Poetry

Aurora Weinhold

By

Emily Bilman

Microcosm

The car stopped at every turn

at very short intervals. Restarted

on every turn, the traffic halted

in every junction, shattering

us like bees on burning grass.

At the next turn, the car finally stopped

dead in front of a small orthodox chapel

painted in royal blue among the pines,

the birches, the copper beeches,

and flower-beds spread between

the condominiums –  a microcosm

of the big blue-domed, star-studded

naval cathedral of St. Nicolas

host to seamen, host to us.

Delight

In an unexplored forest of trees

Of thick ferns, flowers, and foliage,

The cedar, the pine, the gingko

Stir my curiosity as I enter my quest.

An inquisitive child, I observe

Each leaf-vein that leads to a new word,

Each climbing ivy that forms an inward

Sentence. A poem is unknowable

Until written down upon the slyvan page,

A new mystery. Such delight in word-play,

In writing and re-writing as the rhythm

Carries me to new realms imagined

On the spur of a sudden insight.

The Present prolonged is such delight!

Emily Bilman

Dr. Emily Bilman is London’s Poetry Society Stanza representative and hosts poetry meetings in her home in Geneva. She earned her PhD from  East Anglia U where she taught literature. Her dissertation entitled, The Psychodynamics of Poetry, was published in 2010. Modern Ekphrasis, dealing with the poetry-painting analogy from Plato to Derrida, was published by Peter Lang in 2013. Her poems are published in The London Magazine, The Linnet’s Wings, Hunger Mountain, Offshoots VII & XII, Orbis, Poetry Salzburg Review, Iodine, Aois 21, The Battersea Review, San Diego Poetry Annual  in America and The Inspired Heart Vols. 1, 2, & 3,  Ygdrasil, and  www.ekphrastic.net  in Canada. Two poetry books, A Woman By A Well and Resilience, are published by Matador in England. She was recently awarded the first prize for « The Tear-Catcher » by The New York Literary Magazine. She blogs on  http://www.emiliebilman.wix.com/emily-bilman.