Spent the week recovering from the flu. Came on suddenly right after I did my last post. I trust all is well with you. Here are more poems I wrote at the IWWG Remember the Magic writing conference at Brown and a few photos. Includes two more from my self-guided project on doors poems and photographs. Providence is a lovely place. Inspirational.
Let me ask you. What is the purpose of poetry? Do any of these poems or pictures evoke a feeling or memory for you? Are there any doors in your life that are closing or opening? Let me know below.
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8/4/10
Home Body
Some choose looks
over feeling,
unaware or ingrained,
mind over body,
emotion over body,
anything over body.
Body, the second class citizen,
mundane matter subject
to vagaries and whim.
Body that speaks one language
to get attention:
discomfort escalating to pain.
What is this disconnect
from home?
Why are feet not planted
firmly on the ground?
Pulled, lulled ever outward
attention paid to everything but….
Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010
8/4/10
Dramatic Reading
The words dictate
how to be spoken
to go out and sink in.
More than that emphasis
is drama, pleasing to the actor,
overlaying the meaning,
attention now on the reading.
What remains after
in the retina of memory
is not the words, but acting.
Do the audience a kindness
to remember them.
Deliver the lines,
no more, no less,
that is enough.
I acknowledge
different styles and cultures
different training and shaping influence,
not all of them resonant with me.
And so I listen, open,
and get what I can.
Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010
8/4/10
Anything
What do I have to give up
to do what I suspect is expected,
to get my money’s worth?
I could head back
to class, to the grid, the schedule,
but this day stretches out
before me, hot and sweet.
Once set in motion
I want to follow where it goes
and where the energy flows,
I flow too.
Anything can happen.
Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010
8/4/10
Doors (2)
Doors open, closed, locked, hidden,
the center of attention,
carved, worn, splintered, cared for,
spectacular, plain, old, new, fresh-painted,
peeling, wood, glass, all hard protection
against what might come.
Down steps, up steps, even with the street,
all colors or none, reflective, shiny or matte.
Inviting, inhibiting, used for everyday,
only for show, friendly, forbidding, functional,
what is behind, what stories told or unfolding
what crime, what passion, what apathy,
none of it in relation to me
except as the threads play out
and I am ensnared in a sticky web
not entirely of my own devising.
Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010
8/4/10
Doors (3)
Back doors, front doors, side doors,
creaky doors, easy-slide patio doors,
temperamental doors depending on the weather.
From inside looking out
from out, looking in
perspective is everything.
Certain door types found in certain areas of town,
but the most worn so far, with the hole
in the bare wood splintered step
is one short block from the college dorm
and the chichi, multicolor-trimmed,
ornate pillared-porch door.
Doors with transoms, doors with fanlights,
double doors, single doors, slim or wide,
doors with chains, doors with brass handle locks,
doors with deadbolts, doors with beveled windows,
doors with gates, doors with peepholes,
gates with latches, wrought iron elaborate
or parallel bare bars like a fence,
multi-panel doors, or flat veneer or select fine wood,
revolving doors, automatic doors, doors to push or pull.
Doors that stay open, doors that swing shut
doors that slam every time, screen doors,
doors with jalousie window slats and aluminum frames.
bathroom doors, kitchen doors, bedroom doors,
doors where the top separates from the bottom.
In fifty-eight years, how many doors have I walked through:
school doors, library doors, store doors, church doors, restaurant doors,
house doors, rest stop doors, apartment doors, car doors,
public doors, private doors, doors to keep out or let in,
revealing or concealing everything.
Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010
8/4/10
Empty Being Filled
Going down a path
willing to be directed
willing to take what comes
to make decisions
to avoid the valleys
by listening
I tell you
a thought is powerful
I am filled
with manifesting
Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010