Tag: writing coach and seminar leader

  • Agreements by Joan Mazza

    I will not collect the hair
    from your brush, nor the nail
    parings you drop in the pail
    to cast a spell. You won’t hear
    whispered commands in your ear
    while you sleep so I can have my way.
    I will not call the old woman
    on the mountain who sells potions
    and instructs on fertility. Though
    she has ways to make rain fall on you
    to restrain you. We’ll keep our vows
    simple, neither of us bowing.
    When we sleep we’ll stay on our sides
    of the bed unless beckoned. I’ll wash your
    dishes, you wash mine, and deep
    we’ll travel until dead.
    Neither of us will iron or be ironed.

    Joan Mazza has worked as a medical microbiologist, psychotherapist, sex therapist, writing coach and seminar leader. She is the author of six books, including Dreaming Your Real Self (Perigee/Penguin/Putnam), and her work has appeared in Cider Press Review, Rattle, Off the Coast, Kestrel, Permafrost, Slipstream, Timber Creek Review, The MacGuffin, Writer’s Digest, The Fourth River, the minnesota review, Personal Journaling, Free Inquiry, and Playgirl. She now writes poetry and does fabric art in rural central Virginia. www.JoanMazza.com

    “By reading and writing poetry, I come to terms with my obsessions.”