Category: Poetry & Music

Featured, Holy Wild, Poetry & Music

In Praise of Boring Sex

Alison Leigh Lilly

I wasn't exactly having any raging hot sex in my mid-twenties. What intimacy there was to be snatched between caffeine-addled swing shifts was difficult and desperate, and always over too soon. Why should love be so hard? The world seemed full of impervious surfaces -- concrete, steel and glass -- against which there was nothing to do but rip myself ruthlessly open to the possibility of contact. To make the foolhardy choice to stay soft and tattered; to refuse to be ground smooth into something polished, invulnerable, inhuman. To choose, each time, to throw myself once more into the harsh, cold waters where the restless waves broke against the rocks. Which might be why, these days, I am still so often surprised by the utter heart-wrenching gentleness of quiet, boring sex. It is a blessing I am still getting used to.

Holy Wild, Poetry & Music

A Bureaucracy of Poets

Alison Leigh Lilly

Have you ever heard of a murder of crows? I strongly believe that the mass noun term for poets should be bureaucracy. Singly, poets have this reputation for being sensitive, articulate, deeply strange and haunted — not to say enlightened — creatures who drift through life with the veils lifted and the doors of perception open. Don't be fooled.

Holy Wild, Poetry & Music

The Ponds, by Mary Oliver

Alison Leigh Lilly

In a moment of sad synchronicity, only a few hours after I posted this I found out that Mary Oliver is seriously ill. Writers and poets are sharing their stories about how her work has influenced them, and sending their blessings and prayers. I know many Druids and Pagans are also familiar with her work and have been touched by her vision and love of nature. Please take a few moments today to express your love and gratitude for an amazing woman, and consider sharing your story with her by sending her an open letter. In honor of our first Valentine's Day as husband and wife, I wanted to share the poem that Jeff and I had read at our wedding, "The Ponds," by Mary Oliver.

Holy Wild, Poetry & Music

Recovery: A Poem

Alison Leigh Lilly

The flattery bears down on us, leveled like a weapon in the shaking hands of frightened and starving corporate titans groveling like great beasts before us, desperate and drooling, to convince us that their teeth are brittle and useless and anyway not smiling makes them cool, and meanwhile, we scrape along the earth as things keep getting worse...

Holy Wild, Poetry & Music

How to Become a Poet

Alison Leigh Lilly

When I was a sophomore in high school, I applied for a really exclusive summer school for aspiring student artists. I had been fancying myself a writer since first grade, and more specifically a poet since fourth or fifth. I was anxious but confident. I made it past the first round of interviews.... but I didn't get in. Today I stumbled across two pieces of internet flotsam that reminded me of that teenage, poetry-ridden self of mine. The second was an article by Jim Moore, who recently saw his seventh book of poetry into print. Moore writes: "People sometimes ask, especially parents of aspiring writers, 'What does it take to become a poet?' From my own experience I would say four things matter most. Everything else takes care of itself. ..."

Holy Wild, Poetry & Music

body politic | A Sonnet

Alison Leigh Lilly

body politic noun : (1) human organ of many heads ; tongues swarming from them [ as in, unison of insects ] ; hands, tangled beds of nails on which to rest evenly so as to spread weight, pressure without injury : (2) threat posed by ground swellings ; manifestation of projected intent to harm [ as in, the body of our enemy is dead, but not his intention ] : (3) the myth of history (archaic) [ ‘twas his own love that killed this shepherd, not our need to kill, and we remain innocent ] ; public will ; institutionally anointed gore to ensure death passes over our door