Poems - JP Melville

Even My Wrath I Love 2014 jp melville I am conflict adverse. I am weak willed. I talk the talk. I am all about the spin. I show no willingness to talk. I make work the centre of my life. I make time management the focus. I have a hand in with lawyers. I prefer avoidance. I cannot face the week’s matters at hand. I am an ostrich with my head in the sand. I put my children first. You I treat as second class. You I fail to support in the minds of others. You I disrespect and the value of your work. You I remove from the centre. You I place as an obscure player. You I objectify. You I threaten with writing. E ven my wrath I love. "Now, make me a priority," she demands.

Love Settled Once Upon a Star 2007 jp melville love settled once upon a star burning brilliantly into the cold emptiness of my abyss a strange visitor around which i circled one slow step at a time not knowing what the creature was nor from who nor whence it came i tried looking at its fire from upside down was able to circumnavigate a full three hundred and sixty degrees in all directions like the little prince on his planet with his sheep and his rose that he so worried about oddly my eyes could hold open and retain focus on this burning brilliance without pain without blinking powerless to let sight of it go a strange creature fallen into my life to whom and from whom my heart was now bound in invisible threads attached detached that i watched around which i circled yet felt only ridden wholly inside my thoughts my heart my bones my flesh this burning brilliance that seared with ...

Swimming in a Day or Two october 2002 jp melville Heat of the night inside this house, The walls and ceiling exuding the temper of the day’s sun, Which beat on the concrete roof for twelve grueling hours, And I move slowly, Padding across the tiled floors, Drifting in a narcotic sweat, Desperate for something, Bed, Oblivion. My daughter, Olivia, not three years old, Perspired from her brow and back, Spread arms wide on her mattress, Sunk heavily far away in her first hour of sleep. Her brother, Ben, likewise, I removed his shirt, A whisper of relief from his skin, Air brushed across his moist back. Over by the wall I reached and clicked the switch Of the ceiling fan from zero to low speed And watched it ache into rotation, The blades lethargic, unwilling, Forced semblance of movement, Then I closed the contact for the air conditioner, Dull roar groaning under compression, Cooled...

Star Mother’s Child She Told Me: Across the Raging Light 31 July 2006 jp melville on seeing the photo of young girls signing bombs… I fell away once upon a long long time ago Believing then that toppling was the nature of all things, Dust to dust, Ashes to ashes, Resignation held high to the hands of One. I am just resurfacing from the depths and rejoining the fray. From light into darkness, I doubted. Or from darkness into light, courage said. Either way, music on the radio, rain falling from a midnight sky, laundry to fold, i remember the picture of young girls signing bombs and a star mother's child just taking hold in infinity... telling me... blessed be the one who reaches across the raging light for faith and hope will burn your hands, through love you will leave the bombs behind. My God, today I saw a mother smile, teaching her daughters to sign the bombs, and in the background, the soldiers waiti...