Three Poems by Jennifer Pratt-Walter

 

meanwhile 

 

during the political storms where little 

is clear amid declarations and postures, 

do not forget all the meanwhiles 

 

meanwhile night and day still yield lightly  

to the next one’s prelude 

 

meanwhile all the world keeps 

her own time and ways 

 

meanwhile the moon drapes and undrapes 

to the patterns of her dance 

 

meanwhile glow worms, cicadas and crickets 

signal in earnest for mates 

 

meanwhile chemistry, biology and physics, 

the inherent religion of all things, rolls on 

 

spiralling through the sanctuaries  

of their own unspeakable scaffolds 

 

those miracles we barely see through the  

false lenses of always looking at ourselves, 

thinking we can own it all

 

 

who i am 

   . . . 

i am misplaced rain 

seeking a river 

   . . .  

i am an eclipse starved 

for light 

    . . . 

i am the pink vaults that build 

foetal miracles, the breasts 

that feed 

     . . . 

i am the tongues of gods 

yet no one listens 

     . . . 

i am the Singularity 

that birthed the beginning 

   . . . 

i am the Mystery 

already afire before  

all the befores 

    . . . 

yet they say i'm nothing much

 

 

Wilderness 

 

Some claim to love you 

    but try to tame your  

          inner wilderness. 

 

Don’t let them take it. 

    Cherish your secret 

          untamed animal-self. 

    

  The best love restores  

            your inner wildlife 

                 to wholeness and sings  

                       in feral joy. 

 

 

 

 

Jennifer Pratt-Walter, she/her - Is an artist in music (harp), words (poetry), image (digital photography) and soil (gardening). She looks for meaning and depth in overlooked or small things. She revels in the beauty of the Earth and lives on a small farm in Vancouver. She has a husband and three grown children.