FOR TARA
*
Goddess of Compassion and Wisdom, I need to recall,
reclaim you, invite you to return to my heart. Come back
to my heart, Love, where you are home. There’s room.
There is room enough for two, for multitudes. For you.
Become me, I beg you. Worry my concern into peace.
Shake this rag doll out of stiff contrition back to joy.
Till bones, blood, marrow, mind all leap up to dance,
to expand and mingle with the greater Presence, gift
we are heir to if we remember to remember the Whole.
The whole that made us, not that hole I fall into.
From her celestial seat in the Pure Land, Tara smiles,
extending a hand of pure blessing, her invitation. Up.
Penn Kemp--poet, performer and playwright--has been active in Canada’s literary scene since her first publication of poetry, Bearing Down, by Coach House (1972). As well as editing Canada’s first anthology of women’s writing, IS 14 (1973), many of her books have been devoted to the goddess in all her guises. Kemp has been lauded as a trailblazer and a “one-woman literary industry” as London Ontario’s inaugural Poet Laureate and Western University’s Writer-in-Residence. She was the League of Canadian Poets’ Spoken Word Artist, 2015. Penn has long been a keen participant in cultural life, with thirty books of poetry, prose and drama; seven plays and ten CDs produced as well as several award-winning video-poems. Her 2018 books of poetry are Local Heroes (Insomniac), and Fox Haunts (Aeolus House). Two new plays published in 2017 about local hero Teresa Harris followed her previous books of poetry from Quattro, Barbaric Cultural Practice and Jack Layton: Art in Action. Follow her on her website, Twitter, Facebook or her blog
This is so beautifully expressed! ♡♡♡
ReplyDeleteBeutifully expressed thanks for sharing
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