WATERMARK

a poet’s notebook

Established 02004

grief

July 12, 2006

Snapshot Poem 12 July 02006

my past is stalking me that shadow by the gate the rigid body of a squirrelnose-down in the gravel a child’s high, thin voicethe scent of old lovers green tomatoes on the vinebombs in Mumbai, blood on the pavement — heatabductions, rage and retributions, this solid grief heavy at the throat an ivory necklace carved… Continue reading

Snapshot Poems 2006

grief, poem, poetry, Snapshot Poem
January 25, 2006

Snapshot 25 January 02006

MP3 File When I went to New York, to bring my brother home, he was well into the wasting of the disease. He looked like an animated corpse. He asked me to hold him, to share his bed — it had been so long since he’d been touched, held, by anyone. And so I did;… Continue reading

Audio Post, Snapshot Poems 2006

death, grief, life, poem, poetry, Snapshot Poem
June 30, 2005

Sunset and Sorrow

I must ask for your patience. There has been a death in my family; not a surprising one, but I am surprised by my need to just sit with it for awhile. There will be no Friday Cat Blogging tomorrow. Perhaps on Saturday. The Carnival of the Cats will, however, be here on Sunday —… Continue reading

Friday Cat Blogging 4, Personal, Photos 2005

Carnival of the Cats, Friday Cat Blogging, grief, photograph
March 9, 2005

Snapshot 09 March 02005

There are dreams but I sleep past them. I wake in sun and pain. Joe is dying and I ignore it. I bury myself in books and other distractions; in television and other detachments.My head is encased in foam. It floats Continue reading

Photos 2005, Snapshot Poems 2005

grief, poem, poetry, sunset
March 5, 2005

Evasion

On my morning walk, a young couple asks me where is ***? and I point and hear myself say y’ur look’n attit — and who would guess that this fat, slow woman, with her ungroomed dogs and wild hair, comes home to write elegant poems? I have been feeling — evasive — (this is not… Continue reading

Personal, Photos 2005

anger, feminism, grief, rage, women

DISCLAIMERS:

Artificial Intelligence

I do not use AI to write. I believe writing is thinking, and I prefer to do my own. If/when I post anything here that I suspect or know to be AI generated, I will tell you.

Poems

Please do not assume that I am the speaker/ subject of my poems.

In these times of creative nonfiction and fictionalized memoirs, I think of the poem itself as true fiction: it is most likely not factual, but it must be true.

It is likely to be — it is best if it is — a truth I did not know before I wrote, and may not understand even then.

A poem is my way of discovering (dis-covering) what I feel; sometimes, what I think — but it is not necessarily biographical.

grief

Snapshot Poem 12 July 02006

Snapshot 25 January 02006

Sunset and Sorrow

Snapshot 09 March 02005

Evasion