Another morning shifts into view like frost receding from rooftops, the unexpected cold of April’s end. The sheets are warm with your body, the imprint next to me where your hand pressed the mattress. Now entropy. I have to leave this space and wake the baby. I finger the edge of the comforter will-less to leave. You snort in your sleep. Our parting is the same every morning. In one motion I’m sitting on the edge of the bed and throwing open the curtains–the sun shouts GOOD MORNING on the walls and throws the light across your face. Your eyelids screw up because even in half sleep you can feel the light.
Tag: new poems
Ghazal for Poetry Month
Sliver of the icicle from a clogged gutter in April, wind like a spray // of water, biting raw our cheeks and hands held to pray.
A rolling over in my belly, again. You awaken like spring // should be. Up with the hyacinths and daffodils opening petals to pray.
Sticky fingers in my hair, ringing curls around your index // together we smell like peanut butter, a scent to teach me to pray.
When you climb the stairs alone, my back turned, your smile grows // like spring urgency or crocus bursting among new grass to pray.
Pray for sunshine. Golden hair as you run from me, a shriek as joyful as a prayer. // The robins scatter at your approach and you reach your hands out to pray.
My Sonnet for Poetry Month
Bright cold sun of April, the northwest winds
whipping your cheeks red and spreading
the first of the season’s pollen. Shock of yellow
Daffodils holding on through sleet and snow cover
reminders of the coming warmth. You pick handfuls
of stems and spread them on the concrete
leaving trails of green against the composite
like the slick a snail leaves behind.
I love you in your discovery. This new world
you find, this bright cold place you embrace
as only a child could. The sky opens blue
and streaks with robins and you pierce
the noisy silence with your laughter. A temporary
moment I will hold onto forever.
Poetry that Responds // New Poem!
Due to the Covid-19 quarantine in Ohio, the Ekphrastacy April 2020 event at Heights Arts in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, was cancelled. Fortunately the staff at HA got together and had us poets record our poems for a virtual ekphrastacy!
My poem “Invisible Storm” is up on Heights Arts’ website. It was inspired by “Black Horse” by Jean Hoffman.
Enjoy!
Post-Crawl
Today was the Cleveland Drafts Literary Crawl in Tremont. I had an amazing time and was so grateful to share in the Cleveland literary community. I read alongside Joe Kapitan, Phyllis Levine, and Ali McClain at Round 2. We all have very different styles and voices, and our work was a great sampling of what Cleveland writers can do. Thank you to everyone who came to support me, thank you to the CSU Poetry Center for hosting our portion of the reading, and thank you to Cleveland Drafts and Brews and Prose for putting on this amazing event!
Amanda Stovicek D'Alessandro 