December 20, 2018 | Filed Under Poem for Hela | Comments Off on Daily Poem: Pelicans in December ~ J. Allyn Rosser
Pelicans in December
~ J. Allyn Rosser
One can’t help admiring
their rickety grace
and old-world feathers
like seasoned boardwalk planks.
They pass in silent pairs,
as if a long time ago
they had wearied of calling out.
The wind tips them, their
ungainly, light-brown weight,
into a prehistoric wobble,
wings’-end fingers stretching
from fingerless gloves,
necks slightly tucked and stiff,
peering forward and down,
like old couples arm in arm
on icy sidewalks, careful,
careful, mildly surprised
by how difficult it has become
to stay dignified and keep moving
even after the yelping gulls have gone;
even after the scattered sand,
and the quietly lodged complaints.
December 19, 2018 | Filed Under Poem for Hela | Comments Off on Daily Poem: Why Are Your Poems So Dark? ~ Linda Pastan
Why Are Your Poems so Dark?
~ Linda Pastan
Isn’t the moon dark too,
most of the time?
And doesn’t the white page
seem unfinished
without the dark stain
of alphabets?
When God demanded light,
he didn’t banish darkness.
Instead he invented
ebony and crows
and that small mole
on your left cheekbone.
Or did you mean to ask
“Why are you sad so often?”
Ask the moon.
Ask what it has witnessed.
December 18, 2018 | Filed Under Poem for Hela | Comments Off on Daily Poem: Bread and Stars ~ Oktay Rifat
Bread and Stars
~ Oktay Rifat
translated from the Turkish by Sidney Wade and Efe Murad
Bread is in my lap,
Stars are far, far away.
I am eating bread looking at the stars.
I am so engrossed, don’t even ask—
Sometimes I get mixed up and instead of bread
I eat stars.
December 17, 2018 | Filed Under Poem for Hela | Comments Off on Daily Poem: We Hear ~ James A. Clark
We Hear
~ James A. Clark
Every day,
ever-changing:
baby wails,
toddler screeches,
dish shatters,
husband shouts,
wife shrieks,
children whoop,
teenage music,
Pomp and Circumstance,
party laughter,
midnight movie,
Amazing Grace,
ticking clock,
ticking clock,
ticking clock.