Renga
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Renga
Four geese fly over. Appetite pulls the body, its shameless honking.
Longing to be loved is its own kind of honking. Return to the nest.
Here in your reed house listen to earth, fire, wind-- think about oceans.
All that you can’t cross, weak, mind full of strategy: perfectly simple.
Everything loves you. Your mother is everything, all of it singing.
Stars along bare branch, magnolia, or memory of wild magnolia. [End Page 180]
Mary Rose O’Reilley’s most recent book, Bright Morning Stars, won the 2017 Brighthorse Prize for the Novel. She is the author of two poetry collections, both from LSU, Half Wild (2005 Walt Whitman Prize) and Earth, Mercy. Her three books on teaching concern peace studies and contemplative practice: The Peaceable Classroom, Radical Presence and The Garden at Night (Heinemann). Two memoirs, The Barn at the End of the Worldand The Love of Impermanent Things (Milkweed Editions) explore connections among humans, animals and the natural world. Professor Emerita at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN, she is grateful to remain active as a writer, beach naturalist, potter, and Baroque and folk fiddle player. She lives on a rural island in Puget Sound.
