Marilyn McCabe’s latest book of poems, Glass Factory, was published by The Word Works in Spring 2016. Her poem “On Hearing the Call to Prayer Over the Marcellus Shale on Easter Morning” was awarded A Room of Her Own Foundation’s Orlando Prize. Her book of poetry Perpetual Motion was published by The Word Works in 2012 as the winner of the Hilary Tham Capitol Collection contest. A grant from the New York State Council on the Arts resulted in videopoem "At Freeman's Farm," which was published on The Continental Review and Motion Poems. She blogs about writing and reading here. ---------
Psalm: Dear one
Dear one, willow me. Hold close your face
as whisper and frond me, friend. If you name
me, I will shape you with my tongue,
will teeth you into being, grind
this knuckle of tree root into beautiful hour.
Am I strong? In this body, lank as heron,
aslant as cattail, I am toad gone mountain.
How close can I come to you? You eye me as stars
so close some nights. The bright bright!
Would that you shift back the black dark,
let me in your shine.
Psalm: Cliff's fissure
Cliff's fissure, fisthole in ice,
gap between notes of the nighthawk cry,
maw under the roots of the fallen pine,
in an oak trunk the molded o,
winter's remove of mud's perfume,
you are my dearest absence,
my chasm, my ache.