Patti Masterman Poems

Sometimes wind moves in secret
Like a lover or a moon
Sometimes a board will answer
Or a shutter or a loon
...

We can't even believe our own strange histories;
Though they stare us in the face, for hours each day
And awaken us in a cold sweat, during the nighttimes.
...

Stars in cuneiform; stars engraved
Stars in mythical constellations
Stars that a mariner, nearly saved
Stars in time-lapse, spent hesitations
...

We select books by their titles,
Almost as if we were going
To have to eat them, later on;
I don't think I'd like Subway Armageddon;
...

humans have a lot in common with other humans humans bleed
quite a lot I think at the cinema humans have gallons of blood to bleed out in the dying scenes on the theater screens all the flowing
red swims before our eyes till we've grown dizzy and have to get up
and stumble outside then out into the streets grown maroon with living death our triumphant red blood stronger than iron magnets stronger
...

The mystery of bravery,
The yearning deep inside
For other worlds unknown to us,
In human souls abide.
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You are my Saint
of the hungry Heart;
thirsting Icon of
prayers and supplication-
...

Heaven and earth will not change places
Birth and death will not change time
But time will leave its mark on faces
And the stars will bravely shine.
...

Butterfly in a cage,
Bruising your wings on the bars:
Butterfly, just stand back
Until you can see how far
...

I'm shipwrecked wood and plaster,
Wormy statues of maritime disaster,
Chained-shut gates forever after,
Molded louvers closely cloistered.
...