Tag: Geraldine Cannon

Geraldine Cannon: “Tears”

Posted on by asitoughttobemagazine 
Tears

Skin once taut over muscle and bone
grows soft and softer still, as age moves on
and may bring sadness unknown before,
or a kind of thrill to mark the passage
on a map of being in this place, this age.
Adventures are remembered in crinkling folds.
Sitting or standing will require slower motion.
No matter the pain that is now no small matter.
An old drum at rest for a while needs the essential oil
of caring hands, each touch and each beat deepening
into warm inviting sounds, smelling of vanilla rain.
Pitter patter, falling softly. Softly enfolded in loved arms.
Hush and listen, safe and dear one, ever close to heart,
where ear is at the center, just as art is in the earth,
and ripples continue beyond the edge of the pond.

About the Author: Geraldine Cannon is a poet, scholar, and editor, also working as a Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, under her married name–Becker. She has been published in various journals and anthologies. She published Glad Wilderness (Plain View Press, 2008).. She has been helping others publish, and had stopped sending her own material out, but she was encouraged to do so again, and most recently has a new poem in the Winter issue, Gate of Dawn (Monroe House Press, 2024).

Image Credit: Jan Ciągliński “Rain – impressions from the train” Public domain image courtesy of Artvee

Geraldine Cannon: “Concerning the Current Drift of Words”

Posted on by asitoughttobemagazine 
Concerning the Current Drift of Words

A note to say I agree that your work has much improved.
I really enjoy reading it a lot more now. As for me, 
you know, I can’t help but write when the words come.
If I don’t, they will just drift right on away from me.
I can’t say, “I will see you later!” and do something else,
because the words that were there will surely move on.
There’s the sweet refrain of “Come and see me sometime!”
Or “Y’all come back again, you hear!” in so many songs.
And then the bridge over troubled water where a chord
may be added or the tone changes and hope returns anew.
The friend may or may not return, except in memory.
The circle may bend and be unbroken, and there are spirals, too.
Of course, a road may fork and paths may almost equally divide.
If you want to see the forest through the trees, take to the trees.
Take a full measure of the trees, they say.  Return to the roots,
and look closely at the leaves.  Don’t forget the bark, its touch 
and feel, the smell and taste of wood, and even the sound it makes
or doesn’t make.  Use all your senses.  I can’t help myself. I digress.
Do you get my drift?  If this sounds like a poem, it is. Stop, now.
See how the light gets in? Just look back up through the canopy.

About the Author: Geraldine Cannon is a poet, scholar, and editor, also working as a Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, under her married name–Becker. She has been published in various journals and anthologies. She published Glad Wilderness (Plain View Press, 2008).. She has been helping others publish, and had stopped sending her own material out, but she was encouraged to do so again, and most recently has a new poem in the Winter issue, Gate of Dawn (Monroe House Press, 2024).

Image Credit: Chase Dimock “Dead Tree” (2021)

Geraldine Cannon: “April Fools’ Day – In All Good Fun”

Posted on by asitoughttobemagazine
David de Coninck Two Rabbits
“Rabbit, Rabbit!  Pinch Punch! First of the month. White Rabbit, No Return.”
					--for Good Luck, said on the first day each month.


April Fools’ Day – In All Good Fun 

You can’t believe a thing you read today, 
at least not entirely. There may be a grain 
of truth, but you’ll have to sift it out yourself. 
A friend reminded me of an old date night spoof
to take an ugly girl out to dance—a one-night stand.
She was that girl for some but now she has become 
swan to duck as compared to them—a silk purse 
to their ear of pig. Another friend met the fellow 
of her dreams out on a date on this day years ago. 
They’ve been married ever since and every single 
year she says she’d do it all again. I never could’ve, 
though. I joked once that I was pregnant, then vowed 
never to again, because so many wanted me to be. 
My neighbor was born on this day, and there are those 
whose work I know, born today that I’ve never met.
Take Anne McCaffrey, for example: the first woman 
for a lot of things science fiction and fantasy, in real life 
won a Hugo. Still, reports say she struggled to be taken 
seriously. Often asked how she found time to write,
like a boss, she would say: “You’ve got that wrong—
how do I find time for housework with all my writing!” 
I know some Aprils who were born in May or June. 
Go figure. Yes, and it’s the month to celebrate poems. 
Regarding lines, you have given me one or two. 
If mine are worth stealing, that sounds like a boon 
for us both. I say, “Good luck, my friend!” I do mean it.

About the Author: Geraldine Cannon is a poet, scholar, and editor, also working as a Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, under her married name–Becker. She has been published in various journals and anthologies. She published Glad Wilderness (Plain View Press, 2008).. She has been helping others publish, and had stopped sending her own material out, but she was encouraged to do so again, and most recently has a new poem in the Winter issue, Gate of Dawn (Monroe House Press, 2024).

Image Credit: David de Coninck “Two Rabbits” Public domain image courtesy of Artvee.