Authors /
Jean Janzen
The comedy of table
Old Abram at the oaks of Mamre
squints into the noonday sun
and bids the travelers welcome.
Bread and a tender calf, and then
the promise of the impossible,...
This day by the sea
—March 25, 2016...
“Travel light”
Command or description, I wantto glow as I walk through my day,
as I glide through the hallsof the nursing home where I find you...
What the blind man saw
Trees with one leg, walking,spit of Jesus on his eyes,
arms pointing up to a high dazzleas all around him a crowd...
Three for the body
1
All those sermons about the seductions
of the flesh. Spiritual life, the elders said.
But who could hear it without the intricate...
The last word
And who is this young stripling beside you,Uncle George bellows from his hospital bedin Chicago, untamed city of wind and soot.His white hair in a tousle, he sits up,...
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Intercession
Winter dawn pinks even this dirty air,here where the currents of the worldstall between mountain ranges.We awaken inhaling fumes and dust,the calls of crows, breath and prayers...
My mother in Venice
She had another life,not only the vast expanseof prairie, but this islandadrift and shimmering.here she is, in the Frari Churchholding the Child....
The sailing
My mother lifts her blue-veined hand, “I’m ready to go.” She stares into the white wall,which billows into a sail....
Favorite poems
One of Mary Oliver's supreme gifts is her ability to find language for rapture as she responds to nature and our place within it....