Welcome to Poetically Yours. Poetically Yours showcases poems by northern Illinois poets. This week’s featured poet is Tricia Alexander.
Alexander is a Performing & Healing Artist, a poet and musician, a Reiki Master Teacher and BodyTalk Practitioner. She said she’s been blessed to lead a full & multi-dimensional life, and she believes that writing has helped her understand and process this multi-dimensional experience.
Writing since she was 6 or 7 years old, she can't imagine her life without the beauty and the depth writing has brought, and what it has encouraged. Here's her poem "Assyrian II: Grandpa’s Garden."
Actions were so reliable in those days
rain rained-sun shined
and grapes grew in Grandpa’s Garden
Everything grew in Grandpa’s Garden
It seemed an odd thing to most people
but never to me-I just accepted it
right there in the middle of the city - every summer
Grandpa’s Garden was there... green and growing
Peppers and tomatoes
Dill and mint and melons
Spices and herbs and flowers
We never bought flowers in those days
Why bother?
There were always such beautiful flowers
Growing in Grandpa’s Garden
Everything was reliable in those days
Grandma cooked and cleaned and prayed
Grandpa planted and weeded and watered
Vegetables and herbs and flowers grew
Faith and Love and Family grew
Everything was reliable in those days
The smells in the garden-the smells in the kitchen
ALL - were as predictable as the seasons
I liked fall the best . . . the harvest time
Dolma . . . Torshia . . . Chipté . . . Jajitch . . . Booshalla
I loved the taste of those wonderful foods
as much as I loved the way those words (their names)
felt-rolling around in my mouth
I always spoke them quietly (like a prayer)
“Dolma . . . Torshia . . . Chipté . . . Jajitch . . . Booshalla”
They were Grandma and Grandpa’s words
Old Words- Ancient Words
Words they carried with them
all the way from ‘The Old Country’
I asked Grandpa again and again
“Which old country?”
His answer was always the same
(and for many years, it puzzled me)
“We’re here now - we have a good life
Forget about the old country.”
I never did...
