The Zingara Project

Tag: TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME

  • Courting Wonder by Martina Reisz Newberry

    You have to be amenable to Wonder.
    You have to read the spaces between the words
    as well as the text and you have to see that
    where you step may be earth scattered over with
    a magic loess.

    You have to believe that hands as well as eyes
    let you see souls; lips as well as fingertips
    heal. You have to believe that the God of the
    White Tiger is the God of you, that demons
    live in every lie ever told, in every
    day of loneliness come to any living creature.

    You have to discern that a voice is a bin
    that holds, folds and releases tears, fury, glee.
    When you have faith in these things, astonishment
    will visit your doorstep and there will be an
    unstinting flight to your days, burning stars
    in your dreams.

    —

    ​Martina Reisz Newberry’s recent books: Never Completely Awake (Deerbrook Editions), and Take the Long Way Home (Unsolicited Press). Widely published, she was awarded residencies at Yaddo Colony for the Arts, Djerassi Colony for the Arts, and Anderson Center for Disciplinary Arts.

     

    Martina lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Brian.

  • Porch by Martina Reisz Newberry

    We cast curses at the moon,
    watch its face travel over     then behind     clouds,
    then come to the fore
    as if beckoned
    when it most certainly was not.
    Booze and blackberries on the front porch
    and the cries of dead beasts and warriors out there.

    Imagine it                     Hold it in your head
    as you do song lyrics and prayers.
    The strange scents of late nights
    call us to remember our weaknesses
    and the ill will we’ve encountered in others.
    We talk of these things     bring them closer.

    And oh the madness of this porch        how it dares to receive
    our complaints and our compliances             how it
    rests under our flip-flops and naked toes     how it
    shifts under spilled sweet tea     and dripped foam
    off cans of Bud Light

    Does it make you grin that I’ve said this?

    So, the moon hovers and we here below
    pull it over us, imagine it soft when            in truth
    it’s dense as a mango dum dum.

    Inside, we look for rest knowing our mendacity
    could pull down the stars                  knowing our joys
    are simple masks for grudges
    the way they jibe

    My God                     The way we consume bitterness
    fill our plates, pour on gravies
    and sauces of fear and then
    dare to sleep on that repletion.

    —

    Martina Reisz Newberry’s recent books: NEVER COMPLETELY AWAKE (Deerbrook Editions), and TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME (Unsolicited Press).Widely published, she was awarded residencies at Yaddo Colony for the Arts, Djerassi Colony for the Arts, and Anderson Center for Disciplinary Arts.

    Martina lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Brian.