​POETRY - 
   WIth the Theme of Choices

"And then we would wander
into the brambles as they grew ever deeper
with summer fruit. "
                           
                                Photo by Weebly.com                                    

A Response to Mary Oliver's "Wild Geese"
- For Rachel
by Karen Marker  #

​​​​You told me I did not have to be good
that year my daughter was born
when your poem was published.
The wild geese had already gone
back north and I’d done my share
of repenting, wearing down my knees 
bowing before my guru’s picture, burning
ghee, chanting my prayer arti in Hindi.
I’d already walked my hundred miles
through the desert swearing I’d never give birth,
never let a baby come into a world like this.
Better to live a monastic life. But I heard you
say it’s okay to love what I had loved first
in the deep burrow of my mother’s belly,
that box of sheltered darkness and after that
in those welcoming hands that lifted me into the light.
 
I heard you tell me not to be afraid
of temporary quarters, all the things that will
leave us. Because of you I let my eyes
follow the path of the sea birds, sparrows, eagles
then stop to watch them build their nests
in the highest treetops. You don’t have to be good,
you told me, just love what you love with every fiber
of your animal body, most of all that baby.  
 
So even if I could not protect her from all predators
I would try. And then we would wander
into the brambles as they grew ever deeper
with summer fruit. All those ripe berries, ready to pick
and their thorns not making it easy.
You just need to love what you love, you said,
and I did. 

# Author's Note: This poem was previously published in the Slant Poetry Journal, Vol. 38.1 Spring 2024, and was awarded second prize by the Coolbrith Society.

Vertical Divider

Vertical Divider

​​Karen Marker is a retired school psychologist who turns to her studies in psychology, classical mythology, family ancestry and nature for her inspiration as a poet and memoirist. Her work has been published in various anthologies, won awards through the Ina Coolbrith Circle and the Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition, and been included in the Kent State University May 4th Archives. Her first book of poetry, Beneath the Blue Umbrella, will be coming out with Finishing Line Press at the end of 2024.  See her book at:   www.finishinglinepress.com

Other works in this issue:
Poetry:
​On the Poets, Swifts and Other Birds

Vertical Divider

We Welcome Comments