by Dena Parker Duke
I want to write the universal poem that isn’t just about
my little cog on a gear or about our incessant
bickerings about turning in tandem, or not
But about the cosmic egg that has an outer realm that reaches
a higher plane than any of us and allows Light to
shed over the hemispheres of our longing
Only to take a cosmic turn to let us rest while it reminds the other
side of the same while one side dreams the other side lives
with their own receding and rising tides
I want to rise above where only ants can see their comings
and goings to where no gear has teeth that can bite
only colors and shades and movements
Where we are colored only by our place on the turning
only by the need for shade in relation to survival
each a magnificent Speck
Dena Parker Duke is an Idaho poet who has been playing with words for decades, first as a means to overcome her own isolation and loneliness, then as a grade school teacher who loved language. She’s now retired and is still using writing to guide her through the mysteries of life. Dena has published poetry in Pearl magazine, Standing: Poetry by Idaho Women, a 2 volume collection of art and poetry entitled From You I Receive, To You I Give: A Collection of Art and Poetry Celebrating Social Justice and the book In Your Bones: Poems of Radical Forgiveness. Sabiyha Prince is an anthropologist, artist, and author based in Washington, DC. Her books and essays explore urban change and African American culture, and her paintings and photo collages grapple with memory, identity, kinship and inequality.
Global Poemic 