i’m going to
keep my music light
today
no soul matador
trying to run me
out of my
sacred places
just a gentle
coaxing
of nakai’s flute
and the turquoise arizona
sky
where birds and scars
belong to the
wind
where i sit
and wait for
myself
to begin
again
© 2025 jennifer wagner
“i...sit...and wait for myself” — Georgia O’Keeffe, from Roxana Robinson's biography of the artist
a poem for international women’s day
in the 70’s we were everywhere—a
white wave
of bell-bottoms, hot pants, platforms and disco
at night—
us, jennifers—meant to be, I suppose,
fair, soft—
but to that dirt-gravel half of my history, i’ve always been “gin” and i like how
that hits
how you say it with a lick of
your lips
© 2025 jennifer wagner
At dVerse MTB: The Poetry of Names, Laura has us writing WaltMarie poems about the meaning or history of our names. You can visit the link to learn more about this form and visit Writer’s Digest as well.
*smaller hand-held devices may not display this poem true to the ten-line format due to compacting
Poetry can be like this—
blueberry stains on my fingers
from shoving them straight
from the bush to my mouth
—blackberries, too.
Seeing six rotting oranges
sitting underneath a tree—
hoping they smell good
to what crawls below.
The desert cottontail,
a perfect Russel Stover,
who froze still in the sun
when I stepped lightly by—
nothing but nose twitching.
A box full of free grapefruits
on the road
in front of the cottage house—
heavy, ripe, uneven.
The new puppy, dancing,
learning a leash, excited
to come to me—still unsure
which of us wanted to play more.
A Great Blue Heron
with long, delicate legs,
sleek and slow-hunting
at our green-gold pond.
I say our,
because it’s yours, too—
as is this journey-poem, for you to add
your own lovely thing to.
© 2025 Jennifer Wagner
“Look for a lovely thing and you will find it,
It is not far—
It never will be far.”
-Sara Teasdale