Folded Word
Exploring the world, one voice at a time.
Category: WrittenWordWednesday
When the Water and Sand Dance
When the water and sand dance, whence (whence?) their music? What is that music? What sense, what composition surfs itself in? Yes, the water — its bazillion droplets, the mini-jetsam line it etches. Yes, the sand — its gazillion granules, the sponging gauze-and-muslin of…
Unhinged
~ A Ghazal On the train to Rome, cigar smoke clouds my window; people eat mortadella and a porter sells gum and mints. I travel to a sacred place, discover a broken latch. In prayers of my own device, I have questions. We know…
As Forest
This was our territory once. Every lifetime our places and times of day diminish, but as long as food sources remain plentiful we will stay here and adapt — learning to cross carefully the hard grey roadways and the daylight hours, the noise and…
Daybook
Sunday — September clouds trail the hillsides, misty fingers and thighs Monday — pancakes a little burned, gold leaves spend all their luck on scent Tuesday — you, a splash of yellow – you, the sun in the brook, our legs twined like branches…
Josh
Josh who once lived in this house “Josh!” I hear Dad call even before he’s standing. “Up!” he says, though he might have called, Josh! then, Fire! meaning, tend to the coal-stove. Up means move, boy. Downstairs he’s at the cooker rattling the gate,…
Low Tide
At low tide I walk the sandbar Far out to sea Out to islands Of gulls and cormorants Leaving distant dots of people on shore. Terns dart and swoop Sandpipers race the tide The sea breathes Each wave exhales into the next. Immersed in…
Ice and Vapour
Water doesn’t like being liquid. It much prefers its other forms — the ice of a comet or its vapour trail. Water flips through a single change of state at indeterminate temperature, and changes back again at will. But the Earth with its gravity…
evening tea…
accessible version for screen readers: evening tea the slow steeping of stars ©2019 by Ben Moeller-Gaa in celebration of International Haiku Poetry Day Ben Moeller-Gaa is a Pushcart nominated haiku poet whose poems, reviews and essays have appeared in over 30 journals worldwide. He…
leaf pile…
accessible version for screen readers: leaf pile . . . I set aside one I don’t know ©2019 by Julie Warther in celebration of International Haiku Poetry Day Julie Warther serves as the Midwest Regional Coordinator for the Haiku Society of Amercia and facilitator…
in the classroom…
accessible version for screen readers: in the classroom children make origami green frogs hop ©2019 by Dianne Moritz in celebration of International Haiku Poetry Day Dianne Moritz writes poems and picture books for children. Her haiku has appeared in My Frog Pond, The Haiku…
