Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Tuesday poem #210 : Laura Walker : psalmody



psalm 84





we fade and lean                                  flesh
                                   


      boxy with yearning



                        sparrows a tumult




                                                                      the rain comes down



                  and a thousand cards lying on the floor              


                                                                                       a thousand cards




psalm 2



we are imagined.

light bounces from the mirror
graying pools across our face         

and all our stories erupt in the same place :

if we look for what’s not repeated

rhizome letters, slant caterpillar’s eye, the
standard tablecloth ashy around the edges


we look and become seen : we are seen and do not know it :


i ask, you are silent, i ask, you are silent, i ask

the others wind their way up the hill




psalm 1


would you choose
to sift away
like a table-book disease



would you bloom
along a street
dust and nooks



what choice you have
sits above the skyline
in a pale blue chair




psalm 8




             a braided moon


             animals under our feet :




psalm 12


i am thinking of faithful
of frail and unanointed

your name a broken door

you are silver     
boiled seven times
a pure thing hung round your neck

like an antidote to fever :




Laura Walker is the author of five books of poetry: story (Apogee Press, 2016), Follow–Haswed (Apogee Press, 2012), bird book (Shearsman Books, 2011), rimertown/ an atlas (UC Press, 2008), and swarm lure (Battery Press, 2004). She lives in Berkeley, California, where she teaches creative writing, battles the varroa mite, and tries to grow tomatoes inappropriate to the climate. More info at laura-walker.com.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan

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