Barbara Rockman
to cleave: crack splinter stick fast to
crushed cardamon clove peppercorn
it was for a purpose mortar and pestle his wrist
scoop into black tea
not a man of kitchens he smashed black star tips
late kitchen dim kitchen
black kitchen she’d blunder
into walls while he slept
chai steeped
and her hands
held out as if it was her mother’s
spice brownies she wanted mother and her
spices on plastic spinners
all over the house flies settled little clove flies
star cow cloven child how soft night was
clove darts into orange flesh
that pleasure! a whole
language of the cloven
the cleaved
Absence Of Wind Aftermath
ruah, Hebrew: spirit; breath of God; blowing of wind
Windless dawn
re-ties her sash what has fallen remains fallen
what has splintered will not be sutured
Windless noon
tides recede nothing strewn nothing stolen
a small room opens its door one thought two breaths
What does a body do robbed of velocity?
How does a throat bereft of ruah shape its plea?
Night
star-becalmed and reluctant to speak
a cry shudders dark grasses bone cracks between teeth
Give me the brow absent of inquiry and need
arms hung useless sails collapsed
In the trees no rustle and bow
in the field no one flees no disaster rising at sea
Ruah: what quavers the throat’s dark coil
and returns to it song
Let fever lift
May the pond rest unriffled
May the blossoms be given one more day to be praised
Barbara Rockman teaches poetry at Santa Fe Community College, as well as in private workshops and through Wingspan Poetry Project with victims of domestic violence and homeless families. Her work appears in Bellingham Review, Calyx, Cimarron Review, Nimrod, Taos Journal of International Art and Literature and Louisville Review. She has been awarded the Baskerville Publishers Prize, Southwest Writers Award, The MacGuffin Poet Hunt Prize and two Pushcart nominations. She is the author of “Sting and Nest,” winner of the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award and the National Press Women Book Prize. She is the editor of the anthology, “Women Becoming Poems.” A graduate of Vermont College of Fine Art’s MFA in Writing program, she lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Return to January 2015 Edition
crushed cardamon clove peppercorn
it was for a purpose mortar and pestle his wrist
scoop into black tea
not a man of kitchens he smashed black star tips
late kitchen dim kitchen
black kitchen she’d blunder
into walls while he slept
chai steeped
and her hands
held out as if it was her mother’s
spice brownies she wanted mother and her
spices on plastic spinners
all over the house flies settled little clove flies
star cow cloven child how soft night was
clove darts into orange flesh
that pleasure! a whole
language of the cloven
the cleaved
Absence Of Wind Aftermath
ruah, Hebrew: spirit; breath of God; blowing of wind
Windless dawn
re-ties her sash what has fallen remains fallen
what has splintered will not be sutured
Windless noon
tides recede nothing strewn nothing stolen
a small room opens its door one thought two breaths
What does a body do robbed of velocity?
How does a throat bereft of ruah shape its plea?
Night
star-becalmed and reluctant to speak
a cry shudders dark grasses bone cracks between teeth
Give me the brow absent of inquiry and need
arms hung useless sails collapsed
In the trees no rustle and bow
in the field no one flees no disaster rising at sea
Ruah: what quavers the throat’s dark coil
and returns to it song
Let fever lift
May the pond rest unriffled
May the blossoms be given one more day to be praised
Barbara Rockman teaches poetry at Santa Fe Community College, as well as in private workshops and through Wingspan Poetry Project with victims of domestic violence and homeless families. Her work appears in Bellingham Review, Calyx, Cimarron Review, Nimrod, Taos Journal of International Art and Literature and Louisville Review. She has been awarded the Baskerville Publishers Prize, Southwest Writers Award, The MacGuffin Poet Hunt Prize and two Pushcart nominations. She is the author of “Sting and Nest,” winner of the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award and the National Press Women Book Prize. She is the editor of the anthology, “Women Becoming Poems.” A graduate of Vermont College of Fine Art’s MFA in Writing program, she lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Return to January 2015 Edition