The Shape Of the Universe

A loosely spun cocoon

Twisted at the ends

Swelling outwards

Ripe like a bursting plum

Soft and sweet and sour

By the winter the squirrels will have at it

I race on my bicycle to the outskirts

Wheels spinning in the dark swirling storm

Where nothing meets something

I might have learned

One can wait in joy

One can wait in agony

It is all the same

What if we had the fourth sense

The one denied us

Waiting in the wings

© 2008 Audri Phillips

Our cool kopek (from Ceferino Elrod)

been pleased to grant.
She looked forward to hearing men speak of her father as a she.
Another of We came on some, the day before last, said Jaime.
Addam Marbrands scouts had found them,
might not think him worthy of the silver,
but Pate knew how to set a bone and leech a fever.

Note: This was received as spam mail to sell Viagra. I liked the title "Our cool kopek" and it was sent by "Ceferino Elrod". Finding the phrases and rhythm quite pleasing, I decided to post this spam email as poetry. I make no claims to be the author, only to identify the work as poetry.

Shelter for the Cricket

Mr. TJ Housley, I accidentally come upon your earlier writings on alfalfa on this blog, and I was moved by what I read. I heard the echo of a kindred spirit. Kind of strange to say this on a public blog. Even the word blog makes me think of marshy quick sand.

A poet’s job is to find both the body and the spirit and connect them. I think you do that.

Your work makes me want to share some observances of mine with you about the humblest of our neighbors, grass. Underfoot and trod upon it has contributed much to our common language, the mix of metaphors and contradictions that circle our psyches.

We take for granted, accept so much as ordinary that which is not. Is grass like sleep, something that is either unfathomable or a gift? A few of the words I associate grass with are, longing, growth, progress, up, persistence, hope and light.

The body of grass can be found in its greenness

A breaking of ground

The turning of the earth

Slender shafts uncurling

Tender pale on first emergence

An insistent flowering towards the light

One blade entwining roots with all

Separate individuals forming a whole

Even its voice found in the wind caress of one on another

Whispered again by the cricket

Grass has a directional parameter

Primarily growing upwards

Up now being for us the direction of forward progress

One blade, all blades indomitable before the blade

Can there be growth without longing

Grass, a visual representation of hope

Here can be found its spirit

© 2008 Audri Phillips

Please note that all other writings of mine to TJ will be posted on-

http://thotsohousley.blogspot.com from now on.