If you wish, click on the link at the upper left, just for the hell of it, and read the truly kind and generous things that Richard Garcia, Charlotte Davidson, and, David Ebenbach have written about my poems.
Below, the title poem:
Knots and Their Untying
See how
easy others write of knots.
Books
show pliant ropes
lying
over and under. Loaded knots
cannot
be undone by crushing.
Always
the challenge, pulling against holding.
For mathematicians
there are no knots, only
the counting
of loops and crossings.
All
knots are Gordian, made to slice.
Knot knuckle netting knitting:
not one
related to another.
Sounds
entwined
yet
nothing ties the words together.
I
learned knots that would not hold
in the
enduring mystery
of tying
my shoes.
Others
found it easy, quick.
My
unclever fingers worked
to
manage the weaving.
Hold
pinched what you cannot see.
Pull
tight, not too soon, not too slow.
Untying
a knot, easy
as
talking to people who do not listen.
Persuade
the fold to release both parts,
though
the center promises to hold forever against tugging and anger, hunger and haste.
Each knot
works to be one though it is two,
two
moving back to back,
mirrored
without looking,
craning
to catch the other pretending to oneness.
the gap
between you and your desire
when it
eludes you, reminds you
it is
not you it is not yours
You are
not the string around your finger,
holding
close what wants to flee.
Step out
of your shoes, unbind your feet.
Time to
walk away.
I am very very pleased also to note that this poem received a Special Merit award in the (prestigious) Muriel Craft Bailey Memorial poetry contest sponsored by Comstock Poetry Review. I made it to the top 10! out of more than 1000 entries!!
