Tuesday 5 May 2020

5 Poems by Joneve McCornick

Questions Emerging From A Dream About Eating A Pet

Does food, like medicine,
heal separation?

when we eat we make what is
not us, our own?

is eating, like touching, a way to know
the illusionary nature of form?

are rules made to be broken
in ways that work

like – bite off more than chewable
if very hungry (and learn what you learn)?




My teacher
(for Minoru Kawabata)

He taught painting in Manhattan,

a wisp of a man, almost transparent,

who knew his world

and what he intended came about.

He didn’t seem to know he was famous.



He found living seeds of promise

on every student’s canvas

and ways to coax forth their powers;

he showed us to more deeply care

and we grew as artists.



Beyond wisdom, missing nothing

he chose the precise words and gestures

to calm the space and lift our spirits.

Though he spoke little English,

he touched our hearts with such elegance

that we outdid ourselves.




Universal Duality


The condition of Duality endures inside and out –

I know yet continue to move one way and another.


Why not – what have I to lose?


Comfort is soon boring

but somewhere there must be

an ‘off the grid’ –

a place beyond repetition


for retiring Faustian souls?



I had

I had exotic plumage once
soft, brilliant green, gold, red
I turned into a swallow
frail and lice-ridden
What was I thinking?



3 Chinese formula poems

Wafting in fragrance
a peach blossom falls.
Blown into the bushes
a love letter is lost.
No one sees.

***

Hidden in weeds
cat watches crow
pulling up a worm.
Overhead a plane purrs
trailing smoke.

***

Under dark sky
pink buildings glow,
a man looks up,
takes deep breaths,
forgets to hurry.


3 haiku

carp swims up my scroll,
turns into silver crescent
predicting long life


elegant bamboo,
the lucky kind, curls 3 times;
yellow base means death


my boots sometimes sink
climbing over a snow bank,
ice cream cone steady


Bionote 

Joneve McCormick hosts and co-hosts several online poetry journals, such as Joneve & Friends, an ongoing web project featuring poems and nature photographs. Her poems, short stories and articles have appeared in various journals, periodicals, anthologies, and on websites such as World Poems. Three Poets: Voices from the West Coast, an ebook which features the poetry of Koon Kau Woon and Changming Yuan along with Joneve's, is available on Amazon. Two solo collections have been published: The Visitor (2019), available on Amazon and Small Bird Bones (chapbook, The New Press, NYC).

No comments:

Post a Comment