Art by Filipa Viana
A Child Wakes in the Middle of the Night by Karen Benke
Standing at my bed he whispers, Mama,
then grips my hand, explaining
You have to come quick—Right now.
It’s important, he says, leading me out the back door,
wind cartwheeling through wet grass
where he says I must go to help him
find the rock his father gave him, the one he dropped
into the make-believe pond he was fishing,
moonlight spilling into the redwoods
where I find myself wrapped in a white robe,
each of my tired uh-huhs confirming his belief
in the invisible world he insists I travel—
his young life overgrown with curiosity, Blackbird’s flight
a shadow I pray will protect him, as he finds his way
through the miles of stories he loves—
Not from a book, from your mouth, he demands,
asking if I’ll tell him how, when I was little
and couldn’t sleep, my mama let me retrace my steps
through a rainy garden, to find what I thought I had lost.
Other poems I read last week:
"There are things sadder
than you and I. Some people
do not even touch." -haiku by Sonia Sanchez "There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom." -from From Blossoms by Li-Young Lee "I wanted to salvage
something from my life, to fix`
some truth beyond all change, the way
photographers of war, miles from the front,
lift print after print into the light,
each one further cropped and amplified,
pruning whatever baffles or obscures,
until the small figures are restored
as young men sleeping." -from The Last Class by Ellen Bryant Voigt "A heart that’s been broken
has a tiny hinge
And when it happens a
second or third time
it just
swings open & shut
like a gate." -A Heart That’s Been Broken by Maureen Owen
Recommended Listening:
Keeping The Wolves From the Door - White Magic
Happy Days Are Here Again - Annette Hanshaw
Links of the Week:
Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot make short film on the climate crisis
A Tour of Wes Anderson’s New Exhibition
Charlize Theron Takes a Rorschach Test While Eating Spicy Wings | Hot Ones Jeff Canham's Fake Plants Died Because He Did Not Pretend To Water Them Notes from a Room
Instagram Lovin'
P.S. The Inktober Challenge begins tomorrow! :) I'll be doodling here everyday for the next 31 days, and I can't wait to see what comes of it.
In case any of you want to give it a try, here are the 2019 prompts:
Stay motivated, and let me know if you're doing it. I'd love to see how others' brains work. Good night!
-Rohini