Poetry – Page 2 – Joanna Horton McPherson

The Vulnerability of Birds

I. Feathers follow me where I go And show me the way A confirmation from the other side of the veil I’m on the right track Wine is a thief Who steals from me moments Yes of my life but more importantly From yours Today on our walk My first day after giving up wineContinue reading “The Vulnerability of Birds”

Ghazal for Johnny

Excerpt from “A Trail of Crumbs” poetry collection, due in late 2019. A Ghazal is a Persian poetry form using couplets that share a rhyme and a refrain. Each line must share the same meter. The writer must also reference the author’s own name and express longing in the last couplet. Written as the boyContinue reading “Ghazal for Johnny”

Being at home in a crowd

She was slower than the othersPushing her a little cart in the streams of endless people With their cones of gelato and running shoesI heard the old lady humming as I shouldered by Her sing-song tune barely rising above the hundreds of footfalls at once stepping on the slabs of stone A bridge she has walked hundredsContinue reading “Being at home in a crowd”

Hello Grace

You found your way to me On the island of Mezzorbo on that grassy green Between my daughter, my husband and a pine cone You were the 4-leaf clover Like the ones you sent me pressed into the paper cards and your script black ink words “Joanna” Of anything I may have inheritedContinue reading “Hello Grace”

Untitled at Bell Rock

After hours of walkingThe force of spring so strong Blows open the doors of my heartTo let the fresh air in It was the fragrance from the field of flowersFlowing to me on a breezeThat made me think of youUnless you let it goMay holding give you groundIn an otherwise empty spaceFor me, endless tiny white blossomsContinue reading “Untitled at Bell Rock”

Poems of Longing

I. Anger: what do you want me to hear? I am fuel: use me or I will consume you How do I use you? Ask yourself Why are you here? I am your essence: Fire Expand, or like a candle in a boxYou will die II.How far must one travel From fearing my journalsLeft out inContinue reading “Poems of Longing”

Writer

For over a year, I have sat down to write and this phrase came to mind. I was a faucet with no running water. I have nothing to say That is the fear of a writer The voice of shame Convincing me of its darkness Pleading with me to break into the pain of itsContinue reading “Writer”

Ode to the Gottmans

Ever since I declared that I will write an anthology of poetry, the poems come to me everyday, anywhere and everywhere 1In an act of precision my lover makes surgery of meBabble and foam in tongues encanting some devil I tried to forgetMy eye loses true north and I roll away into the darkYet IContinue reading “Ode to the Gottmans”

To the Dying Man in Playa de Coco

While on vacation with my family and my sister’s family in Costa Rica, this experience happened. I said a prayer for this man, and that prayer slept through the night and today woke to me as a poem We picked up a passerby as we left the beachThat was yesterdayI could not see him Thin man asContinue reading “To the Dying Man in Playa de Coco”

Wild Woman

Written in homage to Clarissa Pinkola-Estes’ Women Who Run with the Wolves Covered, uncoveredUnearthly pigments staining her limbsTall, lithe, long Nimble fingers of flameIn nature, in the firewood In the herbsIn the speak of the animalsShe wanders amid roots and the soilLuxuriates in a deep waterbath under the kiss of flowersShe is the healer of time Conductor of seasons of change, nowScreaming,Continue reading “Wild Woman”