Sensational Curves

Art: Mark Collins
https://markcollinsfineart.com/

Stick figures are drawn,

and then, hung.

As children, what were we

supposed to learn from that

about body image?

Sometimes, they called me

a stick figure. It wasn’t meant

to be nice. Once, in front of

the other kids, my coach handed

me a big tub of peanut butter

and told me to eat it.

I wondered if I’d ever have

curves and if I’d be lovable

then.

I thought:

“That would be sensational!”

~

When people think of flamingos,

I think they think of pink and,

then, legs. Maybe they stand there,

for a bit, contemplating that beak

that was put on upside down

and backwards.

But, you know, if you really watch

a flamingo, you must conclude

that they are all about showing

off their curves.

Strut right, leg up, forward, down.

Left, leg up, forward, down. Lean

in, twist just so, make it hippy,

lift a little wing.

Paying attention to me now?

Stretch the long neck out, up, angle,

slowly now, in, start to tuck, roll,

bring the head around, look at that

shape, the sensational curves!

Hold for a count of five.

Do you still think we are alone

in the universe?

~

Every day, well almost every day,

when the painter takes a walk down

to the stream, he picks up a pebble

and gives it a name. Something, like:

“Sensational.”

He started doing this for the poet,

but those little stones claimed

his life too.

So, now, when it lands in the water,

with a plink or a plop,

what ripples forth, in row after

row of curves, is a two-fold blessing.

We are not alone.

~

And, there’s at least one more

thing to say about curves.

Look to the right, to the left,

in front, behind. Turn your head

all around.

Pay attention now. Notice that

we are all lovable.

Isn’t that sensational!

~ Jamie K. Reaser, Author

For a book collaboration in progress with artist Mark Collins

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Autumn Rain

Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

There have been years, when the summer has

been so dry, that this wish arrives deep

in the soul, wanting autumn rains to yield to prayers.

I think that there are within us certain longings

that, no matter the rules of the times, find us

embodying our animal ways, the longings

that take us back to the realization that this

isn’t ours to control, that there is something else

out there that we depend on. Today, it’s the

rain and whoever it is that caretakes the rain.

And too, there is this thing that happens when

you realize that the earth is rejoicing along with

you—listen to the way it praises!—that some of our

desires are shared with things that are still enlivened

though it has become convenient to think them not.

So, this is what it is like to light the first fire in the

woodstove as the rain pelts the metal roof and I

consider that here too is another day to be grateful

for the company that keeps me alive.

~ Jamie K. Reaser, Author

From "Truth and Beauty: Poems on the Nature of Humanity"

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