Showing posts with label St. Croix. Show all posts
Showing posts with label St. Croix. Show all posts

Friday, January 5, 2018

Glittering Rooms of the Heart

 You still love the ones you love,
back when you loved them--
 Books, records, and people
 Nothing much changes in the glittering rooms of the heart
 Only the dark spaces half re-claimed
 And then not much,
An image, a line,
sometimes a song...

--Charles Wright, from "15" in Lightfoot: A Poem



These are some photos from a trip back to St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, where I saw some of the damage from Hurricane Maria. I learned of the passing of an old acquaintance, and found a few places shuttered, or gone altogether. But still, the church bells rang in the morning, along with the crowing of the proud island roosters. I rose early just to watch the sky change from night to day, made a few silent wishes and gave thanks: for the world as it continues to turn, for the love of my family, and for the kindness and friendship of so many people, including and especially you, my dearest blog friends, who continue to be my supportive companions in all my creative quests. May the renewals of the day last us all through the year!

Monday, January 4, 2016

good questions

can you be sick for a home you've never seen?
--Jen Rose

do the shells still hear the sea though they are in pieces?
--L.L. Barkat
how long can this coffee cup last?

Sunday, January 3, 2016

a new year

vendor, Frederiksted, St. Croix  2016


Happy New Year! In St Croix last week at a J'ouvert festival and huge steel drum bands played while people ate and danced, and everywhere you turned there was more to be seen. But amidst all that, this man in his sandal stall with his wistful dreaming eyes stayed with me the most. I'm back in Chicago now but I wish him and all of us a happy 2016!

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

endless and vanishing

counting the trees
four windows
white stone 
silent doors
let me go
 endless and vanishing,
 st. croix





And wasn’t the church of the world always in ruins?
--Mark Strand, The History of Poetry