August Poetry Postcard Fest

I am participating in a mail-poetry project this month, and thought I would share some of the little poems I am sending away. Some of the poems refer to images on the cards, so at the bottom of the poem, I have included a note about what was on the front of the card. I have written to the first 9 people, even though it's not yet August 9th to allow for international deliveries.

Happy August!
love, Cathleen

August 1:

Dear Susan--

And then, looking backward--
the swallow circled
and dipped--
intrusion of memory;
a desire for connection--
What would you have said
if I had told you?
how you would have laughed--

(image: a ruin in Rome)

August 2:

Dear DD--

Every time I look away,
a new detail emerges--
my vision transformed
by solitude--
come now, then
wait--------

(image: Walking on Eggshells by Sandy Skoglund)

August 3:

Dear Michelle--

The way language leaves you--
the way a bell can clear the air--
we were at the window
talking--the heaviness
of the air, of philosophy--
we, now silent--

(image: church bells outside a window)

August 4:

Dear Amanda--

the shifting quality of light--
today, an eclipse
maybe you have seen it?
sky becoming the color
of clouds--

(front: Jean Cocteau quote)

August 5:

Dear Gregory--

Today, dreaming of snow,
cold chilling bones--
the paths of mountains,
hum of crystals landing
one atop another--
the shape of breath
circles--and we sing--

(image: Untitled (Jesus and I) by Larry Johnson)

August 6:

Dear Susan--

Intricate petals on tomato
blossoms--butterfly slowly
moving its wings (open/
close)--sudden rain
on skin--sun baking
the soil dry--

(image: ornamental kale)

August 7:

Dear Bethany--

What intangible costs,
what lives destroyed--
by this, our greed,
our fear--

the electric aggression in
the air when a man walks by
and says "I could/should have shot
you--"

(image: poster "War IS Terror")

August 8:

Dear Robert--

the ways we
fall apart (or) fall together--
moments of unravelling
(when) our breath sighs
out of us--
walls permeable,
hearts softened--

(image: house falling in)

August 9:

Dear Nancy--

Just now--a seed drops from
the sky onto my plate--
I wonder what is planted
here, what fertile ground
I will become when I eat it--
flowers or vines sprouting
from my intestines, reaching
toward light--

(image: Josephine Baker taking a bath)

PhillySound featured on FANZINE

Check it out: A wonderful poetry feature by Thom Donovan with work by eleven poets in Philly (including me). I am honored and delighted to be featured with such wonderful people, such good and inspiring writers.

Here it is. http://thefanzine.com/articles/poetry/254/phillysound_poets/1

Reading at Robin's books

Please come hear me read on Tuesday, June 24th, 6pm, at Robin's Books.
I will be reading with poet Michele Belluomini.

Follow this link for more details: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/062408.html

You are invited....

Art, words, music and more--
Reclaiming our bodies and our lives.

I hope you can join us.

trans-gression arts festival

Multi-disciplinary Arts Festival
Promises to Bend, Blend, and Break Gender Expectations

Opening Reception, Sunday May 4, 4-6PM

Da Vinci Art Alliance
704 Catherine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147
May 4 – May 30, 2008
GALLERY HOURS: May 7th - 30th
Wednesday 12-4PM & 6-8PM
Thursday - Sunday 12-4PM

featuring artists:
Tally Brennan, Deborah Caiola, Heather Marie Davis-Jones, Justin DeForest, Susan DiPronio, Laureen Griffin, Justin Jain, Kirsten Knoblauch, Cathleen Miller, Martina Plag.

for more details, www.trans-gression.org/festival2008.html

re-writing old texts

Since I'm pretty much never happy with what I write after it sits around for a while, I have been re-writing (read: creating whole new poems using only bits of the old) a series of old works. Though they began as a serial poem, the new incarnations are probably more likely to be stand-alone pieces with loose relationships. Here is a sample:

1.

Your weather,
the small allowances--

in the slip between
borders, your "boy" and "girl" lines--

there are hesitant secrets

revealed with silence--

no matter how hard--

Your flexibility,
your careful speech,

kept boundaries, faced
differences

invention and fiction--

your life in ruffles
and denim

You tell the truth,
comparing

our bodies
willing to give

your father's hand,

your chocolate cakes

You peel back layers
You shave the fear
You sort through piles

There, stand questioning
in front of the make up
in front of the feather boas

I invent you as a character,
I take your place, wrap my
fear in feathers, remain curious

about the revelation
of necessity--

on spring

lines cut against sparkling sky

dark breaks blue

light breaks through shadow