Ruth Daigon

She knows the art of lying still,
sleeping with the invisible in the dark
and bedded warmth of night.

She knows the little hauntings, the old scenery
waiting in the wings, the moon on a thread,
the slow swing of the year.

She knows how to wait with the cicadas
for seventeen summers and sing without promise
until the white weather of dreams.

She knows childhood's land of sticks and stones,
fluid days, and how to lie in snowy fields
leaving behind corpses of angels.

She knows how the old spend their days
arranging comb, brush and last night's
news while moonlight seeps through windows.

She knows when the tide comes in, waves
lapping at her feet, and she
on the brink of everything she does not know.

Ruth Daigon

TO HELL WITH THE REVOLUTION IF I CAN'T DANCE
Emma Goldman

In a place between places, she bathes
in miles of wind with milk-
white linen to wick her dry.

Out of wild pockets through spiraling
light into ardent worlds
she searches for him, humming

I am your match,
your mate, your other self,
the dark inside where sight fails.

When they meet, he invites
her to the dance
and their myth begins.

With greenglass hearts
and untamed thunder, they
dance past the left hand of light,

air still, time slack,
as the sun ticks
and the rain hums take it easy.

Past the eyes of the forest,
the tongues of the sea, they drift
over earth's spine

timing steps to ghost music
where love spins its web in a wind
anchored in thorns.

Ruth Daigon edited Poets On: for 20 years. Her poems have been widely published both in print and on the web. Daigon's poetry awards include "The Eve Of St. Agnes",1993 and 1994 (Negative Capability) "The Ann Stanford Poetry Prize," 1997 (University of Southern California Anthology). Recent publications include: Greatest Hits 1971-2000, Ruth Daigon (Pudding House Publications, Johnstown Oh); and PAYDAY AT THE TRIANGLE (Small Poetry Press, Select Poets Series)

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