After Ola Gjeilo’s The Lake Isle
Your bright
soundscapes
generate
a remedy
for uninspired
hearts.
Blest by vespers
the restive muse
rustles
in willowy
crescendos of
your song.
Rhythms flutter.
Imaginings
awaken as
melodies collide
in manifold
climaxes.
Every note
a salvific
breath
transcending
pandemic
grief.
Marie Marchand 2022
I kneel at the petunias with palmfuls of water
and because nature prizes reciprocity
the purple velvet choir rains hosannas over me.
I greet the stately Vanderwolf pine
whose silvery pom poms bounce in the wind
on the vibratory frequency of joy.
Our sagely Ginkgo might live a thousand years
because…
this day is a gift
this allotment of time, grace
this amazing breath, wonder
this birdsong, blessing
this is the one day
happening now
the only thing
here
a compilation of moments
making a whole, now
say yes
breathe in peace
breathe out turmoil, past hurts
breathe in forgiveness of others and…
Poetry
I happened to be in the grocery store
the moment I gave up for good.
An elderly woman paused in passing
and as if she could see the mound
of broken ribs in my mind
said to me:
“It’s time to shed your stone, Atlas.”
Her tone and delivery were…
When you walked away,
you were already half gone.
I just didn’t see it
though I should have guessed.
Rouge, crimson lips, high heels
after the rain. All that elegance.
Proud and aroused, I fawned
in your perfumed wake.
What are we celebrating?
You paused under an awning
to tell me…
caught in moontides
at twilight
briny seawater
scrubs & sears
my lungs
a hypnotic pulse
illumines the shore
my beacon
you pull me from
the noose of
shipwreck nets
& frothwaves
stitch me together
pin roses in my hair
& make me beautiful
cortisol rivulets
dig troughs
in my brain
from past schisms…
Wind whispers in the
labyrinthine hollows of
my ears. A whoosh of sea
sounds, waves overtaking my
fissured frame. I’m listening.
Which secrets? The ones
we crafted together?
Or those you brought
already gift-wrapped?
I’m listening.
All I wanted was for
you to touch me
in the language of
aliveness, to…
