Summer 2004

Summer 2004

Tamara Jenkinson WILL WE FREE THE WORLD TO THINK PERFECTLY?* There are stories in the bones of fish. The water within us moved in rhythm with the rain falling. We are called to be still... let it ripple in circles away. We are clear skies reflected in water. We are dark moss on flooded rocks. We are the roots of reeds and tadpoles waiting for warmth. We are hanging from trees and jumping into the warm lake of August… and again we are water and the moon glitters in our smooth surface and stars. And we are earth too Grounding hearts Newly tilled earth that invites seeds From flowers blown by fortune. One stands looking across an estuary He wants to set upon it in a storm Another is looking out at snow His back to a room full of children Heart of a nomad trapped in a clapboard house. He takes his boots from the cellar His hood from the hook Wraps his neck with wool Make tracks in the still frozen snow. He is whispering legends to himself Muttering tales of brothers Some have fallen through ice. We read their stories from the bones of fish Mindful of sacrifice. *from a line in the "Kiss of God" by Marshall Stewart Ball   Tamara Jenkinson has published sporadically for 35 years in small local chap books and more recently on-line at Poetry Magazine and Seeker Magazine. She lives with her husband and their two youngest children in remote Northern California and practices rural social work for a living.

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