The First Poem

image from ipzircon at deviantart.com

Cave woman,
dressed in skins, and pelts,
comes out of her cave,
sits by the fire,
looks up at the stars.
In her heart is a wordless longing,
that she has not yet language for.


Beside her, 
her wolf-pup
lifts his muzzle to the sky
and howls mournfully
at the moon.


The human begins to thump
a steady beat
against her knee.
It grows in intensity and rhythm
until she, too,
tilts her head far back 
and makes sounds in her throat
that have no interpretation,
yet describe her longing
perfectly.

The first poem.


##########################################


Gay, over at dVerse, has set a challenge for poets to write about poetry: what it means to us,  what makes it great, etc. This leaped out of my head, Wild Woman that I am :) Congrats to dVerse on its one year anniversary. I remember the excitement when you began. You run a GREAT site. Kudos!!!!

A Poet on Poetry

[image from learnnc.org]

In speaking about writing a poem, Mary Oliver, said, "It wants to open itself, like the door of a little temple, so that you might step inside and be cooled and refreshed, and less yourself than part of everything.

"Poetry is a life-cherishing force. For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry."