My Edmonds News is pleased to present the latest installment of Poet’s Corner, presented by the Edmonds-based EPIC Poetry Group.
Many Places to Cry
I have many places to cry
in the vast memory of generations passed
there is a genetic impression
an inescapable prodding
an unavoidable moment of tears
a remembrance
the shadowed darkness
of the Ile De Goree Senegal
the regurgitant swaying
ships sailing through the middle passage
bodies tossed
the land of birth fading into the distance
survivors strong in their resilience
weak in their resistance
a place to cry
alliances and treaties
a forced march upon snow crusted land
bloody feet
numbing bone chilling cold
suffering
starvation
no longer the reassuring sounds of rolling rivers
the ever present aroma of fragrant pine forest
a desolate flatness
naked hills
no places for elders
no place for children
a place to cry
you promised cities of gold
set upon hills of impervious stone
pure waters flowing sweet
a land of milk and honey
empty words!
you forced me to forget who I am,
I am left to live in isolation and shadows
in the absence of joy
memories linger
leaving no place to cry.
Gerald Bigelow
~ ~ ~ ~
Not Knowing
Not knowing my father,
is contained,
in the phantom,
of cloistered whispers,
a permanent irritant,
the constant grinding,
heart against mind,
a barren oyster,
creating pain,
not producing a pearl.
Gerald Bigelow
~ ~ ~ ~
Isolation
In the midst of isolation
I seek quiet spots
distant and near
a place
to think
to walk
each step
a rhythmic alliance
manifests a thought
I stand forced
without distraction
to be introspective
me dealing with me
mano a mano
confinement seeks
a broadening of the vision
a choice
to be a prisoner
of circumstance
or the mind
dimensions of time and space
create the perception of isolation
Coronavirus!
Racism!
the real protest march is in my head.
— Gerald Bigelow
~ ~ ~
The County Line
I watched a young black girl walk
along the side of a suburban road,
two years ago rural,
musing on the change of color in our town,
I recall that color had come only in the fall,
I drove, watching those well-dressed, dignified steps
fade into the distance,
ringed mist glowed around the morning sun,
crackling the memory of a cross burning in our town.
— Gerald Bigelow
~ ~ ~
Previously published in the Arizona Centennial Anthology and in Between the Lines, Gerald Bigelow is a board member for EPIC Group Writers and chairs a monthly poetry group. He edited and contributed to Soundings from the Salish Sea (A Pacific Northwest Poetry Anthology).
In 2019, he was selected to read his poetry with the Washington State Poet Laureate.He helped establish a bi-monthly Poet’s Corner featurette in My Edmonds News to showcase the work of local poets.He has a new book of poetry on Amazon entitled “Memories Looking Through a Screen Door.”
Thought provoking poetry. Thank you Gerald.
Perfect and moving words for our troubled times. Cry The Beloved Country
Your poetry, Mr. Bigelow, is as beautiful as you are. What a gift you have given us. Thank you.
Your words bring out so many daily sorrows and how far we have to go to understand. Your poem, Many Places to Cry, gave me a picture that describes the great, wound of this country’s history. Thank you.
Gerald, In your gentle, persistent and persuasive way you remind us of what we’ve done, and what we continue to do to one another, sometimes with purpose, and sometimes without thought. That we must do better, no matter what.