Thursday, June 1, 2017

The Gift



Sand shifts
this brittle, black driftwood mood

out to the inhaling sea
with a booming, insulting sneer,

carrying footprints of poems
I’ve neglected to write in the sting-crash of time.

But I won’t hear,
captivated watching you,

my favorite sanderlings,
prying open shells, beaks gleaming,

etching me poems,
wing tips in the sand.



© 2017 Jennifer Wagner


for my sons



Thursday, April 27, 2017

Thank You, April



April, I am starved for light,

bring a little, please,
to the window

where I can see summer
lolling about the hills afar off.

Ah, yes, I see her now,
shoeless in leaves of grass,
picking blackberries,
Sonnet 18 nearing couplet.

April, you’re a long way from summer,
but at least I can see her from here.


© 2017 Jennifer Wagner


“Distinctive realms appear to us when we look and hear by poem-light.” - Jane Hirshfield, Ten Windows.  Happy Poetry Month with appreciation to poems by Sandburg, Heaney and Shakespeare.  

Friday, March 24, 2017

Synthpop at the Moon Tree



From the window of the Moon Tree,
the marina is desolate—
a glum fairy tale with a solitary gull
poised to flee.

A police boat and whale watching
tour arrives, more guests
than would be expected today.

We sample tapas,
eavesdrop on a first date.

He’s an author,
questions spirituality,
says if it’s real, then it must be
the same for everyone.

She doesn’t say much,
laughs politely here and there.

You start mouthing to the sounds
of a synthpop tune, and it’s too funny.
I laugh for several uncontrollable minutes.

Later, I tell you
the whale cruise
offered me a job once.

You ask why I turned it down,
and say we should
pretend like it’s our first date
the next time we go out, just for fun.

Except, of course, the polite laughing.


© 2017 Jennifer Wagner