Triptych: Jeweled Bones, Left Panel: Tree with No Soil Under It

Byriehlifegrace May 10, 2007May 16, 2008

I fingered the treasures in my pocket as I strolled to the tree that hovered over the creek. It had no soil under it. Roots dangled through the air, then plunged straight and deep into rushing water.

Fish swam between roots. With soil between roots the tree had sheltered a rabbit burrow, not swimming fish.

Snakes and spiders used to meander through these fine hairy roots where now minnows darted and frogs jumped. Big winds roiled the creek.

My head jerked up when the bell clanged to call me home.

Elfen Pocketbook Poem by Alice Thompson (my aunt/my father’s sister)–recovered treasure from the sea of time

Byriehlifegrace December 12, 2007May 16, 2008

My father, in winter hybernating mode, is going through boxes of papers under his desk. Pop writes: “Finding this long-lost piece of literature is the pay for digging into the past. I do not know how old Alice was when she wrote this, but she was married in 1943, at age 27. She signed it…

Heart Talk—poem duet by Grace Madison & Ernest Dempsey

Byriehlifegrace May 24, 2008May 25, 2008

“Deep listening from the heart is one half of true communication. Speaking from the heart is the other half.” —Sara Paddison, author Hidden Power of the Heart When I sent this quotation to my friend Grace Madison (she is the mother of Curt Madison, one of my high school chums who know bases in Alaska),…

“Heartstrings,”–a poem by Daniel Holland

Byriehlifegrace July 15, 2007May 16, 2008

In the early years of my relationship with Daniel–we were together for nine years–we went up North to a weekend Sufi dance camp, invited by a friend. This is in fact, how we met. We met on Valentine’s Day in 1998 at Sandra Wade’s healing arts studio where Barbara Christwitz led circle dances. Daniel couldn’t…

W. S. Di Piero Writes Poetry “out of nerve and instinct.”

Byriehlifegrace April 13, 2007May 16, 2008

Poet, essayist, translator, teacher. W. S. Di Piero says it best: “I’m not an intellectual poet. I write mostly out of nerve and instinct. It’s all a process of taking in the intensities of life and bringing them over into the intensities of words. I’ve believed from the beginning that poetry exists not to simplify…

Riehlife Bonus Poem of the Day: “Mama’s Powder Puff Was Rough and Tough,” by Linda Darnece Jones

Byriehlifegrace April 11, 2008May 16, 2008

I met Linda Darnece Jones at Kwaanza six days into the new year and we started a conversation about her art and poetry. I heard Linda read “Mama’s Powder Puff Was Rough and Tough” at a recent Women’s Art and Vision event and asked her if she’d let us share it on Riehlife, to which…

Triptych: Jeweled Bones, Central Panel: Bones in the Cellar

Byriehlifegrace May 11, 2007May 16, 2008

Mother shooed us into the cellar. I turned my pockets inside out and showed her my discoveries. While we waited for the storm to pass, my mother told us stories: saints’ bones preserved in crypts of faraway cathedrals; healers who told the future by throwing bones as if they were dice; and air-raid cellars in…

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