1 poem
DANCING WITH BEAUTIFUL WOMEN
This poem is a “Golden Shovel” style poem with the last word of each line, in total, comprising the poem, “Awed by Her Splendor”, by the Greek poet Sappho
it’s not that she was immediately awed
by any particular notice, by the angle of a jaw, by
the stretch of a neck, it was not so much her
soft angular beauty, but more the complete splendor
by which she wore the world around her like stars
their brilliance overwhelming when she was too near
anytime she poured music, both a ceramic pitcher and the
hands that made it, clay-covered dirt lovely
in her looseness, as she might swing to the moon
inside her own shadow, there is no cover
for such a starlight, too full, without needing their
approval, she was the rings of her own
planet, circling mysterious and moon bright
emerald stillness in the eyes of all her faces
there is no calm before a storm when
there is no storm, it could be ordinary that she
moves this way, in the way that all extreme wonder is
becoming something to get used to, meeting at the roundest
intersection of two bodies that move on the edge of a night and
when the clouds fill even the ground with their dew thick lights
there is the curious disappearance of the separation of sky and earth
an intertwining as if dancing, she with
the sudden weight of a stone in her
pocket, night blind reaching for gleaming strands of silver
“Awed by her splendor /stars near the lovely /moon cover their own /bright faces /when she /is roundest and lights / earth with her silver” - Sappho
Mikaela Curry is a published and award-winning poet, community organizer and environmental scientist living in Eastern Kentucky. She has received multiple grants from the Kentucky Foundation For Women, was a featured artist in the Women of Appalachia 10th Anniversary Project, and has had her writing featured in a wide range of publications from Cold Mountain Review to Spectral Lines: Poems about Scientists. She earned advanced degrees in biological sciences and has worked as an environmental specialist, consultant, conservationist and researcher. She is currently prioritizing the inclusion of voting rights, climate justice and the centering of indigenous values into her work and is always interested in collaboration. You can find out more at www.mikaelacurry.com.