Bettina T. Barrett
(Denmark-USA)
LET BREATH BE YOUR GUIDE
Unlock chests
open cupboards
breathing can go deeper
am still skating on
the surface
where is her breath?
she needs
to hold on
too many keys
weigh down pockets
live simply oh yes
refrains are bone dry
tunes no longer
recognizable
even
to her own ears
still she stands
in front of that chest
that cupboard
let all of us take
a deep breath
start over
MOTHER/MAMAN
Why could we not
have shared our lives
in the language of love?
why did you not smile
laugh with me
instead of flirting with
all the good-lookig men
on our doorstep
where did your heart live
every morning when you
sent me off to school
with a frown
I kept looking for the wrinkles
you managed to erase
with jars of cream every night
no smiles allowed
I kept drinking out
of the open well
where not a drop existed
You carried fear like a
medalion of honor
left me to polish the silver
HORIZON
The oars one on each side
longer than the boat itself …
I float on glass
eyes follow into the deep
where white clouds live
I dive
there is no bottom
the sky goes on forever
someone rows
and we move with each wave
he sings a song where
feathers fly and words
come to rest
on the shore
I follow each flight
white gulls
whose dream do I remember?
now the boat
his breath
come morning the day spills
over the edge
March 2018
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BIO
Bettina T. Barrett was born (Sept.1931) and grew up in Denmark, coming in 1946 (after WWII and the German Occupation) to the United States, where she finished high school and went into nursing. She arrived in California in 1970 and Santa Barbara in 1972 and developed her writing and art as well as hiked the mountains here and in the Sierras, learning that what we call Nature is not something “other,” something separate from us, but very much a part of us all. Barrett writes, “I have become aware of who and what I am as a woman and what it means to be alive, in this place.” Barrett is a member of the Santa Barbara Art Association and has exhibited widely drawings, paintings, and ceramics over many years. She has also been a volunteer “grandmother” with the Wilderness Youth Project. Breath and Bone is her third book of poetry. She also had a chapbook published, Heartscape.