REVERIE FOR BACHELARD
"We ought to dream more."
-- Gaston Bachelard
Down in the blue depths,
words dream among themselves,
begin to love. Reveries
murmur in vagabond tongues,
swell the poppies to fire.
What jubilant, gentle work…
What bliss for the summer night!
Bluebells ding the diphthongs,
delight the red depths.
Diphthongs tongue their tender bells.
Words rub each other,
boogie and bebop, bump
and hump in blue drunkenness.
WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS
The vise grip--unusually cold--
stirs the town to housetending,
to stuffing socks into sills
and jambs. We stove
our rooms, wrap pipes, stop
gapes and leaks,
nurse the old housebones.
The sudden freeze provokes
cheerful nesting noises,
house to clapboard house.
Done with pipes, we snug
with book, quilt, and cat. Downtown,
ice cracks brick and stone.
Three men sleep in bags. They stick
straight out, like three good
children, all tucked in,
highrise for headboard.
Above, their flag is flying.
The cold stars shine. They lie
stick-stiff, and over two, breath
whitens the cruel air.
"Reverie for Bachelard" was first published in 2000 in Hidden Oak Review. Copyright 2000 by Priscilla Long. All Rights Reserved. "We Hold These Truths" was first published in the anthology Seattle Five Plus One: Poems (Pig Iron Press, 1996), Copyright 1996 Priscilla Long, All Rights Reserved. Please do not quote or reproduce without permission.
Work Sample: Creative Nonfiction
Contact Me:PriscillaLong@comcast.net