Poet Jeffery Beam
Poems

Shedding the Old Self

In silence's adored and silkened embrace
I shed my body its skin a fragrant
papershell a narcissus
I shed it again and again
under the old motherly moon
I shed it in dreaming's womb
and always it remains the same
wrinkled and smooth

Soft body of sunflowers
body of iris blue and yellow body
you taste and smell of olives
and geraniums
With the strength of stones
you settle on the earth

And I shed you
like light on a mountain
under the sea
or a robe fresh woven
falling gracefully to the ground