Chicago

Poem © 2013 by Joyce Mason
All Rights Reserved

 I bear your

longitude

latitude

on the grid of my psyche:

endless Lake

ice cold winters

sultry summers

every childhood impression

on the South Side

of my chakras

when I was growing up,

a dangerous neighborhood.

The Windy City

bore gangsters

good schools

passion-worthy sports teams

a melting pot

bubbling to a boil.

You also bore me

but were never boring.

Still I ran

to a smaller city

then to California

as far as I could get
and still retain

country of citizenship.

I ran from the past:

abandonments

joy and pain intermingled

always ready to drown me

on the Lake of Happiness and Grief.

But when I came back

on Social Security

a homesickness

set in

a cancer

in the pit of my stomach

a gnawing loss

sharp as any I’d ever known

scene of the crime

St. Bernard’s Hospital

cut off from mother

family of origin

since then reconnected

now one more reunion

I had to embrace

lost birthplace

found again

dis-ease cured
home

at last.

~.~.~

Photo Credit: An oil painting of the Chicago skyline my husband purchased circa 1971 by artist J. Scheuber.

Note: Posted in celebration of the 27th anniversary of finding my birth mother  on April 14, 1986.

Don't forget to check out Astro-Poetry month during April on The Radical Virgo! Learn about all the poetry that's going on in the sky.

Centered

Poem © 2013 by Joyce Mason
All Rights Reserved

Weight balanced

through my core

anchored to the Earth

I sit tall

 and solid 

still as a redwood

in a cemetery

fine-tuned to

the most subtle nuances

of every noise and sensation

all around me.

A stranger to this place

at the same time

so familiar

a touchstone of bedrock

inside me

where sights and sounds

breeze by my senses

in slow motion

a place where observer mode

is the rule

and any kind of upset

is someone else’s:

the exception.

Like the early stages

of falling in love

the honeymoon

is over too soon

but I plan to do

everything I can

to keep my romance

with rootedness

alive

until the final uprooting

where Earth yields to Air

and I wrap myself

in the ultimate

Cloak of Invisibility.

~.~.~

Photo Credit: Girl and the Moon © Sassolinoviola - dreamstime.com

 Don't forget to check out Astro-Poetry month during April on The Radical Virgo! Learn about all the poetry that's going on in the sky.

The One

Poem © 2013 by Joyce Mason
All Rights Reserved

You

me

summer sky

a million stars

Teenage chemistry beaker

boiling to our first kiss:

explosion!

I see stars, galaxies

the entire universe

in your eyes

the backdrop

 lake and fireworks sky.

I see God

in you.

No one else

no one thing

has ever been so powerful.

The years of pleasure

joy-laced pain

long estrangements

therapy

Nothing can erase

your mark.

Past middle-age

I see at last

it was God
All That Is
Oneness

cosmic unity

I fell in love with

I see now

why I never
completely

got over you.

Thank God.

~.~.~

Photo Credit: siluetas de enamorados en paisaje urbano © carlos castilla – fotolia.com

Don't forget to check out Astro-Poetry month during April on The Radical Virgo! Learn about all the poetry that's going on in the sky.

Down Time

Poem © 2013 by Joyce Mason
All Rights Reserved

Off the merry-go-round

long enough for my head

to stop spinning

I savor a rare experience--

equilibrium.

My past somersaults 

through my mind:

flashbacks of overdo

dancing as fast as I can

bending over backwards

doing cartwheels

back flips.

I relish the taste of stopping,

a womb of withdrawal.

Dark rooms and utter quiet

are my delicacies

formerly spat out.

Tastes change.

Variety is the spice.
Balanced diet.

~.~.~

Photo Credit: Intimate Woman Portrait … © pio3 – fotolia.com

Healing

Poem © 2013 by Joyce Mason
All Rights Reserved

I’m not myself

wisps of me

vent off my body

trail into plumes

of transition

Energy fizzles before

it gathers enough steam

to get me off the ground.

I am dense tule fog

tense

transfiguring

patches of my

former self.

I look down my empty wellspring

wonder if the bucket

will crank up at least one more time

before I kick it.

Birds in the oaks cackle

at my hyperbole.

This ungrounded place

of life without pulse

a walk between worlds

a hell without fire

a place I want to pass through

as fast as possible

and visit seldom.

Finally I funnel the wisps

with my hands

in time with my heartbeat.

Let there be light!

~.~.~

Photo Credit: Chakra Fire © Elena Ray – Fotolia.com