Preface, then poem selections:
‘Permit Wonder’ presents over 100 of my poems in this first, full-length collection. 99% of the poems were written from 2009-today! but my first, rather uber-conscious poem is included (Recognition) from when I was in grad school. Many “Origami Microchap” collections are included in all their amusing, poignant, micro-glory. This poetry reflects both humor (Tangential Toast) and pathos (Full Afraid) and reflects my introspective bent. After all, life is only a dream…
Available on Amazon or from me, if you have a bit of patience (see ‘Make Contact’ page). Here is the Amazon page link – oh, please leave a nice comment… permit wonder.
* * * Poem Selections from posts on Twitter or Facebook * * *
A Love Note of No Importance is the closing poem of the ‘Relationships’ section in ‘Permit Wonder’ since relationships begin (and, hopefully continue) with love…
A Love Note of No Importance
I write this to no one in particular
but send it to you since
we share the same address, this life.
Like yours, my heart is a crowded place
and often needs another chair.
Here, take one of mine.
So many orbit this life,
shining their sun-moon generosity
day & night.
Others spin off to another cosmos;
our layers of togetherness
tumble away.
Most play hide ‘n seek
along their highways
of duty, duty, duty & distraction.
While some whisper their love unexpectedly.
I see them on contented shorelines,
waving.
/jan keough
*
There is a series on breathing and the common practice of such. This poem, Keep Breathing, is in my collection ‘Permit Wonder’ and from the Origami Poems microchap ‘Oxygen Therapy.’ Consider purchasing on Amazon. You’ll breathe easier if you do…!
Keep Breathing
When in doubt,
keep breathing.
forget thoughts.
they’ll wait for your return.
Amuse yourself with the pause,
a lessening of action,
an interval without context
except to breathe.
Begin to rearrange the necessities
that stamp us
for re-entry
into this cause & effect conundrum.
Priorities will wander away
looking for another volunteer
to carry them along.
Meanwhile,
just breathe
/jankeough
*
Permit Wonder is also in the microchap ‘A Little Ado About Everything’ that delights with the photo of my mother as a young girl. IMHO.
Permit Wonder
Electrons wander orbits tipping the cosmos.
Planets in weary tread stoic a pace unshared.
Embryos slide into time chasing desire & find.
The mind awakens from its cloister to canopies
of sensations that blaze and speak within.
We lay in twilight harbors moored to mysteries,
Netted between the sureness of a soft breeze
And moments capsized.
Wandering these many roads is the heart,
Orphaned or welcomed, in song or moan,
Backpacked, stowed or falling loose
Around another’s clear gaze.
Could someone run ahead—secure lodging
Corner a spaciousness
Of no particular place?
And trim the smooth to manage the harsh.
Concede the fine points forever displayed.
Unargue differences that winter a summer’s day
And doubt every open door closed.
Breathe in, exhale
And permit wonder
To rest on the tongue.
/jk
*
From On Your Photo of a Spiral Staircase which was presented at a Wickford Art festival Ekphrasis exhibit a few years back. Each accepted poet was assigned artwork to portray/interpret.
On Your Photo of a Spiral Staircase
I don’t know what shutter speed
pressed this curvature of stone-shed light
into my eyes.
Or how you ushered the camera lens
over a trough of steps
to ride its fearless descent.
Or how masons coaxed slabs of granite
into an embrace of silent mobility
circling an invisible spire.
Or why this stairway opens a chamber
where I sit and hope to understand
all mysteries of my spiraling self.
Slipping toward a universe
of untethered imaginings
that pulse with eternity,
Winding out and beyond,
dissolving the latch to a body-life
that has me caged.
/jk
From Watching. Written after visiting a small pond in the midst of a farmer’s field nearby our home in Cumberland. At the time few visited this place…
Watching
You watch me cross the field,
toil through stubbled hay
to find a crease where the pond
hides behind unbloomed forsythia
A rock wedge by the pond is uncomfortable
except for its fine-grained solitude
and I am now, like you, watching
blue-gray clouds announce nothing
We sit and rearrange the dampness
soaking between us.
Your closeness thrills me
and wears away the chill of morning
Red-wing blackbirds exhale spring
while far-away roads hum and whine.
your presence envelopes me,
our silence becomes a whisper
And those thousand interruptions,
my mind’s mist of well-meant moments,
are sirened in exile
by your patient awareness
/jankeough
From Tangential Toast… one of the famed Origami Poems microchaps.
Traveling Toast
Toast never mentions
her travel plans,
never sends a card.
Her online pics
reveal a taste
for one-meal stands
on fancy plates.
She scrapes by on the whim
of a morning stranger,
an open counter,
and a half-filled coffee mug.
That golden glow of hers
reflects either
balmy zones
or tanning salons set on high.
But butter
never did melt
in her mouth.
-jan keough
- –
Witness begins the section, Everyday Epiphanies. It was written from an experience much as described here.
Witness
Too awake to sleep,
too sleepy to be awake,
I gaze through an open window.
Perhaps the breeze will charm my thoughts,
perhaps the charm of night will rest my mind.
Unready for day to break,
unwilling to trade thoughts for dreams
I watch myself, watching hours.
At the balcony of mind
is a tugging, the tugging of time
as I drift in nighttime’s unmasking.
With quicksilver chase
a gash of starlight startles my view –
broken bits of cosmos blaze by.
A living moment is here and gone.
Was it a dream?
Am I awake?
To collide with a vanishing point,
myself as witness,
my self amazed.
- jankeough © 2013