Hymn to Myself
I am a blooming encyclopedia of effervescent knowledge,
I text my friend Wendy who offered exuberant praise
of the restaurant I high-fived.
Glowing, I describe my own poetry
in a recent online journal. I gluttonize
on adjectives. Never mind what experts say.
Brought up in the Catholic faith where nuns
favored humility, I would cast my eyes
downward at the slightest compliment. Now,
I can’t get enough of myself.
And why not? Walt Whitman eased me
onto the path. His luminous ode to the individual.
Mary Oliver—steeped in wisdom—advised
announcing your place in the family of things.
To that end, I bought a megaphone. How’s this
for a miracle? I’m not assigning ten stars
to me alone. I’m planting kisses on my friends,
even the vagabond with the cup at the curb.
Although it’s not Sunday, I am singing a hymn.
Let all the brazen Hallelujahs multiply
like loaves. Let our gifts—yours and mine—glow
in the resplendent light that makes all of us beautiful.
.
Rounded Flower Bed
Claude Monet, oil on canvas, 1876
Detroit Institute of Arts
I envy this woman in a shapely blue dress.
A dazzling parasol—a swath of green—
shields her pale face from shimmery sunlight.
She is wearing a hat with flowers that mimic
the brilliance of the bedded blooms.
How did she find herself on the circular path
at the exact moment Monsieur Monet
lifted the brush from his palette?
Timing is everything, my mother always said.
I imagine museum-goers gabbing about the gladioli,
their voluptuous height, the way they seem
sewn into the chapeau of garden.
My eye is drawn to the parasol—
umbrella of another era—a spun canopy
like a miniature green fabric sky
held aloft in this fortunate corner of Paradise.
© Shirley J. Brewer
Shirley J. Brewer (Baltimore MD) serves as poet-in-residence at Carver Center for the Arts. Her poems garnish Barrow Street, Passager, Gargoyle, Poetry East, Loch Raven Review, among other journals and anthologies. Shirley’s poetry books include A Little Breast Music (Passager Books), After Words (Apprentice House Press), Bistro in Another Realm (Main Street Rag), and Wild Girls (Apprentice House Press).
Website: shirleyjbrewer.com
Shirley’s poems are part of the Lunar Codex program, and are currently on the moon!
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