Monthly Archives: December 2015

A Gift from Amy Denton

Happy holidays!
May each of us love both
our leaves and our rings.

❤

(Heartstump is coming… in 2016)

The quiet is so quiet out where
the snow rests and, soundless,
falls, settling around pines behind
your house, the silence is so silent

here where we rest in warmth, cozy
beneath a blanket of memories,
history, friendship so timeless,
permanent it makes no sound, but
big as the mountainside covered in

trees, growing in snow. You shift
positions and I pull my blanket lazily
up to my chin, we’re watching happy
animated film shorts now, side by side
on the couch, in agreement, the sad ones

were too sad, while I quietly refuse
to believe we will leave this
or could ever be apart
from it at all.

One of my favorite poetry blogs, A Year of Being Here, recently posted a poem by Richard Jones, who teaches at my alma mater, who I met on one occasion, and who has many many wonderful books of poetry.

I receive a weekly email from this blog with a list of the poems of that week on it, and when I saw his name I thought “HEY! I know him!” 🙂 The poem posted to the blog is called “Rapture” and it is completely fantastic. Click on the title to read.  And taste the honey. ❤

Yes I’m scared,
of course I’m scared.
I’m always scared.
Are you not scared?
Are you some kind

of robot? Of course
I’ll try anyway.  I’m trying.
Don’t you see me trying?
The way you don’t see
me trying, makes me
not even want to try

anymore. And that would
be on you.  Not on me.
Maybe I’ll just stop trying.
We’ll both stop trying.
Then where will we be?

Where do I want to go?
I don’t know.  I have never
known.  I used to think
that I knew.  Now I know
that I don’t. Not that I don’t
want to. That I don’t… know.

Do I want to be with you?
Yes, of course I do. I mean,
right now I do.  No, don’t
ask forever. Don’t ask forever.
Don’t…Can’t we work on now?

Look at your eyes.  Look at you.
I like you. I like you. I like you
with me. I like this.  And I’m
not pretending. 

And I’m not scared.

And I know you’re not a robot.

Where are you? I’m
trying to imagine it
from in here. Way in
here. Deep down
in a spot above
my stomach,
beneath my heart

that’s a still silent
vacuum of a place.
A deep hole in a crater
field at night on a planet
with no atmosphere
and so much gravity.

I can’t even see you
Or hear you. I’m
surprised when you
can hear me or
see me at all. And yet
all I want is to put you
in me. And to put food
in me. Air in me. Breathe,

Breathe, breathe, breathe,
Prayer in me. Beer in me.
Fingernails, calm thoughts,
and cigarette smoke in me.
Laughter in me.  Warmth
all over me.

Skin all over me.
Alive, alive, alive
like me. Like me!
Your heartbeat
in through my ribcage.
Your breath in through
my ear. Through my
mouth. I think…I think…

I work, work, work
on a laptop all day,
all day, all day clicking
my thoughts away
take a deep breath
look away, wiggle
fingers, shake legs
and try not to put
one more cup of
coffee in me, work,

work, work, to
distract and detain
me, buy some time
not spent trying to
put something

in me, and money

that I’ll use…

dropping more anything
in me down the hole
like a laundry chute in
me to see if it all piles
up and I can climb out

of the top, in my spacesuit,
and find you, an alien,

somehow breathing
on a planet with no
atmosphere, and so
much gravity holding
your yourself up against
the pull.