Lover, Lover, Lover – Leonard Cohen

I asked my father,
I said, “Father change my name.”
The one I’m using now it’s covered up
with fear and filth and cowardice and shame.
Yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover come back to me,
yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover come back to me.

He said, “I locked you in this body,
I meant it as a kind of trial.
You can use it for a weapon,
or to make some woman smile.”

Yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover come back to me
yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover come back to me.

“Then let me start again,” I cried,
“please let me start again,
I want a face that’s fair this time,
I want a spirit that is calm.”

Yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover come back to me
yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover come back to me.

“I never never turned aside,” he said,
“I never walked away.
It was you who built the temple,
it was you who covered up my face.”

Yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover come back to me
yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover come back to me.

And may the spirit of this song,
may it rise up pure and free.
May it be a shield for you,
a shield against the enemy.

Yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover come back to me
yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover come back to me.

Yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover come back to me
yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover come back to me.

Free writing prompt:

Write about starting again

Broom – Jim Harrison

To remember that you’re alive
visit the cemetery of your father
at noon after you’ve made love
and are still wrapped in a mammalian
odor that you are forced to cherish.
Under each stone is someone’s inevitable
surprise, the unexpected death
of their biology that struggled hard as it must.
Now go home without looking back
at the fading cemetery, enough is enough,
but stop on the way to buy the best wine
you can afford and a dozen stiff brooms.
Have a few swallows then throw the furniture
out the window and then begin sweeping.
Sweep until you’ve swept the walls
bare of paint and at your feet sweep
the floor until it disappears. Finish the wine
in this field of air, go back to the cemetery
in the dark and weave through the stones
a slow dance of your name visible only to birds.

Free writing prompt:

Write about remembering you’re alive

[It would be neat if with the New Year]

for Miguel

It would be neat if with the New Year

I could leave my loneliness behind with the old year.

My leathery loneliness an old pair of work boots

my dog vigorously head-shakes back and forth in its jaws,

chews on for hours every day in my front yard—

rain, sun, snow, or wind

in bare feet, pondering my poem,

I’d look out my window and see that dirty pair of boots in the yard.

But my happiness depends so much on wearing those boots.

At the end of my day

while I’m in a chair listening to a Mexican corrido

I stare at my boots appreciating:

all the wrong roads we’ve taken, all the drug and whiskey houses

we’ve visited, and as the Mexican singer wails his pain,

I smile at my boots, understanding every note in his voice,

and strangers, when they see my boots rocking back and forth on my

feet

keeping beat to the song, see how

my boots are scuffed, tooth-marked, worn-soled.

I keep wearing them because they fit so good

and I need them, especially when I love so hard,

where I go up those boulder strewn trails,

where flowers crack rocks in their defiant love for the light.

Free Writing prompt:

All the roads taken.

Breaking [News] – Noor Hindi (Poem)

Forsaken Sea – Sekou Sundiata (Song)

The Death of Fred Clifton – Lucille Clifton (Poem)

My Beshert, or the Curse of the Stolen Potatoes – Joy Cutler (Play Excerpt)

Another Night at Sea Level – Meg Day (Poem)

Storming Toward a Precipice – Simon J. Ortiz (Poem)

Instructions on Not Giving Up – Ada Limón (Poem)

13 Suits: A Mother’s Monologues – Kathleen Duff (Play Excerpt)

The Two Fridas – Frida Kahlo (Painting)

Pedestrian Crossing, Charlottesville – Rita Dove (Poem)

In Trust – Thom Gunn (Poem)

Investigation of Poverty at the Russell Sage Foundation – Alice Neel (Painting)

My Neighbors – Ignacio Iturria (Painting)

Angel From Montgomery – John Prine, Bonnie Raitt (Song)

The Dog Star – Tom Billsborough (Poem)

From “Naked City” – Weegee (Photos)

The Painting After Lunch – Clarence Major (Poem)

Beasts – Amanda Jernigan (Poem)

The Pardon – Richard Wilbur (Poem)

Late Summer After a Panic Attack – Ada Limón (Poem)

“Untitled” – Gregory Crewdson (Photos)

A Eulogy – Tania De Rozario (Poem)

Deer Dance Exhibition – Ofelia Zepeda (Poem)

The Buck in the Snow – Edna St Vincent Millay (Poem)

The Buck in the Snow by Edna St. Vincent Millay

A Eulogy – Tania De Rosario

for everyone poked so full

of holes, their own voice passes

through them, history escaping

the body in a series of echoes.

for everyone distilled into colour

of skin, choice of pronoun, place

of origin, length of hair, years, skirt,

name, limbs, medical record.

for everyone made to believe

that the petals of persecution

have blossomed from the buds

of their own paranoia.

for everyone passed over in favour

of a name that seemed easier to pronounce,

was less of an assault

to someone else’s comfort.

for everyone accused of prolonged

adolescence, scars on their arms

marking time like a calendar, body

taking itself into its own hands.

for everyone blamed

for the stare, grope, catcall, assault

that cut like glass into flesh as if

they had asked to be broken.

for everyone deceived

into dreaming, everyone who left home

and family to provide home

and family, returning with nothing.

for everyone pumped

so full of doctrine, the guilt which ate

into their bones, made them believe

breaking them was the only way out.

Reflective writing prompt: for everyone…

Reflective writing prompt: In the middle of the night…

Ada Limón