The Poetry Marathon

Cup your hands around your mouth,

Whisper it into the nearest ear

like the children’s game Telephone.

We all want to know the secret.

A symphony of longing

Staccato, legato, forte, pianissimo,

sharp and flat

movement, theme and variation.

In the end,

when all the words have been played,

is a beauty we may or may not recognize.

Walking the labyrinth of dried lava

Pele’s braids

Feet on the edge of burning.

The head meditates

while the waves crash in

trying to wake the sleepwalker.

I

a random speck on the edge of a crater.

When there is nothing left to plunder,

nothing left to analyze, pick apart, objectify, report, gossip upon,

I

a fading voice calling above the crater,

I

Like Pompeii, falling into the wind,

I

ashen, silent.

Hello! I am Janette from Bellingham, Washington and this will be my first Poetry Marathon. I will be doing the morning Half Marathon.

I am in an MFA program at the University of British Columbia. I will be taking a full-year poetry course starting in September so I am grateful to be able to participate, wake up my poetry voice, and generate some new work!