A Christmas package arrived in the mail yesterday... from my friend Gioia... Which is ALWAYS a thrill, because she KNOWS what I love...
A new book of poetry
The Voluptuary is a collection of exquisite poems by Oregon's Poet Laureate Paulann Petersen.
She writes of abundance and bees, stars and poppies, the moon and birdsong so many subjects that speak to my soul... (AND did you notice the gorgeous cover of the book... and oil painting of pomegranates by artist Miri Lavee... its oooh so luscious!!!)
Such richness I feel right now...
Here is one of my new favorite poems ~ enjoy.
WHAT'S LEFT FROM THAT FIRST GODDESS
Bits of her, finer than pollen,
still eddy the world with their dust.
Each speck of her makes
a seed for one of us.
Whole, where she lived in the sky,
her body contained all people, impatient,
straining toward birth.
She knew her huge self --
bone, brain, toenail and hair--
needed to crumble.
We are her, disassembled,
then grown into many.
We're the ones come from this First One
entirely broken apart, taken down
except for her mismatched eyes.
The right is a yellow
too bright to behold. The left,
a cool silver smudged
by cataracts of gray.
Our sun, our moon--
these, she saved.
