Poetry from Samantha Reynolds (BentLily.com)

My taste in poetry runs to the old and traditional, but I’ve found a modern poet whose work I enjoy so much that I’m making my way through her website at the rate of one page every Sunday morning – because I don’t want to run out too quickly! Her tagline, “The art of noticing your life,” fits very well with my inclination to keep my eyes open for wondrous things, from Sistine Chapel-size to daily joys.

Samantha Reynolds (BentLily.com) generously says, “Can you reprint my poems? Goodness,  yes. Post them on your blog, put them in your book, tape them to your fridge. The very idea makes me do a happy dance. You can credit bentlily.com or Samantha Reynolds, and a link to this site would be lovely.” Thank you, Samantha, for the poems even more than the permission! The very idea of you doing a happy dance makes me smile.

One of my favorites:

Last day in Hawaii

We watch as the lazy eye of the sun
is erased by the mountain

the air stays warm
and smooth as silk
just like the poets say

the waves slap quietly
like a dog’s tongue
at a water bowl

and you turn to me
your hair sticking up
in a sea water mess

mama I love you
the most of the life
times a thousand moons

and I will my busy brain
to stop everything
and etch this moment
into whatever place is made
for things that need
to live inside me
forever.

More

If you like this one, go to her site and check out some of my other favorites:

  • A Poet’s Accomplice
  • Noticing
  • Your Real Quest
  • And this one, which I recently posted to Facebook: it so perfectly captures what I feel about all my friends who are musicians, painters, sculptors, novelists, architects, and other creative types. What the hell, I’ll copy it. (Online BentLily here.)

Ode to musicians

They sit there
as though they are
like me

but then the music
erupts out of their necks
and hands

it is as though
they said

don’t mind me

as they turned into
tigers and birds
floating and roaring
claws and wings
before wrapping up their tune

and re-entering
the average flesh
of the rest of us.

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