A Poet's Kiss
Albuquerque poet Mary Oishi puts poems, pictures, and thoughts here for her family and friends, and for lovers of poetry everywhere.
Friday, February 12, 2021
Monday, January 18, 2021
Poets in the Libraries
This is my major project as Albuquerque's Poet Laureate 2020-2022:
Ernie Pyle Library https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtX-_cFgg2w&t=118s with Featured Poets: Margaret Randall & Tani Arness
Lomas Tramway Library https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O-PksLjXhU&t=14s
with Featured Poet, Charles Powell
Sunday, April 22, 2018
crone vision
the crone in my young vision
to my surprise was me.
her presence alone
commanded respect.
nothing less. and
she had no regrets.
oh, she had made mistakes
but they tuned out to be
some of her best teachers
how can I ever become her?
i cried, broken,
i'm as far from her
as a worm from the moon!
and i was.
square your shoulders,
was all she said.
i'm decades rising
three words pulling the tides
mary oishi
1 April 2018
Rock Paper Scissors
Announcing...
https://swimmingwithelephants.com/2018/04/21/new-release-from-swimming-with-elephants-publications-llc/
Listen to the authors interviewed on KUNM-FM on Saturday, May 26, 2018 on Women's Focus, 12 noon - 2 pm MDT. 89.9 FM Albuquerque and kunm.org
Mary and Aja Oishi will be reading at Chatter on Saturday, May 12, 2018, 10:30 am at SITE Santa Fe.
https://www.chatterabq.org/product/may-12-2018/
Mary and Aja Oishi will be reading at Chatter on Sunday, May 13, 2018, 10:30 am at Las Puertas, Albuquerque.
https://www.chatterabq.org/product/may-13-2018/
Mary and Aja Oishi will be reading and signing books at Bookworks in Albuquerque on Friday, June 8, 2018 at 6 pm.
Mary and Aja Oishi will be reading and signing books at Collected Works in Santa Fe on Sunday, June 10, 2018 at 6:30 pm.
https://swimmingwithelephants.com/2018/04/21/new-release-from-swimming-with-elephants-publications-llc/
Listen to the authors interviewed on KUNM-FM on Saturday, May 26, 2018 on Women's Focus, 12 noon - 2 pm MDT. 89.9 FM Albuquerque and kunm.org
READINGS & BOOK SIGNINGS
Mary and Aja Oishi will be reading at Chatter on Saturday, May 12, 2018, 10:30 am at SITE Santa Fe.
https://www.chatterabq.org/product/may-12-2018/
Mary and Aja Oishi will be reading at Chatter on Sunday, May 13, 2018, 10:30 am at Las Puertas, Albuquerque.
https://www.chatterabq.org/product/may-13-2018/
Mary and Aja Oishi will be reading and signing books at Bookworks in Albuquerque on Friday, June 8, 2018 at 6 pm.
Mary and Aja Oishi will be reading and signing books at Collected Works in Santa Fe on Sunday, June 10, 2018 at 6:30 pm.
Saturday, February 14, 2015
you are here
you are here
yes, others get unearned
advantages
you are advantaged too:
you are advantaged too:
ancestor to ancestor
goblet to goblet
poured strength to
strength
through generations
centuries-tested, multiplied
strength to strength to
strength
poured into you
that's how you squeezed
into this life equipped
yes, others get unearned
accolades but
what reward is higher
than
that you are here
when so many times you
should have died
in that dark room alone
in that dark room with someone
in that dark room with someone
who should have never
been
in charge
you are here, hearing
these words
so listen well:
what gold-trophied glory
can match
the fact that you are
here?
less-equipped, you would
have died
when that crazy man
grabbed you in the street
when waters rose
when fevers raged
when you got that
shocking news
when you were completely
betrayed
when your heart was
utterly broken
not even priest or
wizard could
take such blood red
sorrow
paint this day in blues
and turn it
royal purple
you should have died
you should have died so many
times
i cannot count them all
you should have died but
here you are
still here
still here
still dancing
still dancing
-mary oishi
Wednesday, February 04, 2015
pusher
are you out there in the stealth night on the edge of blue? listening.
are you loving me for sending you this fix of heartbreak
slid down metal, taut and wound. electric. are you?
are you dancing with the spirits of those who left us
forty fifty sixty eighty years ago? dancing. in a jukejoint.
in R.L.’s living room. are you in the field picking cotton in the broiling sun?
wishing for shade. any shade. a toothpick. anything.
can you feel it? the sweat. the thirst. blur between slave and sharecropper.
slave and chain gang. can you? are you out there in the stealth night? listening.
understanding. coming closer in. becoming. blues surging through?
mary oishi
Ghosts of Penn's Woods
waterways were named after them:
Susquehanna River, Conestoga Creek,
Conewago Creek, Swatara Creek,
creeks so wide they'd be
rivers of legend in the Southwest
soil rich and dark and humus
feeding forests dense with raspberries,
wineberries, teaberries, huckleberries,
strawberries, honeysuckle
sassafras, pawpaws, birch
plenty of fish and pheasants
rabbits and white-tailed deer
well into the Twentieth Century
farmers on the banks of the
Susquehanna plowed up
shoeboxes full of arrowheads
carved by Susquehannocks
abundant proof in an abundant land
after Penn's deed from the king
(to a land that was not his to give)
those who lived easily and peacefully
in Penn's Woods, with Penn's Woods
were themselves massacred
the band of 14 escapees
including 7 children
were housed in the Lancaster jail
for their own safety
but a mob stormed the jail
finished them off
nobody talks seriously about
the Lancaster Massacre:
before this poem it never
had a name
it's all idyllic farms, cows
on green hills
the simple life
shoofly pie
a Lancaster County blog from the
Convention and Visitors Bureau boasts:
The Fulton House was built
partially over the foundation of
the old Lancaster jail...
It's said you can still hear the screams
of the Conestogans...
So next time you're looking for
a spooky place to visit, head on over
to the Fulton Opera House!
Happy Halloween!
wonder if the ghosts
of the original inhabitants
ever sit by the water that
carries their names
that carries their memories
that carries their lives
down to the forgotten sea
two-and-a-half centuries later
it's doubtful they scream.
perhaps they look
and look...
and look...
and quietly sigh
-mary oishi
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Baby Veronica
this day is begging for a poem
this day is running crazy down an oklahoma street, screaming
chasing carloads of federal marshalls and one little girl
who wants grandparents and cousins
a clan, a community, a daddy who looks like her
this day is chasing those marshalls, wailing
BUT GRANDPA'S IN THE HOSPITAL WITH CHEST PAINS!
WAIT! A WHOLE NATION'S GRIEVING
WAIT! THE U.N. HAS IMPLORED YOU TO SAFEGUARD HER RIGHTS
WAIT! A FATHER WHO FOUGHT FOR YOU--THAT'S HIS BABY GIRL
WHAT. IS. WRONG WITH YOU????
the cavalry of marshalls disappears from sight.
(Is this 1813 or 2013?)
this day falls in a heap exhausted
exhaling sobs
knowing the system always favors
wasichu values: more money.
greed washed righteous by “respectability”
flawless hygiene to cover a hollow life
numb with ritalin and prozac
its sterile feet squeezed into gold prada heels
parading as success
oh yeah, this day is begging for a poem
not a sonnet, not an ode, not some couplet
contrived behind ivyed walls
this day begs a poem, no, a prayer, forgotten prayer
rising slowly like a feather on the wind
joined by an eagle's call, then wolf, then bear
then ten thousand buffalo
thundering on ancient graves
a prayer that wakes the ancestors from
their too soon sleep from long walks and long rifles
until they rise up and follow her
walk beside her every step in the white man's world
whisper comfort so her Cherokee heart stays warm
in the strange cold heat of south carolina
mary oishi
23, 24 & 25 september 2013
this day is running crazy down an oklahoma street, screaming
chasing carloads of federal marshalls and one little girl
who wants grandparents and cousins
a clan, a community, a daddy who looks like her
this day is chasing those marshalls, wailing
BUT GRANDPA'S IN THE HOSPITAL WITH CHEST PAINS!
WAIT! A WHOLE NATION'S GRIEVING
WAIT! THE U.N. HAS IMPLORED YOU TO SAFEGUARD HER RIGHTS
WAIT! A FATHER WHO FOUGHT FOR YOU--THAT'S HIS BABY GIRL
WHAT. IS. WRONG WITH YOU????
the cavalry of marshalls disappears from sight.
(Is this 1813 or 2013?)
this day falls in a heap exhausted
exhaling sobs
knowing the system always favors
wasichu values: more money.
greed washed righteous by “respectability”
flawless hygiene to cover a hollow life
numb with ritalin and prozac
its sterile feet squeezed into gold prada heels
parading as success
oh yeah, this day is begging for a poem
not a sonnet, not an ode, not some couplet
contrived behind ivyed walls
this day begs a poem, no, a prayer, forgotten prayer
rising slowly like a feather on the wind
joined by an eagle's call, then wolf, then bear
then ten thousand buffalo
thundering on ancient graves
a prayer that wakes the ancestors from
their too soon sleep from long walks and long rifles
until they rise up and follow her
walk beside her every step in the white man's world
whisper comfort so her Cherokee heart stays warm
in the strange cold heat of south carolina
mary oishi
23, 24 & 25 september 2013