Catch and Release

•August 26, 2013 • Leave a Comment

Tombstones line the mountain’s face
Like rows of planted pines
A temporary sense of permanence
We like to think unmoved by time

But trees and tombstones topple
Lakes and lochs they rise and fall
And we will pass more quickly
Though we pretend to outlive all

Like catching newts and holding them
We let life crawl between our hands
But soon we choose a kind release
A child returning life back to the land

So pull me near as night descends
A family around the fire
Let’s eat and drink and whisper sweet
Before these wondrous days expire

— April Resnick

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Locust Lake State Park, by Adam Resnick

Adrift

•August 19, 2013 • 2 Comments

I am untethered
A green globe drifting, floating
Party balloon of the gods
Foiled favor gone too far, let go
Having given up the ghost
Denied the host
A proper gift, goodbye
I will not be played with
POP!

— April Resnick

20130819-195840.jpgGreen Balloon, by Tonya Engel

Average Children (repost)

•August 17, 2013 • Leave a Comment

I feel sorry for the little ones,
That evoke not one response,
For I birth and love them just the same,
As those that gather praise at once.

I am always glad I held them,
Especially those that show no skill,
For even they reflect some part of me,
When writing nothing never will.

— April Resnick

writerWriting Home by Daniel Gerhartz

I decided perhaps to repost some older poems, for people who are newly following my blog.  But I will repost based on current feelings, struggles, events in my life.  Currently I am learning a lot about myself and my writing by writing down every poem that comes to me (published or not) because even the “bad” ones lead me somewhere.

Numb

•August 16, 2013 • Leave a Comment

Meditation in the dentist chair
While my face goes numb
The only tool that I possess
To keep me from going on the run

I feel my legs stick to the plastic
My heart is racing, heavy tongue
The piped in pop song taunting me
Yes it’s Friday, and at the moment NOT in love

The nerves along my lips and chin
Equal parts creeping and vibrating
Hell! I might be biting off my cheek
Heart rate slowed, fear not abating

It’s hard to feel the breath beneath my nose
With my upper lip anesthetized
Footsteps behind, instruments aligned
Throw my head back, it’s drilling time

Details are much more crystallized
My bite too small they prop it up
Newly noticed sounds and aches and smells
Surprising comfort from a hand in glove

Now I’m sipping coffee through a straw
Trying not to drool, or chew my tongue
Home at last, my trigger passed
I did not escape, dissociate, and I am glad…

…that it is done

— April Resnick

Dentist-sir-john-laveryThe Dentist, by Sir John Lavery

Meditation: An Intimate Act

•August 14, 2013 • Leave a Comment

An article I wrote for another blogger, author, meditator, Glenn Wallis.  He is a mentor who I respect very much.  Enjoy.

http://speculativenonbuddhism.com/2013/08/13/meditation-an-intimate-act/#comment-19156

aprilRaining, by Diego Fernandez

Here is a link to the original poem, the form is a little different:  https://sometimesihatemycat.com/2013/01/30/sensitive-to-the-whole/

Quake

•August 13, 2013 • 2 Comments

Something is happening
Is it the same old something
That delivers us daily from
One moment to the next
Except that we never notice
Too afraid to see the ever-changing
Slow drift of our own continent

Or is this a new movement of earth
Far beyond tectonic shifting
Plates and poles reversing
Proper axis denied
A pressure wave portending
Change causing near vomit
Ears to ring, life to spin conversely

Am I safe, sound
Or will the solid ground
Undulate beneath my feet
Wild walls creaking pictures falling
Wine glasses clinking and singing out
Their cracking into each other
Nothing left unshaken

Or is this boredom, mediocrity
Having its wily way with me

–April Resnick

broken_anne_diggory

Broken, by Anne Diggory

Faith vs Works

•August 12, 2013 • Leave a Comment

I cannot write

You cannot make me

Damn it!

It is written

–A.R.

articles-of-faith-Dave-JordanoArticles of Faith, series of photographs by Dave Jordano

http://www.davejordano.com/index.php#mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=0&p=0&a=2&at=0

(I found this scribbled in a corner of one of my notebooks from years ago.  I think I authored it, but who’s to say where the inspiration came from. I very well could have gotten the idea from another poet or a fellow writer in my class. )

Transmission

•August 11, 2013 • Leave a Comment

Standard gears are grinding down
A possible momentum shift
Feeling but not forcing them
That is the trick
Now isn’t it?

— April Resnick

 

50j_tr_13

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photograph from when Volkswagen experimented with four-wheel drive technology during WWII

http://ranwhenparked.net/2013/02/06/a-look-at-the-experimental-four-wheel-drive-volkswagen-bus/

Shatter

•August 8, 2013 • Leave a Comment

There is a fragile friend who sits with me
She begs to let her stay intact
To hear the cracks but look away
No, I cannot commit that act

There is nothing left but shatter her
Into dust with what I write
Perhaps it hurts to read the words
Yet the living of it deadly quiet

That friend in me who seeks comfort
While all around her self implodes
She must break apart to finally start
An honest walk with heavy load

— April Resnick

shatter & spillShatter & Spill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcga0PvyBCc

Full

•August 7, 2013 • 2 Comments

Life
There it is
That weighted pendulum
Pointing through me to the earth
My silence has not stopped it swinging
Only allowed me to feel the tug on my guts
Helped me to hear the movement of molecules
Created when it circles and stirs my insides
Were I to cut it only to lighten my middle
My vital organs would surely scatter
Leaving me an empty floating husk
No, I walk heavy on the ground
I will sit still to feel the pull
Emptiness can wait
It can visit when
I die

— April Resnick

Plumb bob & Haiku Islands_WIHK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plumb Bob and Haiku Islands, by Claire Beynon