Mary Barnet's Poetry Various Periods

Photo Credit: Mary Barnet

From Mom

Know that I am there
With you now
& only time and space
Keep me from serving you eggs
On that worn-out counter.
You are tomorrow;
I am the world all about you..
And though I sleep now
I am with you always.

Awaken with me !
For I am the sun in your eyes !

Sometimes the sorrow is so sweet
It is joy as darkness sweeps over
The mountains that will awaken again
At dawn that casts our work
As a shadow of our lives
And our love as the skeleton
Upon which we have grown to old age.

The Pulsing Heart

God is the pulsing heart of the universe
Expanding and contracting
Zillions of eons in time.

Refuge

She found her one and only
Safe refuge
The true point of her journey
Beginning with the squirrels
who eat voraciously
While a pair of squabs
Wander among the sparrows
Bathing in a tiny puddle
Where Mary Barnet's birdhouse
Welcome Inn yields sanctuary
in the trees!

World

We walk through this world of governments
There is no place to escape to
We must retreat into the forests
The joy of our minds will blossom in time
Doors will open relative to the bliss we find
The love and succor we give
Perhaps will reflect a good light

I Am Created

a flower in my eye
the ocean about my head
roaring
what is this i create
thinking in the dark
piercing "all the facts" with fatal feeling
forcing each morning out of the past
in anxiety, though only to give perfect recognition
in pleasure to a future
sprouted from this Earth
always blossoming once more
from decaying leaves
out of the night's darkness
into the True Creator's bright daylight.

I Am Both Rich and Poor

I am both rich and poor,
Both happy and sad.
I am me, I am you ;
I am the changes of my life.

I have all and nothing ;
I possess the world.
I stand by your side
One, as on any Happy Birthday.

I dance with joy
Yet stumble lame ;
Happily onward I sing
Sometimes I am lost in the sadness of this world.

I hold the child of my flesh.
I am childless ;
I cherish my issue
As my voice touches this land.

I give you the shells I have gathered on the beach. :
My hands cannot hold the sea :
My heart is full,
For life is mine.

(IMAGINARY!?!) NEWSPAPER HEADLINE:
MAN STEALS BREAD-TRUCK

Police are investigating the theft, at 3 am in the morning,
of a bread-truck from in front of a convenience store.
The perpetrator is being charged
with grand larceny, and "eating on the run,"
and faces 2-5 years in prison.

Justice follows crime:
theft caused by hunger brought on by poverty.
All for want of a mere loaf of bread ???

Three Variations

I. Moment

I have always wondered
are these white blossoms of the cut Gladiola living ?
Is this
Spring dying ?
Are these dead flowers ?
Isn't it Spring somewhere always ?
What lives a moment
Is yet a part of life.

II. Gladiola

green stemmed Gladiolas
pistils protruding from the largest silk white bloom.
soft green leading up the stem to buds
which may or may not blossom
to give off the sweet smell
before the stem dies

.III. Infant

budding flowers
as white as the deliverer's white coat.
a trumpet for a New Year the world does not hear.
calling out from the womb of life
a bud like an infant whose cord has been cut
will she grow to bloom ?

River
Dedicated to "Dad" at his Memorial service

Among the people of the mountains
There is a saying,
"Sleep when you can,
Rest when you are weary,
The time comes to depart
Even from your home."
I thought of this
Watching the boats pass down the river,
Wondering which would come
To take me on my way.

Homeless Man

A slight unidentifiable man
appeared several times
near the end of the millennium.
As if to peel the skin
from the fruit,
He took off his sweaty shirt and socks :
removed piece by piece
of this world as it is.

The great, spinning machine
returned his garments
warm and clean.

Without explanation he donned them
remembering his birth.

How odd!?

Thunder

Darkest night
Illuminated by thunder ;
Vision building to dawn
All cleared by the song of sparrows.

Ancient Dream

What hour is this
Passing me on wingéd foot
Waiting not a moment
For an "older woman?"
I shall join in the ancient games:
The poem reaches forces
unleashed by the gods of muse within ;
We know in our hearts
There is nothing more serious than a dream !
Unless it is a dream become reality !

As If

As if a thousand years
One second made,
God makes himself known to us,
That we may do as he has bade.
There is no reason life's glory will ever fade.
Sky streaked with purple,
Royal robes for sunset and sunrise,
Always our love will suffice,
& we shall live midst the blazing glory
Of our happiness-trodden glade.

Over

Over the mountains
The sunset hovers red
Red sun and crimson clouds
The sight condenses
To a moment of awe
Full of portent
Tomorrow the prediction
Of today's light
Fading to darkness
And night dressing at
The end of this glorious display
Crimson fades to black.

Silent Triumph

Nine Canadian Geese at first light
Swoop in through the low-lying fog
Onto the Glimmerglass surface of Manitou Lake.
A young chief softly propels his maiden
Over the smooth waters
In a canoe whose strength
Is in the pressure of the water
On the almost tissue-like bark
Of the canoe he has made.
They glide together through the dawn
Like the hawk and his mate who soar above
Watching with two-foot wings
One hundred feet over the ground
With eyes so keen
They can see the heart beating
In the tiny chest of the mouse they will devour.

Terns and swallows flit and dive
With blue-green wings around
His Princess with the dove-brown eyes.
Taken by him on a dawn like this
From her elderly mother's long house
Near the mouth of the river
So recently called "Hudson"
By those who came to live on it's banks
From across the Great Sea.
Beneath the earth on that hill
There is solid rock
And Indian Pond lies only a score of feet away
In a grove of elms, maples, and willows.

Now the mature male turtle has boldly climbed
Onto a tree stump near the shore of the lake
They canoe today
To sun himself on another glorious morning
Of another glorious day.

Sermon

She found, as if by instinct,
The world she had dreamed of so long ago.
She felt not alone but rather full of peace.
The peace that one finds in a good word
And in a smile
The sermon she had come to hear was
Life itself.

Truth, Revealed

The Mightiest Judge stands before us
Vanquishing all foes, and breaching all barriers
In order to vindicate self and world.
The Creator revealed, the reason and the plan ---
Eternal beauty born
In the eyes of humankind.

Here Within Me

Re-channeling the inner stream of my thoughts
I must allow "heaven's river"
To glow like neon in my mind
Where each star of the Milky Way
Is brighter than the sun in the east.
I redecorate my life in bright colors ;
Far beyond rainbows and sunsets,
In space within, Each of us can truly touch the stars.

Turning

On what seems the coldest day of the year
In my new gift headphone radio
John Lennon sings about those wheels going round and round.
I watch the laundromat machines going around and around and around;
I am resigned as on a ceaseless journey.
I am content
Knowing the earth turns quietly beneath my feet.

In Memoriam, for my father

In my sadness, I am at a loss for words ---
Just as you once taught me to write poems,
You have wiped the canvas with an old sock
Clearing away the work of yesterday
To replace the old with the new.
I will write another poem.

Birthday

Towards the horizon
The line of the ocean extends unbroken
Reaching beyond the town, the dunes
Inward along the land, the woods
Extend cool in the heat of noon
To where this arm of the sea again meets the land.

As they near the shore
The boats blast their horns.
The sound drifts across the sea
Reaching the beaches and the sand
Covering the forests with a peaceful clarity,
Returning on this birthday home by land and by sea.

Untitled, 1982

We stopped to look
We saw the mountainside beneath the cold
Gray light of evening.
We heard the music of sparkling crystal on the air.
Life was warm then
Though she was not always fair.
We saw the grandeur of our imaginations ;
The glory of those colors which for us were there.