Body of Work: High-Yield Workshops

Here are three poems from my most recent workshop at the Trimble County Library:

Musical Hands

Crack Pop
Fireworks in my Fingers
Jubilant joints
Flexible, gripping
Bending and poking
Sharp arrows when Bent
Wrinkly and crinkly
Loud or silent, Never in Between
Integral but mostly unnoticed

-- Amanda, librarian


Pulmonary Embolus

The thorax chest
lung that holds life's Breath
the heart that gives life's Blood
The bronchi that lead to
the road of exchange with
Blood & Air.  Like a storm
the Blood Clot stops this
life exchange road,
blocks the tree of life.
Pulmonary Emboli
The Pain.
The Shortness of Air.
The threat that this PE
may break off and go else
where to Pain & death.

-- Denise, x-ray technician


Masks

They say that our eyes are
the windows to the soul

They tell stories
of sadness, despair, anger

Loss, happiness, failure, success.

There was a boy I once knew
whose eyes told me the story
of love, loneliness, and anger.

He was always sitting alone
during class-- no one liked him.
His classmates picked on him
Spread lies just to get him in trouble.

At home, Dad was always drunk
Mom was always beat
He was always crying himself to sleep

He wanted to kill himself
To just end all of the pain
But he couldn't because of
a girl he loved

In my opinion
He was just lost

We all wear masks,
everyone, everyday,
But sometimes we wear
them so much,
we forget who we really are.

--Anonymous, student