September 2018 – Jilly's

Poetry

Red; Green;

Posted on September 24, 2018September 23, 2018 by jillys2016

I graze on violent hay

ruminate

swim for the harbor lights

Gatsby symbolism

in a Li-Young Lee

world where I can’t chew

fast enough to digest

all that this world wants

meeee to doooo

while I search for the gift

of a splinter.

Lillian bids us ‘harbor’ a quadrille over at d’Verse Poet’s Pub. Join us!

The Gift by Li-Young Lee remains a personal favorite. Just finishing a poetry unit in my classroom in which we read and analyze four poems that deal with father-child relationships. Also included are Blood by Naomi Shihab Nye, Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden, and Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll.

Poetry

Sharp Objects

Posted on September 23, 2018September 23, 2018 by jillys2016

jitter shake and tremble, cold cold coffee
slurp
don’t slurp
is it cold or shock
(it’s both)
the copper stars break
jump and jerk in the fan reflection
prince is still on my desk waiting to be ripped he rips
it like none other
only raul gets that too bad he o.d.’d on the cuban
coffee last year back before he almost burned
his place down with that dog with the broken ear too
bad about the coffee i could use some jitter shake and tremble
so i could bludgeon the fears of never seeing god in action
only the neglect that causes the jitter shake and tremble
the shock part coffee brake emergency brake fire break
if you drop it does it break like my
yellow coffee cup on the garage floor
i am too dangerous to be given sharp objects
like anger and despair black and white on the floor of the italian deli
with a splash of red or maybe blue
as we all keep gazing out over the sod and don’t give in to
soccer the devo game according to coach k let’s just load up the bases
raw and pure like that canker sore on my right cheek raw
pure and painful do we stop feeling if we don’t have pain?