week later

~*~

of course, the living arrangements
would change . “when I first met you,
you were giving off funky vibes
like at a 90-degree angle . all nervous energy”
of course, we remained friends
for a while

~*~

there they were
like a bad novel
on Doubleday Street

there, he smiled from the kitchen
“anyone want some cooked garbage”

To continue, click here.
Copyright 2015

PURPORT

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

I confess everything
I’m guilty
even when it comes to crime
I’ve failed
I can’t even lie, if I try
as for confronting an issue
I understand none of the charges

they say a house
even an old house
settles
but that’s not precisely
accurate, where
sinking
and sagging
are more apt

Poem copyright 2016 by Jnana Hodson
To see the full set of Partitas, click here.

WITH OR WITHOUT GOLDILOCKS

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

the hunting and fishing store’s
second-floor display window

overlooking the Auburn Traffic Circle
presented three bruins in some arrested motion

of taxidermist art
Mama Bear, Papa Bear, Little Baby Bear

as I mumbled spiraling past,
amused and annoyed many mornings

when nighttime burglars cleaned the place out
investigators didn’t look to children’s stories

rather, they sought someone with a truck bed
that wasn’t too little and not too big but just right

all the same, in the end, they
collared more juvenile delinquents

To continue, click here.
Copyright 2015

PRELUDE & FUGUE 29/

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

such a beautifully speckled trout
balancing on its head

*   *   *

n June
swirling
a long fish
a fish as long as the boy

a boy balancing a large fish on his head
in June swirling a long fish

a fish as long as the boy
a boy balancing a large fish on his head in June
swirling

a long fish as long as the boy
balancing a large fish on his head

red, yellow, blue, and green
under a decorative fish such a beautifully
speckled trout of a man running
back with quahogs and a tan Beyond Frog Hollow
tours halibut? red, yellow, blue, and green
man running tours under a decorative
fish back with quahogs and a tan
halibut? such a beautifully speckled trout
Beyond Frog Hollow red, yellow, blue, and green
a man running tours of halibut?
I really do need to get to know fish:
how to identify them under a decorative
beautifully speckled trout
red, yellow, blue, and green back with quahogs
and a tan Beyond Frog Hollow man runs
tours under decorative quahogs and a tan halibut or
such beautifully speckled trout Beyond Frog Hollow
I really do need to identify

~*~

Poem copyright 2016 by Jnana Hodson
To see all 50 Preludes & Fugues, click here.

SCROLL ON A SNAIL

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

From the stone tower atop Blue Hill
Boston’s skyscrapers resemble tombstones

“Daddy, did you build those?” A pause.
“Well, did somebody build them?”

Let us now delineate an array
of solar and lunar expectations
parenting the human condition

~*~

This sawtooth display
counters basic nature

spirals, branching, honeycomb
So which one are you coursing?

~*~

On my parking spot, Brianna’s
blue-and-purple chalk spells out

BELLE
BEAST

– perhaps she has the story straight
where beauty’s rainbow masks terror

Even a fruitcake granny can see
“He needs to get right with the Lord”

~*~

I’ve gone tracing
THE OLD SANTA FE SNAIL

Some rain. Some sun
The labor spreads before me

poem copyright by Jnana Hodson
(originally appeared in the journal Indigo)

WISHING TO BE SEVENTEEN ONCE AGAIN

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

the waitress popped up with the usual
“how are you today?”
but rather than trying
to cover up with a phony “fine”
I said instead, “rotten”
and she did a double-take and came back

by the end of the meal, we were both laughing

~*~

arguing we needed music that reflected the Machine Age?
discomfort, bottled up until exploding

and when buzzed by a sailplane
I was all skull, brain, thought, memory

tried sunbathing just now: too restless
wishing to be seventeen again

SHOOT, IT’S A KILLER

the underlying reason for these orthodontics?)

~*~

“well, if you do find a way
to become seventeen, they can’t
throw you in jail!”)

two calls in a day, one wanting
the bank’s certificate of deposit department

and another an alleged beverage survey
calling long-distance from Philadelphia
for the youngest female in my household
(a likely story, probably an obscene phone call

that got hung up on) . old wounds have reopened

To continue, click here.
Copyright 2015

HEARTBEAT

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

she’s the one with the comb and scissors

the fruit of my womb

for her thirteenth birthday
she wanted a rented limousine
six hours, unlimited mileage, to sashay

through the Mystery Cafe “where murder
is always on the menu” but even then
adjusting our calendars was the killer

maybe I’d appreciate the suggested list
to just pull the trigger
against Mother Nature and Aging

what I was fit to tap out this evening

please stay tuned or advise with directions

crazy for lovers

Adam and Eve at puberty, separated by a large apple

a red candle-lit cloud kiosk on Copley Square in Boston

let you peruse the 

apple perched on a suspended steamer trunk

a map of European geology free of political borders

Poem copyright 2016 by Jnana Hodson
To see the full set of Partitas, click here.

PRELUDE & FUGUE 39/

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

a dingy moored on still water
dancing to Bix tonight
in front of the boulder and island

*   *   *

in front of the boulder and island
moored on still water
spires, houses, and the brick millyard
red between granite

a dingy in front of the boulder and island
moored on still water spires,
houses, and the brick millyard

red between granite
a dingy
in front of the boulder and island
moored on still water

spires, houses, and the brick millyard
red between granite
a dingy

dancing to Bix tonight in a blue lake
against mountains reflected foliage
along a green river moose drab
on a sandbar amid dancing to Bix
tonight foliage along a green river
in a blue lake against mountains moose
amid reflected sallow dancing tonight
foliage along a green river, Bix on a sandbar
looking down from the hill in blue
lake against mountains dancing
to Bix tonight moose dun foliage along
a green river sandbar in blue mountains
against moose reflections looking down the hill

~*~

Poem copyright 2016 by Jnana Hodson
To see all 50 Preludes & Fugues, click here.