Ghazal of the Open Water

This entry is part 54 of 95 in the series Morning Porch Poems: Winter 2010-11

Bird silhouettes go up and down the laddered
dogwood branches; in the ditch, a strip of open water.

How do they thrive upon so little?
Their shadows ripple like blooms upon the open water.

Riding back from the city on a train, swaths
of farmland, then the flash of open water.

The days, so cold and riddled with damp rain.
And still I’d rather have the clarity of open water.

These months and years have strung their tears
and prayers together: o grant us passage now to open water.

In response to today’s Morning Porch entry (via Blackberry).

About

Via Negativa is a unique experiment in daily, poetic conversation with the living and the dead. Dave Bonta founded the site in 2003 and Luisa A. Igloria joined in 2010. Guest authors contribute as well. Dave writes daily erasure poems to discover the poetry hidden in the Diary of Samuel Pepys. Luisa has been writing and posting a poem a day since November 2010, often in response to Dave’s entries at The Morning Porch. Collections of poems first published at Via Negativa include Luisa’s The Buddha Wonders if She is Having a Mid-Life Crisis and Ode to the Heart Smaller than a Pencil Eraser, and Dave’s Ice Mountain and Breakdown: Banjo Poems. Read more…

Authors

marly youmans says:

February 6, 2011 at 9:16 pm

Another interesting batting-back-and-forth between you two.

1. Dave Bonta says:
  
  February 6, 2011 at 9:50 pm
  
  Thanks, but I think it’s more like I’m pitching and she’s hitting (in this case, out of the park).
  
  1. Luisa A. Igloria says:
    
    February 6, 2011 at 10:55 pm
    
    Hmm, you saying I don’t color inside the lines? :)
    
    1. Luisa A. Igloria says:
      
      February 6, 2011 at 11:43 pm
      
      Marly, were you at the AWP in DC?

4 Replies to “Ghazal of the Open Water”