Gillian Commerford

I told my mother:
'I want to be a poet'.
She said: 'There's no money in it'.
I never was much interested
...

I, although not beautiful,
have desired to mingle my dust
with all that is beautiful-
with rivers, streams
...

I have written poetry
since I was nine years old
and still I find that I must write
as others seek for gold.
...

The truth of a circle lies in being round
The truth of a square is in its squareness
The truth of being lies in being
The truth of anything is in its truthfulness.
...

...

God said hello to me
just the other day.
I knew it was God
because he told me so.
...

Owl bringing death silently
looking wise
does wisdom lie
in bringing death
...

With a light in your eyes
you tell me lies
then turn the light off
as you leave
...

After love
we lie apart
separately sad
thinking our separate thoughts
...

You bring me love in a silver cup
and I bring you my hands that are worn
and a heart that's beginning to rust.
...

Dying
is the ultimate frontier
if I jump
I'll overcome my fear.
...

I remember going with my mother
to the butcher
in the days when the naked carcasses
hung on hooks in the front of the shop
...

A voice spoke:
'I am God,
there is nothing else.'-
And everything was swept away
...

At the heart of everything
is a great love and devotion.
It resides in rocks,
pebbles, stones;
...

or so they say
that flows to an ocean
at the end of the day.
If you let it go
...

A have a child who follows me
she'd be pretty
except for her teeth
they're sharp and pointed, piranha-like
...

I rely on the kindness of the night
more than strangers
it strokes me
with its black velvet paws
...

How difficult communication
when you say one thing
I think you mean another.
Why bother? -
...

Everything lives within me
as if I had swallowed the whole world-
the universe and everything-
and it lives within me.
...

My mother fell across the bed
and died
and yet they told me she looked peaceful.
An old lady
...