I love Marge Piercy with a huge, fierce love. If you’ve never read her, you’re missing out. The poem below is a long-time favorite that gives me shivers every time I read it, because the imagery is so powerful. It makes me remember what it is to fall in love, and how it is in the beginning; the huge heat that is generated. Can you see the speaker? Glowing as she walks? When I read it, I feel warmer. I put my hands out and hold them close to the flames.<\/p>\n
I Am A Light You Could Read By
\nby Marge Piercy<\/b><\/p>\n
A flame from each finger,
\nmy hands are candleabra,
\nmy hair stands in a torch.
\nOut of my mouth a long flame hovers.
\nCan’t anyone see, handing me a newspaper?
\nCan’t anyone see, stamping my book overdue?
\nI walk blazing along Sixth Avenue,
\nburning gas blue I buy subway tokens,
\na bouquet of coals, I cross the bridge.
\nInvisible I singe strangers and pass.
\nNow I am on your street.
\nHow your window flickers.
\nI come bringing my burning body
\nlike an armful of tigerlilies,
\nlike a votive lantern,
\nlike a roomful of tassels and leopards and grapes
\nfor you to come into
\ndance in my burning
\nand we will flare up together like stars
\nand fall to sleep.<\/p>\n
Quarrel in the berry patch
\nby Marge Piercy<\/b><\/p>\n
I gave you the cherries this year,
\nthe mulberries, you gorgeous beasties
\norange and lemon like the bells
\nof St. Clemons, wherever that is,
\nBaltimore dashing orioles.<\/p>\n
Why do you curse and torment
\nme, picking black currants?
\nYou can\u2019t have everything.
\nThe yellow female squats over
\nmy head, threatening.<\/p>\n
The male twitters and swoops.
\nNow the catbirds too mew
\ndire promises of revenge.
\nOkay, the black currants are mine,
\nbut we\u2019ll split the blueberries.<\/p>\n
This is my land, I say, no
\ndifferent than the boast of Mr.
\norange chest from his hanging
\nnest in the weeping beech
\nand whose tree is it?<\/p>\n
I planted it, I water it,
\nthe squirrels fuck in it,
\nalways somebody has a nest
\nas it plunges deep in the earth:
\nits owner, its lover, its end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I love Marge Piercy with a huge, fierce love. If you’ve never read her, you’re missing out. The poem below is a long-time favorite that gives me shivers every time I read it, because the imagery is so powerful. It makes me remember what it is to fall in love, and how it is in the beginning; the huge heat that is generated. Can you see the speaker? Glowing as she walks? When I read it, I feel warmer. I put my hands out and hold them close to the flames. I Am A Light You Could Read By by...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1148"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5294,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148\/revisions\/5294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}