{"id":34971,"date":"2020-04-29T22:23:01","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T06:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sparselysageandtimely.com\/blog\/?p=34971"},"modified":"2023-12-21T12:36:08","modified_gmt":"2023-12-21T20:36:08","slug":"west-marin-poetry-for-pandemic-times-published-in-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/?p=34971","title":{"rendered":"West Marin poetry for pandemic times published in Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Newspapers are publishing poetry<\/strong> these days as an antidote to the gloom of isolation. More people are writing it too. Maybe face coverings, so obviously concealing a lot of who we are, have led to this increased self-expression. My wife Lynn tells me that the writing of poetry was on the rise before sheltering-in-place was imposed. She herself returned to it some years ago after decades of a prose-filled professional life. Recently an Irish literary journal published the following poem of hers.<\/p>\n

How Much<\/strong><\/p>\n

Low stream flows, deceptively gentle
\nincubate fish eggs, keep them safe,
\nwhile storms would sweep them away
\ntoward predators downstream.<\/p>\n

Birthing salmon and steelhead, fins flinch,
\nshudder in waters too calm for swimming
\nto tributaries, their birth canals.<\/p>\n

In the main stem, they dig up
\neach other’s eggs, lay their own. Animals
\nfond of ikura<\/em>, meaning salmon eggs<\/em>
\nand also how much<\/em>, quickly feast.<\/p>\n

Sword of storm, sword of calm hangs above.
\nHow often we celebrate, scoop caviar,
\nlives swallowed like casual swords
\ncutting through first life.<\/p>\n

Custom of delicate spoons, as if fearing
\nfragility of wealth, prone to slip away
\novernight, glistening pearly ounces, as if
\ntaking less dignifies the taking, as if<\/p>\n

life’s thrashings disappear beneath
\ngleaming dishes of roe, as if
\ntoo much would reveal our gaze
\ndeciding who survives cycles,
\ndying, regenerating.<\/p>\n

Fish ache to fly upstream like birds
\nswim through clouds like blooms
\nwelcome the sun, as fawns bond
\nin faint cries to their does.
\nDoe and fawn graze, lie on grass,
\neach blade holding its own weight.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Lynn Axelrod<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Newspapers are publishing poetry these days as an antidote to the gloom of isolation. More people are writing it too. Maybe face coverings, so obviously concealing a lot of who we are, have led to this increased self-expression. My wife Lynn tells me that the writing of poetry was on the rise before sheltering-in-place was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34971"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40633,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34971\/revisions\/40633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}