Joan Woodbridge

"What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination? " "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg


The season frazzles
...

The deciduous year attenuates
draws thin
my insubstantial resolve.
...

Light follows darkness as darkness light:
the stunned sun halts mid-dance
Shiva Nataraj
motionless
...

Kiswar Q'Inti*, The Royal Hummingbird of the North has entered this body
penetrating at the solar center
insinuating herself into each cell.
...

definitive compartment
outsized objects squeezing in
awkward
expose my naked unprolificity
...

What is it that I ask of religion?

I ask
that you serve
...

quite suddenly
the leaves
are
gone
...

Only now may it be spoken
that the Divine had placed her numinous imprint
upon the earth of those several young summers
...

Time
the uneasy measure
we lay upon unfettered infinity
...

adamantine density
inner halls so steeply narrow

how much substance must I shed
...

Things one does when one's lover is away:

- stand in the freezing wind waiting for a bus
...

I am She-Bear denned in sweet earth
I dream snow-covered leaves and frozen fields
I dream fish asleep in icy rivers
I dream leafless trees and waning light
...

"Moloch! Moloch! Nightmare of Moloch! Moloch the loveless! Mental Moloch! Moloch the heavy judger of men! " from Howl, Allen Ginsburg,

The heavy cloak of righteous dignity
is off the shoulders of government  
...

The Great Lord of Energy
rises to his morning display
on oily waves of smoke
raising his magnanimous arms
...

the red-tail circles
in groundless flight
not tree nor rock in sight
 
...

She stood alone
isolated
in jaw-set
non-compliance
...

Living the Living Wheel*
The First Level of Engagement
An instruction to myself
...

I The signs are as clear as they get: Shiva dances wildfire in the western states.
The Amazon's fierce flames still tear oxygen from the unsuspecting air.

8 million acres of the Australian bush decimated (animals are not often counted)
...

Serpent: A Personal Odyssey

To the winds of the South
Sachamama
...

how it began is unclear
innocence and earnestness
the impossible 'Why? '
...