Origin Stories - Patricia Ware

    Creation Story
    by Patricia Ware
                   After Rita Dove 

    When she was born, the sun fled from despair
    and the earth gleamed. She was a fresh brush   
    waiting for permission to paint the sky.

    When she was young, she sliced up sad till it bled.       
    There were ghosts to flee from, daydreams for delight. 

    She was family wrapped, powerfully bound       
    tongued in secrets and baptized in grief, 
    burnished and blistering and blue like a bruise.

    And her world was already lost.
    And she was more lost than she is today.

Origin Stories – Creation Story

This poem was jumpstarted by reading Rita Dove’s poem Singsong. Drawn to its lyricism, I was also captivated by the interplay between childhood and the narrator trying to find her place within the larger world. I write a lot of poems about family. And although Creation Story is written in 3^rd person, I guess you could call it my own “origin” story. It’s part of a larger collection of poems I’m putting together for my first chapbook.

Bio:

Patty Ware is a fanatical believer in the power of practicing gratitude and is convinced the best part of each day is the quiet solitude of early morning. She lives in the rainforest of Juneau, Alaska when not visiting her grandchildren in Portland. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Parentheses Journal, Gyroscope Review, Literary Mama and Cirque.