National Poetry Month 2020 Day 4: “Dirty Poem” & “Lost in Flecks”

Marge Piercy is another of my favorite poets, introduced to me by Yishan in Portland. She got one of her poetry collections for me on a visit together to the In Other Words feminist bookstore (where I spent quite a bit of time) and I’ll never forget it. Feeling the hope of spring right now through the anxiety and fear of pandemic quarantine.

Dirty Poem

Marge Piercy

Snow lies on my fields

Though the air is so warm I want to roll on my back and wriggle.

Sure, the dark downhill weep shows who’s winning, and the thatch of tall 

grass is sticking out of the banks,

But I want to start digging and planting.

My swelling hills, my leafbrown loamy

Soil interlaced with worms red as mouths,

My garden,

Why don’t you hurry up

And take your clothes off?

This is an oldie by me, capturing a collegiate moment of angst. I wouldn’t say it’s a masterwork,
but it does capture that time for me:

Lost in Flecks

By Blythe Stephens

When I look into their faces,

What do I see?

Has what you are changed,

Through me?

Innocence lost by the wayside:

Pink roses fat to bursting,

Heavy with softness,

Melting together then fading away.

Away to where?

Into the darkness, searching, searching

Past Orion and Casseopeia

And the flecks in your eyes

And the tingle down my body.