#sharon bryan

[othellho]

From “Erasures” by Sharon Bryan

[a-ramblinrose]

Once it was the gods who tested a hero’s mettle by showing him the shape of his own death but giving him no way to change things, so that the only variable was how he carried himself into a future he already knew by heart—he wasn’t fighting for his life, but to be remembered for his manner of dying,

Sharon Bryan, Flying Blind  from, ‘Foretelling’

[salonduthe]

Foreseeing

Middle age refers more to landscape than to time: it's as if you'd reached the top of a hill and could see all the way to the end of your life, so you know without a doubt that it has an end - not that it will have, but that it does have, if only in outline - so for the first time you can see your life whole, beginning and end not far from where you stand, the horizon in the distance - the view makes you weep, but it also has the beauty of symmetry, like the earth seen from space: you can't help but admire it from afar, especially now, while it's simple to re-enter whenever you choose, lying down in your life, waking up to it just as you always have - except that the details resonate by virtue of being contained, as your own words coming back to you define the landscape, remind you that it won't go on like this forever. ~ Sharon Bryan, Flying Blind (with thanks to whiskeyriver)

[a-ramblinrose]

let me not whine, let me not ask Why me, let me not outlive my sense of humor— the surest saving grace—

Sharon Bryan, Flying Blind   from, ‘Hopeless’

[a-ramblinrose]

Never better, mad as a hatter, right as rain, might and main, hanky-panky, hot toddy, hoity-toity, cold shoulder, bowled over, rolling in clover, low blow, no soap, hope against hope, pay the piper, liar liar pants on fire, high and dry, shoo-fly pie, fiddle-faddle, fit as a fiddle, sultan of swat, muskrat ramble, fat and sassy, fllimflam, happy as a clam, cat’s pajamas, bee’s knees, peas in a pod, pleased as punch, pretty as a picture, nothing much, lift the latch, double dutch, helter-skelter, hurdy-gurdy, early bird, feathered friend, dumb cluck, buck up, shilly-shally, willy-nilly, roly-poly, holy moly, loose lips sink ships, spitting image, nip in the air, hale and hearty, part and parcel, upsy-daisy, lazy days, maybe baby, up to snuff, flibbertigibbet, honky-tonk, spic and span, handyman cool as a cucumber, blue moon, high as a kite, night and noon, love me or leave me, seventh heaven, up and about, over and out.

Sharon Bryan, Flying Blind 'Sweater Weather: A Love Song to Language’

[a-ramblinrose]

- Sharon Bryan, Flying Blind 

[hepatosaurus]

national poetry month, day 16

Sawdust Why not lindendust,  hackberry, hemlock, live oak, maple, why  name the remains after the blade, not  what it cut—

only now do I see  that the air is full of small sharp stars  pinwheeling through every living thing  that gets in their way. —Sharon Bryan

[sashayed]

Sawdust

Why not lindendust,   hackberry, hemlock, live oak, maple, why   name the remains after the blade, not   what it cut—

only now do I see   that the air is full of small sharp stars   pinwheeling through every living thing   that gets in their way.

Sharon Bryan (b. 1943) Sharp Stars, 2009