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Wednesday, May 19, 2010

I Go Unto the Altar of Night


(Blue Bird and Red Swan, watercolor by
Janice C. Atkins, published in Blindness Isn’t Black)

I GO UNTO THE ALTAR OF NIGHT

boneless
here I am no longer broken

but dance
to the music of memory

flaunt my living flesh
my crutchlessness

celebrate the legs that still
carry me to morning

~ Barbara Sullivan Mangogna, an American poet who is an amputee. This verse was found in Blindness Isn’t Black, a beautiful collection of poems, short stories and illustrations published by VSA Arts of Missouri (2009)

1 comment:

Mary Vitiello said...

My connections to my sister are made all the more profound when she gives voice to her spirit.I last shared that spirit when we cooked together in her kitchen. It was an amazing triumph at the stove and counter. She spirals about obstacles and is actually poetry in motion. Reams and dreams of poems from her over the years have been saved.Spiral on Barbie. Mary Vitiello