How Many Blues?

Posted on March 8, 2017 by pkarimadmin under Poetry, Sample Writing

How many words for blue are there
in your language? I answer this as if
I know – blue sky, blue feeling, blue
eye. I want to know the word for blue
in Swahili, in Russian, in Arabic.

I want to taste and breathe it, drink
from its tenderness and power. I wonder
if Gauguin understood blue differently
in Tahiti? I suspect that blue stretched his
mind and cast him out of the prism where
he knew the ache of too-blue.

And the Navaho? What does blue mean
to them? They live in the blue light of red
where shadows cannot bear the blackness
and so–and so, people of the desert
see Ravens in their true color, the blue-
black of all beginning.

by Dean LaTray and Persis Karim 3/1/17

Gather

Posted on November 10, 2016 by pkarimadmin under Poetry, Sample Writing

Gather your friends, gather yourselves, every
breath of you is needed for the long
dark winter opening before you.
Your open eyes must open wider
to see the light piercing the small
crack in your broken heart.
turn toward those you love
and toward those you do not know
for never did we need a stranger’s
kindness more than in this instant.

(November 9, 2016)
by Persis Karim — for my fellow human beings everywhere

The Wind

Posted on April 19, 2015 by Persis Karim under Blog, Poetry

I love the wind–

its breath in my hair,
its fingers on my back,
the sound of it in trees
or at the edge of the sea.
I love the wind more
than anything I cannot see.

Persis Karim

The Wind in April

Wayward Dragonfly

Posted on April 15, 2015 by Persis Karim under Blog, Poetry, Sample Writing

The strong wind pushes and whips

a dragonfly far from water

I nearly step on its glassy wings

but the light of its shimmer catches my eye

I lift and hold its delicateness

in the palm of my aging hand

the black veins of its travels

the circuitry of its flight

are transparent in each flutter

I set it in a tree to recover

hoping the camouflage of its invisibility

will save it from another injury

so that it take off and alight again

and find its way back to the mirror

of itself on the shore. (persis karim)

For Kyle- In What Would Have Been His 21st Year

Posted on March 30, 2015 by Persis Karim under Blog, Poetry

At 21, you might have taken the world
into the folds of your arms, held it softly
like a baby, or flexed your muscles
and hurled it into space, like the fire
of your bright-burning. No one knew
what the stars held for you, no one
could have held you back in the brilliance
of your life. You were a boy, a man becoming,
taken from us far too soon,

in the days and months when love
enfolded you, when forgiveness
rested in the back of your throat,
your soul entered that other realm.
These days, we live through long days
of absence, days that lead us
to months, and now, five years
of them, filled with
wondering who you might be . . .

how you’d come through the front door,
how you’d tell me about your day, maybe
even debate about things
we both thought important.
How you’d advise your brother
or rub your father’s shoulders,
or share some secret
of your feelings, or hold back
and wait for an opening
between us. These days the wondering
about who you might
be, how you might answer
the call of your life leaves me
with more questions
and the unhealing bruise
of not knowing.

Garanhuns with immense love, Persis

Cloud Study: Three Haikus for a Hopeful Sky

Posted on March 1, 2015 by Persis Karim under Blog, Poetry, Sample Writing

I. all day the clouds heave

each hopeful moment I wait

but not one drop falls

II. birds rest on wires

waiting for the rainstorm too

gossip suffices

III. even without rain

these clouds, a glorious show

closing in on light

haiku for a mother hummingbird

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Persis Karim under Blog, Poetry, Sample Writing

http://fabcare.com/shop/hygienic-barrier-washers/barrier-washer/ nest of moss and light

cups her still body in green

beneath her hums life

(Persis Karim)

photo: Persis Karim

Blossom

Posted on February 24, 2015 by Persis Karim under Blog, Poetry, Sample Writing

Plum Blossoms in Morning Light. Photo: Persis Karim

Solitary Blossom. Photo: Persis Karim

blossom in light, blossom in fog
you are the beacon of the possible
the source of all beginning
the fleeting and the steadfast
the wind carries you like a message
of devotion, scattering your white
light that sticks like magic
to the bottom of my shoes.