Mythopoetry Scholar
Annual Reflections In Depth Perspectives
TWO POEMS
"wandering courage" and "feather rain"
-Beth Anne Boardman
wandering courage
so lately
i’ve been wondering
about courage --
i wonder if it’s courage that makes
the small thrushes sing
in the grey of dawn,
after a fire….
or courage that keeps
the one tiny ember glowing,
unaccountably,
after a dousing….
is courage the persistence
to keep getting up,
after all hope of persistence
has gone?
maybe the waves show courage
when, after the thundering hurricane,
they show up all turquoise and glossy
the next day….
maybe the great horned owl shows courage
as it calls out softly from its high perch
into the deep black silence
of the night forest….
•
soldiers tell me they don’t feel courageous
as they rush forward into war….
yet they go --
and that must be courage….
i’ve cared for children
who, as they receive their chemotherapy,
exude streams of unknowing courage
from their very fingertips….
i wonder if sitting in the midst
of not knowing, of waiting
of learning to get up each day
forgoing hope --
i wonder if
the willingness to stand
in the chill wind of
the vast unknown --
if that is not courageous, too….
•
i feel a kinship
with all things crushable….
tiny spiders under my feet,
small lizards, lying exposed on my front steps,
delicate lavender petals floating down
from the jacaranda trees….
on this planet,
all are tiny,
fragile,
crushable….
but like the white diamond stars,
we glow in pitchest black…
maybe just waking up
to this
is where courage lives….
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feather rain
some wounds
would take the whole earth
to heal....
last night
rain danced softly,
like feathers
through my open window....
delicate drops stirred still air,
drawing my attention
to their sweet secrets....
quietly,
like shimmers
through a web,
i heard whispers
of comfort,
reassurance....
i remembered how once
i had heard
the great one
speaking to me
through desert rocks....
i had leaned my tired head
against their warmth--
they radiated a whole day's worth
of desert sun
into my fearful heart....
listen:
i have been here since the beginning.
i've seen everything there is to see.
you are no worse
and no better
than anyone....
keep going....
some wounds we carry our whole lives,
like amputations....
what was torn out
exists only in the other world....
in ashes,
in dream....
i listen and remember--
this soft gentle rain
falls on everyone,
everyone....
if i turn my face up to it
and stay very quiet
and listen very deeply,
i can feel love
seeping right down into
this suffering heart....
everyone
everyone
is worthy of this
deep and private love...
Nominated in the community generated category #mythopoetics, TWO POEMS
"wandering courage" and "feather rain", a part of the top ten nominated pages from this issue, finishes competition on 2/18/14 with an overall standing in position ***37*** among more than 3,500 nominees. Congratulations to Beth A. Boardman on this fine achievement.
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Author Bio
Beth Anne Boardman grew up in the foothills of Colorado and lived for five years in the Midwest before settling in California, where she raised her two children.
Beth Anne loves words, writing, hiking, dancing, singing, and time spent under the silent stars. A licensed RN with a master’s degree in English, she is currently completing a Doctorate in Mythology/Depth Psychology. Her passion, hope, and the subject of her dissertation is adolescents. She is the author of the poetry blog DancingWolf Poetry.
You may visit more of her work on line in Zocalo Public Square and Written River.
