Friday, March 17, 2017

Shrines--By Maralee Gerke--United States

Shrines

My grandfather’s inkwell,
a small silk doll,
and a red bucket filled with multicolored pens.

Dried lavender in a pale blue vase,
poetry books in jumbled rows,
words piled like salt cairns holding the tide.

Among tattered scraps of wisdom,
fragments of prayers, the past folded
into long white pages, I seek my inheritance.

Maralee Gerke lives and writes in Madras, Oregon. She is and avid reader and gardener. She describes herself as a work in progress. Her poems have been published in Calyx, Exit Thirteen, Moonset, Bathtub Gin, Anthology, Nerve Cowboy, Avocet, and Tigers Eye. She has published two books of poems and has had poetry and prose accepted in several anthologies. Her work can be seen online at Shadow Poetry, Long Story Short, and Moontown Café. She recently recorded 4 poems for the Oregon Poetic Voices Project. They can be heard at oregonpoeticvoices.org One of her poems “Refuge”, was recently selected to be printed as a limited edition broadside by the Penland School of Crafts.

6 comments:

  1. I like "Shrines" poet Maralee, An inheritance of valuable
    memories making it worth more than money.
    Great recorded thoughts. thank you.
    Yancy

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  2. Dear Maralee,
    I echo Yancy's insightful comment. Intriguing how common things take on a special spiritual significance. Your poem takes me there!
    Thank you,
    Michael

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  3. Loved your wonderful poem that reminds me of my rows and rows of books with tattered papers and words of wisdom recorded from the books I love. What a wonderful inheritance you are leaving for your children, the gift of words.
    Love,Charlene

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  4. Wonderful, enjoyed it very much!

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  5. thank you, Maralee, you artfully express the tingle of goodness that we feel when we touch the things that our departed loved ones touched...

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  6. Great images and beautifully composed - thank you for sharing

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