A Daily Dose of Poetry

A Hundred Falling Veils

• Self-Portrait as Root Vegetable January 28, 2023
    It’s science, of course,how the sugars in beetswill caramelize when heated,a process that includes conversion,condensation, dehydration,collisions, and the formationof thousands of volatile compounds.And though it’s not simple,and though this process of sweeteningis not fully understood,sweetening happens. Every time.Is it wrong this gives me hopefor other hard and bitter things?Just asking the question,already I feel myself […]
  Rosemerry
• Video on Online Weekend Writing Retreat March 11-12 January 28, 2023
  Your perspective matters. How you see the world—the way you meet even the smallest moment—affects everyone and everything in the world around you. The stories you tell yourself and others create the big conversation—what are we doing here? What does it mean to be alive?  But practically speaking, how do we change our perspective? How […]
  Rosemerry
• Hymn January 27, 2023
  The shocking tender curl of him,   wild river, raging, rush of him,     the eddied, lazy swirl of Sunday   morning sleepy smile of him,the flood-stage leaping wave of him,   high overflowing shores of him,     torrential reckless course of him,       now empty, unfilled banks of—     dry barren rocky bed of—   the utter lack of here of—the pray-for-rain […]
  Rosemerry
• When Donavan Plays Classical Guitar January 26, 2023
             for Donavan Dailey  The heart perhaps thought it was openuntil a moment of silence is followed by fingersflying across nylon strings and then, with no warning,the heart breaks open as a high alpine meadow in June,splays wide as a snow-deep cirque midwinter,is exposed as a woman sitting in the first rowwith tears spilling down her cheeks.The […]
  Rosemerry
• On Drinking the Last Cup of Mariage Frères Marco Polo Tea January 25, 2023
  I didn’t stop what I was doingto enjoy the exotic red fruity notes,didn’t pause my busy mindto cherish the bold dark leaves.That’s not to say I didn’t love drinking the tea.I did. Every velvety sip.And as I pulled the final muslin sachetfrom the classic black box lined with gold foil,I thought of the womanwho had […]
  Rosemerry
• Down the Rabbit Hole January 24, 2023
  It’s the Year of the Rabbit,and I can’t help but thinkof the photo of my sonthe week before he diedholding a white rabbit in Ecuador—a rabbit he bought and loved for an hour.“Mom,” he said through the phone,“can I bring home a rabbit? Please?”I told him it wouldn’t make it through customs,but he could buy […]
  Rosemerry
• Starlings in Winter January 23, 2023
  for Christie Deep in the snowy woods,we startle at the soundof starlings as they braidabove the branches.How often do I missthe song of the moment?But today, beside youI could not missthe sweet shushing of skis,the sacred huff of breath,the lyric of our laughterand the strong refrain of my heartas it wheeled like a starling,a wild […]
  Rosemerry
• After Peeling the Beets January 22, 2023
  I resist peeling beets,hate wearing their red tinton my hands,but today, the thoughtof sweet roasted beetswas enough to make meovercome my reticence.Later, I notice it is impossibleto feel separate and alonewhen my hands wear the evidenceof what they have touched.I find myself wishingeveryone could see on my skinhow my life has been marked by you,how […]
  Rosemerry
• Tonight, When I Turn Right on Ogden January 21, 2023
  Another part of me turns left,and it is fifteen years agoand I am driving to my parents’ new homeand my son and I will spend the night with thembecause they live there and we can.By the time I turn onto the highway toward homeit is fifteen years agoand my father is sitting in his favorite […]
  Rosemerry
• Lone Tree Cemetery, Mid-January January 20, 2023
              for Clea  We can go up there, she said,nodding to the where the grave markerwas buried beneath feet of snow.She knew it meant post holingup over our knees. Uphill.This, I thought, is true friendship.So we wallowed through driftsand laughed as we tripped. And when we arrived at the placewhere the ashes of my boy are buried,I […]
  Rosemerry