Author Archives: J

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About J

formal verse poetry and commentary at rainharp.com

Fractured Images

Posted on June 9, 2025 by J

There is always a burden, of course–a sadder or heavier side to all the ecstatic dancing–a wound to the healer, a spider bite to the heel. Something, in us or in the universe, requires balance. Dancing was never an escape … Continue reading →

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The Lovers Encore

Posted on June 9, 2025 by J

After sharing the texts of One Week of Nights and Days, I realized that the story of The Lovers would lend it more meaning to most readers, and recalled that I had already told the story of that life-altering vision … Continue reading →

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One Week of Nights and Days

Posted on June 6, 2025 by J

I have spoken of kundalini–that is what runs through all this work. The following pieces are very special to me because of the circumstances that brought them. Pamela was a local midwife who had never had children. I first heard … Continue reading →

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Standing, Look to the End

Posted on June 6, 2025 by J

When I was a girl, Swinburne became my favorite poet because his sounds and rhythms were headlong, and because I sensed a powerful erotic mystery behind his words. He was a publicly professed atheist, but his poems were so pagan … Continue reading →

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Always Easter

Posted on May 11, 2024 by J

Here is another late-night instant lyric. The Christian imagery is plain, but so is something pagan running alongside it. Poetry meant so much to me when I was young, obsessed me so entirely at times, that I swore to do … Continue reading →

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Tail-Biter, Explained

Posted on May 9, 2024 by J

Here is another ‘tail-biter’–a species of poem in which the ending rings round and reveals the beginning in a different light. Go back and reread, and it will be a different poem that it was the first time. These poems … Continue reading →

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Lonely Working

Posted on May 7, 2024 by J

‘Here’ is a little story of how I came to be. Late at night and quick as lightning: 6 May 2024 Your Lonely… She came dressed in a robe of such shimmering colors– look at the state of my arms’ … Continue reading →

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Slippers

Posted on May 5, 2024 by J

It was late at night, as usual. Lines started running through my head. A bit of whimsy slipped through, although it’s serious too. We are slippers in the sense of ‘time slips,’ slipping into the Imaginal: 4 May 2024 In … Continue reading →

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Old-Fashioned

Posted on May 3, 2024 by J

Everything I make is at least a little old-fashioned, but this tiny lyric is especially so. It came to me after a friend shared some verses about flowers: 2 May 2024 Whose Heart? Your heart describes a fairy-ring where all … Continue reading →

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Beltane

Posted on May 1, 2024 by J

Lately I have marked the ten-year anniversary of my partner’s death. This came last night, after a long break. We shall see what follows: 30 April 2024 Still Beyond Telling Clear through the midst of the storm as the air … Continue reading →

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