Poets Salon: Broken

POETS SALON

– 9/04/19

Hosted by Kath Abela Wilson

On the top shelf in our kitchen, overlooking our Living Room Gallery where poets meet, an art show is hung, and music is played, is my museum of broken things. Almost no one notices. Big clear plastic nut jars that hold broken fragments. Stopped timepieces, cameras stuck with their lenses out, small souvenir cups and dishes, a puppet from Prague. I am attached to everything. Only what matters goes into them.

broken museum
I know how
to save my world

~ Kath Abela

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The flower will produce new blooms (Photo – Debbie Strange)

Elisa Theriana

Child of the night

I sip your fears, mother… lightning strikes when we least expect it.

I carry your sighs, mother… flowers wilt and his smile too.

The place he calls home never belongs to us.

into daylight
raw and marred
the apple falls

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The seed will find a new home (Photo – Debbie Strange)

Christine L. Villa

sweeping
the cobwebs…
how to cut
the painful threads
of memories?

tattered leaves…
my body shrivels
and breaks
with just the thought
of losing you

missing petal…
I find a part of me
in an old photo
of mother cradling me
in her arms

dandelion wishes
tumble in the breeze…
the child in me
who never thought
that dreams could shatter

what does it take
for you to believe in me?
another feather
breaks from the wings
of a dove

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The tree will grow new leaves (Photo – Debbie Strange)

Kathy Nguyen

recalibrating
my inner song—
so must
this patchwork of leaves
touch and fall

a break
in traffic fumes—
I replace
memories of you
with birdsong

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The spider will craft a new web (Photo – Debbie Strange)

Robert Horrobin

a thousand morning suns

caught for a while
in the spiders’ web

one careless step
rips apart the threads that bind
this dewdrop world

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The bird will build a new nest (Photo – Debbie Strange)

Broken: Quotes and Credits

Elisa Theriana is an emerging writer from Bandung, Indonesia. She would like to lend her voice for the oppressed women: “We’ve been broken and healed. We wear our scars with pride. Scar is the badge of a survivor and We, Women are the best survivors.”

Christine L. Villa says: “I’ve been broken many times in many ways – physically, emotionally, mentally, and/or spiritually. It has always seemed that I would never be whole again. Faith has been my absolute anchor and the dependability of a pen has been my formidable strength. Whenever I have reached for a pen to write, the path to recovery has always been easier. Writing has been my outlet and therapy. Every word that has been released from my pen has been a healing balm and every poetry that has been created from brokenness has helped me piece myself together again.” Christine “Chrissi” L. Villa is an award-winning tanka and haiku poet published in respected online and print journals. Her collection of Japanese short-form poetry is entitled The Bluebird’s Cry. She’s the founding editor of Frameless Sky—the very first haiku and tanka journal available on DVD. She’s also the founding editor of Velvet Dusk Publishing.

Kathy Nguyen is an athletic trainer (sports medicine healthcare professional) and a yogi-athlete. She dabbles in art, writing, and adventures. The theme of brokenness and repair is a cyclic part of nature and life. There’s always a glimmer of hope and transformation, which is why, as a creative, she’s drawn to this theme and writes on this often.

Robert Horrobin was a minor local government functionary. Now he spends most of his time wandering around Orkney. To find him, follow Scotland’s great north road till it reaches its end. Then take a boat over the old seaways to an island that’s halfway way to the middle of nowhere. Robert says: “I have recently been re-reading David Lanoue’s Issa translations, including his dewdrop world poem. Then yesterday morning I took an early walk, there was a fabulous Orkney sunrise, the ground was covered in dew and everything was connected together by gossamer threads. Then I found your prompt and I wrote the poem in response to Debbie’s spiders’ web photo.”

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♣ We welcome and encourage your response, especially in the form of a short poem, by leaving a comment below.

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