ENGKANTO

It is spring today and I think of you kneeling
beside me, this man who was my father’s father,
who appeared one day and stayed until
I learned your habits, how you dressed

like an old relative all day in flannel pajamas,
with your slippers shuffling down the back stairs
to the garden where you’d disappear, crouched
like a troll, casting spells among the leaves

and branches, reciting an old language
I’d later forget. Araw araw, unti unti, you’d
say before you began the long afternoons,
bunching leaves, tamping the soil, brushing away

the soggy crumbs of moss as I mimicked you and
flicked away the hollow shells of dead beetles.
Now years later when I’m nearly asleep, listening
to the slow movements of animals, to the rustle

of leaves where their paws might fall, you return,
ancient, waving your leathery hands. I can hear
you so clearly, whispering into my ear, a voice
full of secrets I’ll keep like slivers of moonlight.

One way to know Marin County, CA, is to read her poets. Marin teems with poets, who walk her streets, hike her trails, write about the mountains, the coast, rivers, hills, people, and the world at large. Over 100 Marin poets from age seven to 85 appear in these pages in a feast of poetry including Robert Hass, Brenda Hillman, Joanne Kyger, Jane Hirshfield, Linda Gregg, Etel Adnan, Gillian Conoley, Rosalie Moore, Kay Ryan, Ellery Akers, Diana O’Hehir, Ruth Daigon, Duane BigEagle, Stephan Torre, Molly Fisk

Reviews

…this anthology is full of delightful surprises. It is a big book elegantly produced… wealthy with fine poems… stunning photographs… excellent (artwork) and none overwhelms the poems; the artists and photographers every bit poets themselves… the poems are diverse, the voices clear and individual… We must do ourselves occasional kindnesses. Those kindnesses should include owning and giving a copy of Beside the Sleeping Maiden:Poets of Marin.
- June Owens, Florida 10/97

…intriguing glimpses into the life of a particular place and the sensibilities of its writers… that gives the experience of reading the book the feel of turning a jewel in your hand to study the various facets…These are the kinds of intersections that make me consider more deeply the concept of place. In a world grinding its ways towards a global economy and the erasure of individual cultures, Sleeping Maiden celebrates the local; and implicit in that stance are both appreciation for, and responsibility towards, where one finds oneself on the earth.
-Kim Addonizio "Poetry Flash" #274 November/December 1997

an amazingly rich collection…
-Kate Fitzsimmons, Artists Dialogue Autumn ’97

AFTER A CERTAIN AGE
A WOMAN BECOMES INVISIBLE

Her foundation will begin to shift
roof tiles curl
rain seep in.
At first she won’t observe herself:
the crisp curve of edges eroding
white sheets no longer hanging on her line
like an invitation.

All too soon she will notice
the restless eyes
that pass through her without stopping.
She will mourn her loss,
putty and caulk
paint and plaster
but the decay
will go faster than the repair.
One day while working
she may lean back to admire the job,
and if lucky,
see as if for the first time
her elegant structure.

She will be able then to let go
the old ladders
they will no longer matter.
She will peel back her roof
and become a garden,
open up and hold the rain.