
Monday Morning Musings:
“Forever—is composed of Nows—”
–Emily Dickinson, Full Poem here.
“N. A. Sumanapala, a shopkeeper near St. Anthony’s Shrine who said he had run inside to help, said: “It was a river of blood. Ash was falling like snow.” New York Times, April 21, 2019.
A week of explosions
flowers, storms, shots, and lies
bombs belie the façade
of Easter calm and Passover why
(is this night different from all other nights?)
Rivers of blood
with no miracle to part
falling of ash
unresurrected, fighting stops, starts–
A plague upon both your houses

Of indecision and more lies
as the First Citizen cries
in confusion,
“No collusion!”
His followers cheer
not caring, or unclear
that he would destroy
all that they hold dear,
so they support and worship
their false idol. Rejoice
in the new normal, hate
the latest whipping boy.
I cook, wrapping myself
in almonds, dates, and honey.
The house is sunny,
scented with cinnamon
like the cat, who slumbers sun-sided

Passover Almond Cake
The pink moon rises
we drink the first glass of wine, recline.
We are free, but refugees detained
chained, their children abused–
and we all lose–
Let all who are hungry come
We watch movies of
women hiding secrets
sometimes in plain sight
in poetry and stories,
sometimes driving in the night
to obligations, demands
and longing
for uncharted territories.
Certain women
holding together
waiting, still in a man’s world.
often unrecognized–
we place
an orange on the Seder plate,
to recognize, no longer erased.
We talk,
walk through city streets,
footsteps, heartbeats,
statues and stories,
petrichor replaced
with the scent of blooms
filling the air with their perfume, a trace
lingers in my mind.
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A week of explosions
flowers, storms, shots, and lies—
all the endless ifs and whys–
and yet, my heart thrills
at the sight of the spring tide
with waves of flowers,
creating bowers
while the robin’s trills—
and we remember
forever is composed of nows.

Red Bank Battlefield Park, April 2019
Day 22, NaPoWriMo challenges us “to write a poem that engages with another art form.” My Monday musings always engage with the world around me through photos, and often movies or shows we’ve seen–so to an extent–I’ve met the challenge.
We watched the movie Certain Women on Netflix. We watched Becoming Astrid (about Swedish author Astrid Lindgren, the author of Pippi Longstocking and other books) on Amazon Prime, once I figured out how to turn on the subtitles. We saw the new movie, Wild Nights with Emily about Emily Dickinson in the theater. I liked all three movies.