New Poem Live on Sassafras – She Took To Her Bed

My poem, She Took To Her Bed, is now live on Sassafras, Issue 2! Many thanks again to Miranda Holqvist, editor. Comments on this poem are welcome here on my blog .

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Please click here to read the piece:

http://sassafrasmag.wordpress.com/2013/09/16/carol-deminski-she-took-to-her-bed/

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The permanent link is available via the Published Stories page, here on the blog.

Poem to appear in Sassafras!

Miranda Holmqvist, the editor of Sassafras Literary Magazine (http://sassafrasmag.wordpress.com/issue-one/), reached out to me based on a story of mine she read in Metazen. As a result of seeing my work, she was kind enough to invite me to submit a piece for her consideration for inclusion in Sassafras, her new mag.

This is the first time an editor has reached out to me directly without prior contact to invite me to submit. I have had editors invite me to submit based on prior contact and existing relationships, and knowledge of my prior submissions, but I’m excited to have been found this “new way” by Miranda. I hope it’s a trend!

And so I’m pleased to announce she has accepted She Took To Her Bed, a poem I wrote last year, to appear in Sassafras Issue #2. I’m excited to be an early contributor as she gets her fledgling publication off the ground.

Issue 2 of Sassafras is supposed to appear next Monday, 9/16. I will post a link to the piece when it goes live!

Poem: She Took To Her Bed

She Took To Her Bed

 

She took to her bed

Waited out the wailing winds,

And reckless seas that tossed her,

In love’s empty boat

Without a compass

 

She floated away from the land of lovers

The shoreline retreated in the darkness

She closed her eyes

And let it go

 

She took to her bed when the blood flowed

To mourn what never left,

What never arrived, what never grew,

What never died, what never blossomed

And never spoke with a voice inside her

 

She took to her bed to pass the days, adrift,

To lay on humid sheets,

Where she watched the shadows of trees crawl across the walls

Or heard the cooing of doves outside the window

 

And in the space around her there grew a calm.

One day a spot opened in the bed, it said,

I am here for you.

She nestled into that spot,

Curled as a lock of hair around a child’s pinky

 

She escaped without apology

Accepted the solace of pillows to the cheek.

The bed remained steadfast

Restoring strength inside her

 

With the blanket of time tucked under her chin,

The years passed.

 

Later, they said of her,

She took to her bed.

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