Even Vinegar and Rust

 

 

we seek for the authentic

even vinegar and rust

to wholly nourish us

full strength and in the moment

we seek lyrics for our thought

nouns of amethyst and pearl, and

adjectives of stained glass windows, and

verbs to sting like honey dripping bees

we sip euphony from skylarks

savor cadence clarity

tongue their syllables of pulse

oh … we crave a braver music

to fill our marrow bones

 

Bonnie Marshall

Artist: Ilka Gedo

 

 

 

Dear Readers, Amazon.com now carries a paperback edition of  Chance and Timing: Poetry in which I include the above “Even Vinegar and Rust.”  Should you buy this my second book of poetry, please tell me so I may thank you.  Even if not,  know I greatly appreciate my readers and value their comments and especially their “likes.”

 

The Taste of Sea in Salt

 

 

Pacific Ocean swash
leaves hints upon the sand
of its nether world below

discards abyssal remnants
for moon jellyfish dissolve
and blue mussel shell wreck
and blur of flea hazed kelp

erases imprint of a barefoot path
mizzles spray soak to a chill
and dims wave crash to a hiss

between our separate range
there will be no translation
no easy blending to exist

only recognition of circumference
where the taste of sea in salt
is faint as watermark

 

Bonnie Marshall

Artist: John Miller

To Love Like Alchemists

 

 

They … love like alchemists
choosing costly feeling shades
from their essential palate
reduced in the immediate
to rare precious elements
they refine like lead to gold.

She … pinches saffron pistils
in cool morning harvests
their moist crimson threads
she finger tips from crocus
to distill a golden savor
to increase their passion.

He …  plucks iridescent beetles
from arid desert cacti
choice dew sipping jewels
he pestles in a mortar
with salt and oil to scarlet
for their lips and kisses.

They … from Grecian cliffs
pick spiny snails
to milk for Tyrian dye.

They … stain purple love knots
upon each other’s wrists
and a place upon the neck
to reify lacunae.

 

Bonnie Marshall

Artwork by Peter Lee

mead hall time of year

 

it’s a mead hall time of year with me
with cravings for smoked shadows
salt crystalled cod and clove mulled wine
crisp partridge and roast deer
the heart strong wild of bear…

for I must taste strong flavors
touch sweat from sharp stone walls
smooth splinters roughed in pine

drip tallow on my palm
watch dust motes drift in shafts of light
hear sighs of sea-born rain
gnaw shreds of happiness
from bones of memory.

Bonnie Marshall

Art by Julian Beever

to congregate with maskers

I shall congregate with maskers
circle dance their holy ground…
lift its soft warm dust to clouding
with my bare…bare tender feet

ki-tana-po, ki-tana-po, ki-tana-po
ai-na, ki-na-wchi, ki-na-weh

take up chants…petition spirit
croon a cadence rise and fall…
imbrue thought…and bear the
weight of a vast imagining

chi-li-li-cha, chi-li-li-cha
don-ka-va-ki, mas-i-ki-va-ki

stretch my arms to the horizon
caress air with open palms…
shoulder weave above the plaining
and think locus to the earth

kive, kive-na-meh, kive-na-meh
kive, kive-na-meh, kive-na-meh

for I’ve access…if I wish it
to a universal voice…I’ll overlay
significance…I’ll imagine wisdom
in its ancient keening howl or…
its whispering syllables

ki-tana-po, ki-tana-po, hopet*

 

Bonnie Marshall

Artwork by John Farnsworth

“Apache Mountain Spirit Mask

*The ancient Hopi words of this chant have lost their English equivalent.