Merry, Merry, Merry

Here you see thirteen of the eighteen stockings hanging in my den. I'm off until the new year, so enjoy your holidaying. Wishing you great joy, peace in the midst of your preparations, and rest deep in your bones.

from Seventeens
by Amit Majmudar

1. Incarnation

Inheart yourself, immensity. Immarrow,
Embone, enrib yourself. The wind won’t borrow
A plane, nor water climb aboard a current,
But you be all we are, and all we aren’t.
You rigged this whirligig, you make it run:
Stop juggling atoms and oppose your thumbs.
That’s what we like, we like our rich to slum.
The rich, it may be, like it too. Enmeat
Yourself so we can rise onto our feet
And meet. For eyes, just take two suns and shrink them.
Make all your thoughts as small as you can think them.
Encrypt in flesh, enigma, what we can’t
Quite English. We will almost understand.
And if there’s things for which we don’t have clearance,
There’s secrecy aplenty in appearance.
Face it, another word for skin is hide.
Show me the face that never lied.


For  more about the poet, see his bio at the Poetry Foundation. Visit the his website.

Read the full poem, "Seventeens," here at The Flea.

"Seventeens" was published in Heaven and Earth, Majmudar's second collection of poetry, which won the 2011 Donald Justice Prize.

Here is an interview by author, Sarah Arthur. 

Arthur's book, Light upon Light:A Literary Guide to Prayer for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany is where I first found the poem. It is a wonderful collection of readings for the season.

Be sure to stop at Random Noodling for the Poetry Friday Roundup. 

Winter Poetry Swap Goodness

Tabatha Yeatts, you rock, girl!

I came home yesterday to find a box on my front porch. I knew in a flash (you know, like in the song when the crooner knows it it Saint Nick?) it was my winter poetry swap gift! This is my first time participating in the poetry swap, and I was so excited to open my package from Tabatha. 

I opened the box and pulled back the tissue paper to find a YOGA magnetic poetry kit. Who knew they even made such a wonderful thing? You can see my first magnetic poem above. I haven't even pulled all the words apart yet, but my first yoga cinquain was such fun.  I'm planning on getting a magnetic board and hanging it in my yoga studio.

Underneath the kit, a wonderful assortment of tea. 

But I saved the best for last. The poem. Who but Tabatha could manage to combine my love for yoga with my crazy interest in Antarctica?  Thank you, Tabatha. 

Relaxing in Antarctica

By Tabatha Yeatts

for Dori

There is an urgency of cold,

a surge of shiver, danger of dark,

a supremacy of don't freeze,

 be on your guard,

  brace yourself,

that squares your shoulders,

 curls your fists,

  crusts your eyes...

what can you see beyond

your goggle-glazed view?

how can your spirit be light

under the weight of the wind?

but even in Antarctica,

once your studies are tended,

your numbers recorded and

your goggles hung to dry,

that spot on your neck

where you hold your hardships

begs you to bend,

to stretch,

to fill your lungs

with a warm breath,

to award yourself

all the sunlight

your mind can create.

Tara hosts the Poetry Friday round up today at A Teaching Life.