Following the Footsteps

I want to know how they did it. I want the thick unraveling,
the music decaying at the end of the song, the frayed end, the fringe.
I want what the bird mouths, perched on the thinnest possible
twig, one oak leaf defiant at the end of nearly nothing. How,
no better than me, they went so much farther, found a way
in. I have nothing but a collection of false
starts, so many true. Am susceptible beyond measure. Yet measure
is the vital nutrient, and i will have my own.
The hummingbird commands its courses of air.
Small but insistent, it chases down the hours
as if it owned them all, not an instant’s
hesitation. How many years will i dream of being loved.
The trees waste no time on that. And now i want
music again, not to resist beauty, but sink my teeth in.
To walk out on a hot evening, knowing i too
can trace highways in the wind.
 

Maxima Kahn lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in California, where she teach classes in creative writing, poetry and the creative process and works as a coach with artists of all kinds, helping them to realize their creative aspirations.
Her poetry has appeared in such publications as Slant, Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, Tule Review, Poem, Borderlands, Wisconsin Review, and Spillway, among others. She has attended the Squaw Valley Community of Writers Poetry Workshop and been a fellow at the Vermont Studio Center. In addition to writing, she is an award-winning composer, avant-garde violinist and a dancer.
She loves very dark chocolate, preferably with a little spice in it.
To find out more about her work and to read her blog on creativity and living a soulful, artful life, please visit www.BrilliantPlayground.com. You can also keep her company on Facebook and on Twitter @MaximaKahn.

 … return to Issue 10.3 Table of Contents.