The Bear Went Over the Ocean
Orange trees grow
Where warm winds blow
Even in China
You find Aunt Jemima
Continents push
Waters rush
Quakes and volcanoes
Wildfires, tornadoes
See what he/she could see
Sea, which sea art thee?
Do Fish Get Cramps?
Big fish, little fish, dead fish, pew fish
Pretty fish, ugly fish
Both good eating
Both hard catching
Just like me and you
Fish are fishers too
To fish and be fished
Catch and be caught
Thrill of victory
Thrill of defeat, what? wait.
Why do I fish, cut bait?
To eat, to taste
Not to waste
I tell myself
What else?
In Rich Earth
The birds like the cemetery
As do I
I go there to bury
Good company by,
All resting in peace’s sting
I’m never sad there
Listening to the birds sing
It’s the sweetest air,
If I could expand
This campground of reverence
Supply and demand
For lasting paid severance
In rich earth the best
Are at last at rest.
Presence of the Door
I need to watch my blood pressure
More than ever before
I ain’t getting any younger
In the presence of the door.
But I am getting younger
I do so smell flowers
I do so fly a kite
Sit in the park for hours.
Finally I know myself
Know what I like
Know I hate oatmeal
Love to ride a bike.
My work comes natural
My days I mourn
Everything is beautiful
Every baby born.
All intense and wonder more
In the presence of the door.
Storm
The black woman’s shadow
lies on a thousand lakes
she’s resting now
flooded water aches
after the death delirious sky
screams and shakes.
The Temple
The temple is a quiet place
the dead are honored there
I like the retreat, the space
but find no peace in there;
I carry my church on bones
worship my soul-self where
outside the house of stones,
so empty I can’t live there.
Poems Composed by E. Martin Pedersen
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