30 Poems in November! Poems Fall 2021

Welcome to our Poetry Platform.  We are sharing some of our writers’ new poems every Monday.  Thank you for reading and thank you for supporting them in their creative endeavor and Center for New Americans in our welcoming endeavor!

 

PLACES / Carol Freedman

Once upon a time

My body sang with delight

My youth uplifted

In worship to the concrete, steel, and glass

Towering high above

Busy alcoves below

Making beautiful noise,

Catching snow and shades of light.

My soul blushed, my spirit danced, my hope lived.

Now upon this time

All my cells drink in the majesty

Of open air, fertile earth

Mountains catch the light,

Green morphs to shimmering gold morphs to blue

Silver outlines in the sky

As sunset moves in to bid us a good night.

I was unaware of my hunger for these.

My breath comes easily

My soul expands

As my being is sated with all it didn’t know it needed,

And I feel it keenly, surely

In my body that knew the right time for change.

In awe of the molecules we share, Earth and I,

My life now in grateful relaxation

From relentless demands of old,

My ears in blessed quiet

Now able to hear the music of the new,

And so I dance.

 

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BEFORE I KNEW / Janet E. Aalfs