Catalog: Take Two

I gave up.

But that didn't seem like a final answer.

So I went back to my pencil and paper, and worked on more catalog poems. This one seemed perhaps good enough to share. After I finished it, I realized that very few poets carry on a catalog (repeating the same words) for more than a few lines. Maybe I will try again, using that strategy, but for today, here is one that carries it all the way through...

Like any other day,

you breathe and a tiny piece of the world disappears, slips into
you; I am carried forward by the emptiness
you don't even know how you move me without trying
you exhale and I am like dust that turns in the light
you lift a woolen sleeve, pull, make shadows in the hall. I watch
you press an old latch—it sticks and I realize we still haven't fixed it
you have the smallest fingers, but somehow they struggle through
you stand between me and the world, what will I do if, without turning,
you, like autumn just outside this window, leave, or unleave.


Stream at Rockefeller Park photo, by L.L. Barkat. This post is in honor of One Shot Wednesday.

On, In and Around Mondays: Let Me Place You in Autumn

What do you do, when the rain is falling? I asked. For Autumn has come, and with it the rains.

What do you do when the rain is falling?

Maybe just this. You take the time to set it down. In words, or images. In an afternoon spent walking, pulling someone close. Or just watching a loved-one move in her own space, outside of you, beyond...


Pound Ridge, Autumn

There are so many years
between us,
like these fields
now stand between us; you never stop
moving South, touching
tops of bronzed grass bending
to the weight of September.
I hold quite still, note
that you don't look back.
And I don't want
to look forward.



Pound Ridge in Autumn photos, by L.L. Barkat. This post is also offered as part of One Shot Wednesday.

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On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place.

Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below. If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)