Thoughts on the Steps of Butler Library - A Poem (From "Four Folded Corners")

And you couldn't have known me,
couldn't have loved me
like I thought you did
even though your kiss
was a gift each time
upon my brow

and now,
I think upon those times,
      how much of that rush
was me
reading between the lines
of our affection?

Under this vast sky
of deepest blue
amidst the flocked
cry of starlings
from atop these majestic
columns
I am moved

moved by what
this deep blue sky
this flock of birds
these wispy white clouds
can do to me

and yet,
is it not I
who makes them 'moving'
lest everyone should stop,
gape and sigh
at this night's wonderful gifts

as I debate
whether there was love
and not just lust,
between the sheets
of you and I.

By Mary E. Lohan

Our December (1994) (From "Four Folded Corners")

This New York snow
freezes cold
and all you do is pace
and flay,
say whatever comes to tongue
each gutteral flung
from your mouth
like blackened snow
under-
tire,
   
     I lean against a parked car
under fire,
afraid to blow a sigh
into this ice-picked wind
that might sling back

     and yet, my silence
brings a death
worse than dying,

I too
have learned to fall from heights
so quiet.

By Mary E. Lohan

Halo - A poem (From "Four Folded Corners"

you are not dead
     although that might not seem as bad

four screws

with shaking hands
he drives them
     one by one
     into your skull
building
an erector set
of metal rods

a bone anchored
helmet
so heavy
you are unable to
lie down
without assistance

consider yourself
paralyzed  or
the host
of a tumor
to receive this honor

you don't cry
     not until
he bolts
your head to
the table
slides your body
into an MRI
     so narrow
your elbows
     rub its insides

how do you keep
your sanity
     when its about
      to leave you?

r-e-s-t-r-a-i-n-t

wiggling your toes
     you count and cry
pray you will not
     regurgitate and die

1, 2, 3, 4, 5.....

By Mary E. Lohan

Love (It can be...) -- A Poem (From "Four Folded Corners")

It can be

     a shackle,
a surname you can't spell
     or pronounce,
a placeholder in a large bed,
     a reason to corner her and vent,

but what if it were
     a momentary,
meaningful embrace,
     a softly whispered word,
a butterfly kiss,
   
wings.


By Mary E. Lohan

A special thanks to Shack in the Swamp Photography for use of their beautiful images on my blog. 

Keanu - A Poem (from "Four Folded Corners")

You linger

a twilight sky
full of stars
cannot compete

all is quiet

except for the rustling of leaves
stirred by your breath

as you move
between worlds.

By Mary E. Lohan

Turbulence - A Poem (From "Four Folded Corners")

Those were turbulent days

     like ships on scrambled waves

we crashed and swayed --

     drifted

Til in the orange tint of morn'

     with labored breath

we were reborn --

    until dusk

But the blues and greys of night

     begged insight as I redressed

redid, relit the silent inner fight --

     I submit,

You held the string to my flight,

     I was your kite. 

By Mary E. Lohan

You at Two - A Poem (From "Four Folded Corners")

To my son, Dillon

Oh, your inventory of smiles --

your crinkley-eyed smile,

your curling ribbon smile,

your 'uh-oh' smile,

Your head sandwiched in the 'fridge

watching the light

go on 

and 

off.

By Mary E. Lohan 

Bach Played on Guitar - A Poem (From "Four Folded Corners")

Slender ivory bones bow

pluck and braid
celestial sounds

on taut strings.

By Mary E. Lohan 

Crush - A Poem (From "Four Folded Corners")

All is hushed
transient

Time becomes
the beat of your lips
speaking

There are no words
just your smile

I understand now --
Pain is pleasure,
Pleasure is plain

Keep speaking
and I'll try,
not to fall into your eyes.

By Mary E. Lohan

Summery Day - A Poem (From "Four Folded Corners")

A tribute to summer and those fab beach days

Across the deck,
I lie splayed --
an upturned star

a squinty-eyed face
gazing at a brilliant,
baby blue sea

umbrellas flutter
nearby, like sting rays
or pulsing jellies

this inverted world

I wish
to be a fish
in this fluid

summery day,
where I'd ever so slowly
swim away.

By Mary E. Lohan

On an Amtrak Train to Utica - Poem (from "Four Folded Corners)

Facing south
our bodies pulled northward
the past enlarges

passed trees join more trees
joining more trees
expanding tribes of leaf-tops
flaming
or glowing gold

as we slide alongside the silver, rippling river
bark, stone, sun, clouds

a stubby, railway bridge
a boat,
its sails, tall and starched,
sits motionless
as if painted

moving pictures --
what is to come
passes in time
gone from view too soon.

By Mary E. Lohan

Note: About Utica

Hate Deserves Nothing - Poem (Written after the Death of Daniel Pearl, From "Four Folded Corners")

Hate deserves nothing --
no headline
no broadcast

Not the ink to print a word,
or less, a point,

Not the breath it takes to utter
the smallest note,

Let it die quietly

Leaving
no epitaph
no echo
no seed.

Written by Mary E. Lohan 

What We Know About the Wind - A Poem (from "Four Folded Corners")

It always changes, the wind,
we never really know it's mind

invisible
a breath

from some it comes as anger,
from others, as song,

this untouchable force --
it's nothingness
stirs the most delicate flower
unscathed,

and yet,
it can move worlds.

By Mary E. Lohan

The Bus Stop - Post 9/11/2001 -- A Poem (from "Four Folded Corners")

Downtown, NYC 

It was like any other day 

the sun, bright,

hanging like an apple

in an orchard of brilliant clouds

You ran to get your bus,

when you could have walked,

waited for another

How could those left behind have foreseen it --

a shower of jet fuel
from such a wondrous sky.

By Mary E. Lohan

* Dedicated to Jeanieann Maffeo who died from burns suffered at a nearby bus stop after the planes struck the WTC.

** I remember so clearly that day as I drove to work and the way the sky appeared. A coworker had told me how he had managed to catch a bus that spared his life that day.