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Five poems by David Kherdian

David Kherdian

Skagit Snow / credit: D.Enck
Skagit, early / credit: D.Enck

In Calling Out

Somewhere inside me my father is circling
the fork of his spade digging the earth.

I hold his workman’s hankie
and wipe his brow without his seeing.

Behind, the lands he has crossed
with me inside

to a garden he makes with my life,
unknown by me, but possessed by

the seeds in his pocket about
to be spread for this new planting

that holds me to him, as seeds wait for
the earth to open for them.

Love

Love is everywhere
passing in between
and through everything
but invisible
its feeling hard to hold
and often unrecognizable
for what it is
and like time it doesn’t stand still
but moves unpossessed,
yet we can direct it from ourselves
to another
knowing it is not ours
but can pass through us
voluntarily, with intention
if we choose,
leaving us with its residue,
a fingerprint in time.

The Poem

Childhood comes around
again in a poem—
poem after poem it returns
like an unmarked box,
its treasure unknown
until opened
and no two boxes are the same
because each is a soul
a soul unseen until opened

Soul

Is the soul invisible, on its own,
journeying within me,
and how can I know its touch,
the spirit breathless at last—
knowing it is not alone,
but when asked to answer,
in the midst of smothered time
in the active space of days
that crumble one upon another,
broken veins    broken light,
this life of tender mercy
awaiting a voice saying
        who we are.

Ahead

If there is a blueprint
it is hidden from us,
and must be found
in the making,
our life a tool fit
to create a better design,
that we must inscribe
from out of the rag tag
mortal debris that is all around,
waiting to be configured by us,
from the dance unknown
to enter and take our hand
from behind.

These poems appear in David Kherdian’s newest poetry collection, Awakening.
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David Kherdian

David Kherdian was born in Racine, Wisconsin, the site of his 13-volume Root River Cycle. In addition to his poetry, biographies, novels, and memoirs, his translations and retellings have included the Asian classic Monkey: A Journey to the West, and the soon-to-be released 9th century Armenian bardic epic, David of Sassoun. He has also written a narrative life of The Buddha. As an editor he has produced two seminal anthologies: Settling America: The Ethnic Expression of 14 Contemporary American Poets, and Down at the Santa Fe Depot: 20 Fresno Poets, which inspired over 100 city and state anthologies. His biography of his mother, The Road From Home, his best known work, has been continuously in print in various editions and 17 translations. since its publication in 1979. Contributions to Beat literature include the bio-bibliograpy, Six Poets of the San Francisco Renaissance: Portraits and Checklists and Beat Voices: An Anthology of Beat Literature. An hour-long documentary on his poetry, by New York independent filmmaker, Jim Belleau, was released in 1997. He is married to two-time Caldecott Award winner, Nonny Hogrogian, with whom he has collaborated on a number of children’s book, and also on three journals, Ararat, Forkroads: A Journal of Ethnic-American Literature, and Stopinder: A Gurdjieff Journal for Our Time. Learn more at Kherdian.com.

Author: David Kherdian Tags: poetry Category: Poetry November 2, 2018

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Empty Mirror

Established in 2000 and edited by Denise Enck, Empty Mirror is an online literary magazine that publishes new work each Friday.

Each week EM features several poems each by one or two poets; reviews; critical essays; visual art; and personal essays.

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