Al-Khemia Poetica: A Women's Arts and Writing Journal: love poetry

Saturday, March 21, 2020

Saturday, March 21, 2020: National Women's Poetry Month: Viola Weinberg Spencer's poem "For Better or Worse"

For Better or Worse

Could I not love you, want you again

Across these many ragged miles?

Is there something on the road?

Be it rut, choke or shabby ditch?

What keeps you from these arms

I know I was never the thin one

The young one, the shy one

With head bobbing like an apple

But look, I have loved you through

Chemo, through all the things they

Did to me? Do you not want me

As I sit here, bathed and oiled

But not precisely the same

Nor will I ever be? Do you not

Want to find another way that

Would make us whole again?

Is there not a way?

Won’t you tell me, my love?

Won’t you caress my white head

And nuzzle my hairless parts

Until our hearts beat like bongos

Until our hearts twist together

Like hands clasping, grasping

For the juicy meat of better or worse

Bio: Viola Weinberg is a poet and writer, and a survivor (thus far) of Stage Four Renal Cell Cancer, a rare cancer without a cure). She was the first Poet Laureate of the sprawling capitol city of Sacramento, California, where she "rode circuit" as a literary ambassador to schools, libraries, state office buildings and gatherings in parks and cafes. In her earlier writing life, Viola was a radio reporter with a seat in the Capitol Press Corps.
Widely published with ten books of poetry, she is also the founder of the Tough Old Broads, a group of four close friends who share 200 collective years of writing. The TOBs produced a collection of their works published by Cold River Press called Tough Enough.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Zabrisky and Rogghe's GREEN LIONS

Is love an alchemical process?
Is it successful, and is it art?
Is poetic collaboration a good idea?

The answer to the first question is “yes.”

The answer to the second question are a bit more complicated. Love changes us, irrevocably, and most often times, not for the better, or that’s what the modern world would have us believe. The answers to the second question, at least, poetically speaking, are revealed in Green Lions (© 2014 Numina Press), a collaboration of love poems by Zarina Zabrisky and Simon Rogghe.

Green Lions employs the alchemical elements; water, fire, air, earth, and ether (or spirit), and the Major Arcana from the Tarot, to tell the story of two people who fall in love, where the process takes, and how it changes them. The voices of Zabrisky and Rogghe start off, predictably, as diverse as two people can be, with Zabrisky as the dominant voice, and Rogghe gentlemanly following in her wake. But as these two talented poets work their way into intimacy, and as the process of poetic courtship progresses, they enter into each other’s hearts and minds, and,the writing becomes much more unified in tone and language, as in the poem ‘Equestrian Seduction Duet” (This is Not a Poem About Horses)”:

I would like to know

how does it feel

on your fingertips

when you touch them

on the neck.

warm? soft?

scratchy?

do your fingertips tingle

with warmth afterwards?

would mine?

if you touch a brown horse

would your fingertips glow

with soft brown light?

Their skin is soft

Their neck is hard -

Running your fingers

Through a horse’s crest

Covers them with a sticky coat

You can roll in little clusters.

In the texture of reality.

The elbow grease of beauty,

The imprint of a friendship.

if you kiss a horse

between the eyes

do your lips feel salty?

To kiss a horse

Between the eyes

Is very much like

When you kiss a woman:

It may well turn its head

If it isn’t in the mood.

A horse kiss, rather,

is a gentle bite, a scratch.

But when your lips

Have grazed the surface

Of a horse’s face,

They know

A different kind of music:

I’ve kissed a horse

And tasted sweat

When riding in the desert;

One time

There was a pouring rain -

My lips seemed

To be stained with tears;

Another time

It was the dead of winter -

My mouth crackled

With the electricity

Of warm skin and dry air.

I want to know more.

tell me,

are horses

lonely creatures -

like people -

like islands -

like cities -

like lovers -

Sometimes a horse can’t eat

Because of mourning,

Just like we can’t

When we’re stressed out -

Maybe in love -

Do they

know how to be true friends?

Their conduct is impeccable:

Treat them right

And they will do the same.

Coupled with the simple, lyrical poems are Zabrisky’s lovely black and white illustrations, which nicely compliment the poetic discourse.

The answer to the third question is subjective in nature, but based on my personal experience, I’ve not read a collaborative work that came together so well as Green Lions, especially one that is so easy and profound to fall into, and is both unforgettable and entertaining.