Seduction: A duet

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Susan L Daniels

By Noel A. Ihebuzor and Susan L. Daniels

seduction is best when done softly, slowly

and yes, subtly–
to lead entranced
an entrancing partner (not necessarily
all that innocent – intent and consent in a closet slightly ajar, and ever opening)
to fascinate, to suggest, but all so quietly
to the point the seduced
owns it as their idea, not yours

when it seeps slowly into anxious fevered body,
when the pores, the ears, the eyes, the lips, all sip it,
inhaling its suggestive velvety boldness like ripe brandy

Armagnac, please;
or perhaps something scented
of late summer; like pear, apple,
blackberry, but intoxicating
and strong, sweetness with heat
swimming into mind and body both

exhaling and uncoiling
in recognition of joint and multiflavored complicity
saluting coyness and salivating and waiting

yes, art.  art spun by two.
a peacock has nothing on us, love,
fanning feathers to dazzle, but that’s all he has.
you bring and I welcome that drunkenness,
that reeling magic we stumble inside

and going with the flow, each new seduction
increasing flush, gush, and rush,
cascades beckoning and willing rowed to

seduction is best when done softly, slowly

***Can I say I missed my duet partner terribly while he was bouncing around all over the UK and skipping around Africa?  We had fun with this spontaneous poem–hope you like it.  I am italicized, and Noel’s words are bolded.  I think we need to use technology to read one of these together, across continents–would be really, really cool to hear!

Posted in duet, Duets with Noel Ihebuzor, New Free Verse | Tagged , , | 48 Comments

Seven Things About Me Award

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Susan L Daniels

Hi everyone!

Mimi over at Waiting for the Karma Truck has nominated me for the Seven Things About Me award.  How cool is she (and even more wonderful for thinking of me for this).  Thanks, Mimi–you are the bomb!  Please check out her blog if you have not done so, she is amazing.

So–if you really want to learn seven things about me you might not already know, here’s my list:

1.  The first poem attributed to me (written for seventh grade chorus–a patriotic thing) was actually not written by me, but my mother, because I refused to write it–poetry was “dumb” in my estimation at the age of 12.  So, my mom wrote the poem, it was amazing, as was everything done by my mother, and I had to read it in front of an auditorium full of people as if they were my own words.  Lesson learned by me that day:  Do not, ever, refuse to do an assignment.

2.  I speak and read French very, very badly (OK, not a secret to two to three of you), but can read and hear it very well.  Go figure.  Just,  please, don’t start commenting in French (you know who you are) to attempt to hone my skills, as I am terrible with verb tenses and will embarrass myself with my responses 🙂

3.  I was a vegetarian for four years in the mid to late 80’s, in penance following a massive amount of guilt for what I had to do in upper-level biology labs.  I will not elaborate, but it did not involve anything higher mammalian, other than rats.  Nuff said, OK?

4.  I have attended four universities, with four different majors before I decided to take a break and find out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.  Well, the rest of my life happened without finishing one of those degrees, which makes me an extremely talented generalist, and expert of nothing at all.

5.  If I had a chance to change #4, I probably would not, as I really love my life as is.

6.  My favorite move of all time (and good luck finding this on Netflix) is “Sammie and Rosie Get Laid.”

7.  I read at a minimum a book a day.  Sometimes more, sometimes less–if I can’t make up my mind what to read and am reading fiction and nonfiction at the same time.

 

Now comes the fun part–if I have nominated you–come on back and curse me under your breath thank me, and then pass this on to seven people you would love to torture know more about.  Here is my list of victims nominees:

Danny Pereyra

Celestine

Doris

David Eric Cummings

Whimsy Mimsy

Himani B

Trent Lewin

Posted in awards | Tagged | 21 Comments

my personal god (if I have one)

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Susan L Daniels

my personal god
if I have one
must be a water spirit
templed
in blood

so this sitting
on the stone bank
body in water
quietly rocked
by currents

should be
prayer
but silent
& floating

raised in splashes
to a nameless god

a scaled god
shaped by wind
across water
so big, this god
he inspires new tales
of prophet-swallowing fish

living inside
that light, there,
flashing within ripples
& laughing

Posted in New Free Verse | Tagged , , | 35 Comments

they splash in water

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Susan L Daniels

they splash in water
that foretells autumn
in yellow leaves
clinging to the bank

startling
against all that green

Posted in New Free Verse | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

stay

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Susan L Daniels

stay, he said
when I asked
what he wanted

stay,
when I could do
nothing but provide
the most human things;
touch, eyes, and a voice
next to his bed

we spoke of irony,
how the disease
he studied
claimed him before 30

we spoke of love
before either of us
truly understood the definition
and in the second person;
book smart and life stupid
he labeled us both,
me with a biochemistry book
on the floor near his bed
studying for exams
on my lunch break,
a book he could have written

nothing in common
but that book,
those studies
& how we both breathed

but I stayed
& held his hand
until he slept
& then watched his sleep,
clouded and uneasy
with Ativan

unheard of to visit
a patient
off the clock,
the other staff murmuring
at our shared humanity
among the lights,
the beep of heartbeats
and charted vital signs

but, because he asked,
until sunrise
I was the thread
connecting him to exhausted flesh
until his family came

to finish watching him die

***Inspired by Unfettered BS today, her poem triggered a memory, going back 20 years now, when I sat with a patient until morning, long after my shift was over at the MICU; simply because he was not that much older than I, and because he asked me to stay.  This is for him, that young postdoc studying of all things leukemia, which is what killed him.  Here is a link to the poem that inspired this one.

http://unfetteredbs.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/goodbye-tizzy/

Posted in New Free Verse | Tagged , , , , | 31 Comments

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Susan L Daniels

Guys–this is SO funny. If you have not met Trent yet, you should pay a visit.

Trent Lewin's avatarTrent Lewin

 

 

Here it is, in no particular order, although the list is numbered (keep in mind, this is all meant to be sarcastic):

1.  Listen to lots of music while writing.  The rhythm of your words should definitely come from an external source rather than from you.

2.  Drink alcohol, at least two glasses of wine and never less than one glass of scotch, because inspiration originates in a bottle.  Or can.  Or whatever.

3.  Read a multitude of bad writing so that you can feel invincible while also lowering your standards.

4.  Read tons of good writing, so that you can feel crushed under the weight of your literary heroes.

5.  Spend several hours determining the best place for you to write, because in the end, it’s the setting that makes the writer doesn’t it.

6.  Write when you’re most tired and are really dragging it, because tired…

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Posted in New Free Verse | 5 Comments

I know the fault lines

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Susan L Daniels

 

I know the fault lines
where this heart breaks easiest;
can chart easily
these movements between us
as if they are rivers,
tides automatic and effortless
and impossible to force
as it would be
to shape dreams into waking forms;
difficult, too, to stop
the spiral we enter
deeply written in our helices

we cannot fight such forces
better to simply spin with them
wherever they carry us

 

 

Posted in New Free Verse | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments