Page 30 Winter 1994 - 95
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POETRY The
Juggler by
Martha Elizabeth
Sometimes
I can be undone by a simple soda cracker that was all it took to get him started: buttered cracker, peanut butter, chunks of cheddar and sweet pickle, one
taste led to another faster than the mouth could follow, balanced
all in a neat heap. Or, if his hand first touched horseradish, or braunschweiger don't look, just eat, it's always good. Nobody
juggles flavors like my father. Whenever I throw together another cheese-pickle-and tomto sandwich I
know I'm truly his daughter. -------------------------------------------------------------------- The
Juggler by
Janell Moon
He
earns his money throwing cats into the air they
are Ping and Pong juggled for quarters two
sisters alert on velvet seats now up on hind legs ready
for the next toss the
tourists clap fascinated by his air of freedom laugh
as he gives them bits of roast beef for reward he
doesn't know they are vegetarians
the
children in the audience feel
the cats' warnings hear
messages jungles ripping
prey apart ridding
hulls of rats they
size the juggler up hope
they get to see the hiss the
clawing, like to see the good girls win. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Juggler's
World by
Michael Hewins
Judicious Undulating Grips, Grab Like Earth's Round Sphere,
With Orbiting Rounds Lobbed Decisively. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Fool's Prayer by
Karl Saliter
Lord
of Misrule master
of the revels Abbot
of unreason Live
through me.
Fair
handed juggler of old deft
flying madman Lay
light on me.
Prankster on high harlequins professor
of illogic I
cry for your twisted grin your brain-cracking moments Flood
me with desert sands.
Fill me with abundance of emptiness and
let me hold up that long broad mirror. --------------------------------------------------------------------
This
Trick To
begin, I must warn you: it is more than a gesture of skill, or
chance. It requires a love of
threes.
You will find it impossible to
do, at first. There is one more
ball than you can manage
ease. Each hand desires but a single thing
- another hand, say to
the small cupped
palm.
But you know what you to complete this trick. Part of your task is
mastering the perfect rhythym of
threes.
You must practice in a room so large the balls will drop and roll just out of reach.
Resist the urge to give in to the loss. Soon your legs and arms grow limber, stronger,
as you lean to retrieve t
all.
Listen: the trick is in keeping two
balls in the air, your eye fixed always.
In the exchange you
hold:
you live for the one that is falling. It is what your hands desire most, you know.
With practice you learn to anticipate
the
moment you must let go.
by Margaret Winchell Miller -------------------------------------------------------------------- Juggler
Anagram
artist one
foot on the rope his
head holds a
W his right thumb an O his left sports an R on his knee sits a D as
his toe lifts up an S
He jumps in the air and
turns in a trice while the letters all shift and
fall where they please:
S
on his head W on his nose O rings his left thumb R
on his right D
hits his knee and he's still upright
by
Sophie Hughes |