St. David's Day!

So it's St. David's Day, which most of the few of you who read this blog already knew. I seem to be celebrating the occasion by writing. After weeks of being afraid to read my Yahoo poetry list emails because it might mean I'd get inspired, write something, and reconnect with my old poet friends (and who has the time or energy for that), I actually read some poetry list email, got inspired, wrote something, and sent it out to said friends. What is my world coming too? I'm actually feeling creative. And after 10pm too!

Here's what Dancing Bear had written:


Deer Flowers as Love Poems


Through the forest of Redwoods
the deer have stilted their way
down ravines and gullies, back
to this second place of life

they call their own for half
a year. They feast on our
well-watered lilies, our princess
flowers, our chinese lanterns

and roses. And we wait
happy in the knowledge
that what is tended to by us will
bring these delicate creatures

closer to us. Their wide eyes
carry all the fear we keep so
hidden within ourselves, they
are the caution we caution

against. They trust no one
but themselves, not even our flowers
which are only there so long
as we make an effort of them



And here's what I wrote, just this moment off the press. (Much darker than I feel, but apparently something I needed to say):



There is Nothing Soft About a Deer

Her body is hard lean bone, sheathed
in muscle, little else. The only
excess that takes hold in a deer
are the ticks that mine her blood.
A deer's eyes are liquid but don't
be fooled; they are shallow pools,
easily fathomed.
And if you are able to touch a deer -
say one by the side of a road, at rest
eternally; or in a park
display of the local fauna -
if you caress her stilled flank
with hope for softness blooming
like a rose in your chest,
you will find instead that the fur
is a short
sharp disappointment.