"may comets swirl in the leaves"

 

 

Note: Ti Kuan Yin, Guanyin, or Iron Goddess of Mercy, is one of the most prized oolong teas. This poem is a Fibonacci sonnet with ostensible mathematical references to the Argand Diagram and Huygens's Principle of Diffraction. 

"To the Iron Goddess of Mercy" was first published in Frostwriting, Issue 12, 2014 and in my award-winning book The Frangible Hour (University of Evansville Press, 2016). 

Click HERE for info on the Fibonacci Sonnet.

 

To the Iron Goddess of Mercy

light

ze-

roes on

the table

its wavelets bending

falling crest over trough into

the imaginary axis of reality

 

as I take my Krazy-Glued teacup out of hiding

may the kettle whistle softly

may the day stay calm

may comets

swirl in

the

leaves

 

My gift to you . . .

 

 

 "Bequeathal" was first published in The Raintown Review, Volume 7, Issue 2, December 2008, and subsequently in my Canadian collection, Glad and Sorry Seasons (Biblioasis, 2014).

 

Bequeathal

For my children

 

Unlike the lilac bush that knows

its spikes will weather winter’s snows,

I’ve yet to find the wherewithal

to rightly come to terms with fall.

 

In forests full of empty nests,

withered boughs, November guests,

I seek but find no feathered thing,

no green remembrances of spring.

 

All that I have, now summer’s gone,

are love notes from a lexicon.

My gift to you, this fragile bud —

inheritance of ink and blood.