Beautiful Minefields

Beautiful Minefields

“In another life, I would come back as a blond soprano who could sing high, clear notes without fear.”

~ Georgia O’Keeffe

            dear Joni

I am only a featherhead

for as long as your art requires

& what traps await in the time

it takes know exactly when

calculations fail while you are

so busy being free – the one

they say sings first in a patter

to a rue & all the way to rhapsody

in one fell swoop

            all those tinges of sadness

protests, rounds & felicities

surrendered on thin paper

every carefully chosen word act as

slight shunts into oblivion

            I am thinking of you today

from my hotel room trying to turn

a dirge into a love song to meet the

sharp expectations of your dignity

            o’ Joni

I confess

I do lean a little too heavily on your

good graces to emulate your clout

& w/ evident joy of course

in the hopes that one day soon we

might have a chance

conversation that flowers into a song

one that ambles & veers the depths of

my heart & your pockets full of sand

it would be a slow reveal

all those years of bottled

up melancholy

the wash transcendent & bracing for

restoration

restitution

dear Joni

            it still doesn’t rain in California

& yet the hydrangeas bloom brightest

along the sharp chances of the Canyon

while you sit vigil in British Columbia

            & I am desperate to be forgiven

for trying to steal all the light you have

                                                gathered

for thinking I could pass off the extra

syllables of your openhearted heroics

            as my own

If I know you, Joni

you’d send me back to the garden

through beautiful minefields just to

endure basic human longings 

                        just as you did for all

these seventy-five fitful years

***

Happy 75^th birthday, Joni Mitchell. Thank you for the music, the poetry, the passion, the power, the art – all while defending and maintaining a true sense of self. Fucking admirable. Thank you for paving the way.

In propinquity,

Nic