Riehlife Poem-of-the-Day: “Small Machine,” by Ernie Wormwood

Ernie Wormwood is a dear friend of my dear friend and collaborator, Stephanie Farrow. Ernie is a mother, animal lover, transformative meditator, and poet. She lives in Leonardtown, Maryland.

Recently, she published in Poetic Voices Without Borders 2 and in The Poet’s Cookbook. You can hear Ernie read “The Poet and the Poem” on Grace Cavalieri’s Library of Congress webcast.

Watch for Ernie’s new work in Gargoyle. A new version of The Poet’s Cookbook in German will be out later this year. Read Ernie Wormwood’s blog to be delighted.

“Small Machine” was published in Pirene’s Fountain, May, 2009.

Janet
_______________

Small Machine

Made of voices
tiny and mammoth
it began

in some cave
or behind a Chinese screen
sometimes, as a slight humming

reminiscent of the Zulu.
A fly can bring it.
No electrical power needed

just power.
I think a woman
gave birth to it

but they took it away,
it didn’t look
like the baby they wanted.

Anyway, that’s what Rilke
named it, one night
all alone, thinking about living forever

and what could run it.