"Concoctions from Everyday Life"

Wow, I've been posting a lot lately. Never a dull moment in the life, let me tell you...

I've been going through much of my old belongings while organizing everything in my new room.. you know the types of things; those stupid little momentos from high school like yearbooks, old college notebooks filled with research papers that I just keep saying "I'll just hold onto these... I found a book of poetry put together by myself and some of my classmates. My high school felt the need to enrich students with cultural opportunities, so we often had month long residencies in poetry, dance, and song-writing. The book, titled Concoctions from Everyday Life was created during one such residency. It's not a particularly great book, and everytime I see it I think of throwing it out but couldn't stand the thought of throwing out the poetry of some of my best high school friends, so I decided to rip out the poems I wanted and throw the excess away. I want to share two poems from the book. One of them was written by my residency group during a brainstorming session, and the other was written by me. (I actually wrote TONS of poetry in highschool, some of which isn't too bad... if you want to see it ask me about it!) (editing note: Blogspot apparantly doesn't like it when I try to seperate the lines, so until I have the time to edit the html to create spaces, // will be used to seperate each stanza)

This one was written by the group about our wonderful hometown, Kent OH. It's kind of cheesey, but I like it because now so much has changed that many of what we wrote about no longer describes Kent. It's a reminder of all the little things we used to take comfort in:

Song of Kent

//

Meditate for a moment

//

This is a place where

ideas originate

from the vibrant minds

just passing through

//

Playing on sidewalks cracked

Playing on Kent State grass

Fraternity boys dancing in their underwear

//

From Brady Lake to Sugarbush Knolls

East side, West side, Kent's too small to divide

//

One dollar movies

and railroad tracks

walking with friends

and no destination

//

So many windows

to shops and to souls

Many faces in

downtown on halloween

//

Drinking water is alright

under bright traffic lights

Muddy polluted waters of the cuyahoga

//

Middle school productions

and Friendly's restaurant

Old masonic temple with

myths growing like weeds

//

Music lives everywhere

art lives around the corner

sister and brother, they go hand in hand

//

Get crew cuts at low prices

make lots of honest friends

educated people

with beer bellies

//

Meditate for a moment

//

enter into the warm, happy

peaceful music

song of Kent

//

Ok, now this is the one I wrote. No laughing... It's kind of freaky that I wrote this before the terrorist attacks on the world trade center, but I think I was actually writing in reaction to bombing Bosnia (I don't remember, it was a long time ago) Someone reading it now would think it is about the falling of the towers, but it was written in '98:

The Beautiful

//

The old woman

breathes the whisper of a prayer.

Elegantly poised,

she stares at the shoreline

taking it in.

//

Her pale green face

is wretched in anguish

as she silently cries out

the thunderous roar

of passive rage.

//

Her children weep uncontrollably

moaning their horror,

looking to their fallen mother

as she stands rigid,

gazing.

//

As the white smoke clears

from over crystal blue ocean,

she can see a crimson ribbon

running from coast to coast.

//

she will not be crippled.

she will not be lamed;

this weary mother

who stands, gazing.