Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Plea My Heart (Poem)

Plea My Heart

I am waiting for the black olive
trees to re-root, for the almonds

to fall and be gathered, for those
corals to flame in Tel Aviv, and dry

wood in Wadi Ram to drift to fires
dying in the desert chill. The crowns

of thorns lie trampled, common reeds
poor substitutes for bowls of green-

leaved and roasted wheat. Blue lupines
thicken in the arid valleys while I wait

for the wild carrot to come to market,
for figs to pull from strings. Where

palms adorn the temple, so god dwells.
Yet I am tired, waiting to forget how

a day's dust collects on every tongue
of every family exiled, how sojourns

on broken mountain tops never end,
and guns' sounds deafen the hungering

for love. I am waiting for all grown men
to put down their stones, for the boys

to put away their slings and race home
to mothers for one sweet kiss, or two.

Show me how creek beds cleft spaces
for words to fill, the way water runs

clear and pure through a thirsty land,
and I will write no more of waiting

but turn and face you to plea my heart.

© 2015 Maureen E. Doallas
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I wrote the poem that appears above two days ago, too late to submit to the Silver Birch Press "I Am Waiting" series, a beautiful collection of poetry; I did submit earlier a different poem, "The Clarity of Hope", which was published on January 5. Read the poem.

6 comments:

michelle ortega said...

Although your poem poignantly calls to mind the broken, the tone of your waiting, its its ending with you plea, implies a bittersweet hope that those things will again come. Thank you.

Peggy Rosenthal said...

I've been sitting with this one in meditation -- on the images you evoke and your mastery in evoking them. By now I'm a broken record extolling your line breaks, but they are indeed magnificent here: e.g. the "crowns//of thorns"; "Where//palms adorn the temple"; "for the boys//to put away their slings".

It's hard to write effectively (i.e., not sentimentally or soap-boxy) about the human ravages of war, but you manage to do it.

SimplyDarlene said...

maureen, how you've cracked wide for love's
hope. it's beauty beyond the literary.

blessings.

SimplyDarlene said...

maureen, how you've cracked wide for love's
hope. it's beauty beyond the literary.

blessings.

nancydavis said...

good

OEBooks said...

Happy New Year, Maureen!

I caught your blog post on She Writes and wanted to wish you a great year in writing and blogging, this year and on.

Rhonda | RYCJ