My Place by Xristi M.
The earth and I have been long together.
That has not made us friends.
It is not equal commerce between peers
that binds us,
but my awestruck worship
of the blue and emerald manifestation
of a powerful goddess–
the variant beauties, changeful but constant,
of mountain dowagers, aglow in sunlight,
mist-shawled in evening,
and star-crowned in the black of night
of seas deeper than the human soul,
beneath whose thundering surface
the bells still chime of churches flooded long ago,
calling lost seaman from wrecked hulls
for services where mermaids twine their hair
with harvested pearls and
beckon to the thronging schools of fish
of forests where trees stand
in virgin starkness against the sky
and drop their leaves and needles
on the mossy carpet below,
the playground and commissary
of all those creatures Adam named
of the vast, still stretches of desert,
at once so sere but drenched in sameness that
past, present, and future seem
only a single speck of time
between the bleak horizons.
She, the earth, has also her Kali nature,
cleaving herself with earthquakes,
spilling churning lava from her volcanoes,
spinning storms that purple the skies
and wash her shores to ruin,
twisting air to funnels of destruction,
and, most dangerous of all,
giving room to man.
She does not court familiarity.
I call her home,
would not presume to call her friend.
I know my place.
………………………….
You knew and loved “your place”. Goodbye, Xristi. You were my dear friend. I will sorely miss you. Rest in Peace.
R J Adams December 30, 2006 at 3:34pm
Peacechick Mary December 30, 2006 at 7:01 pm
Yes, she was a brilliant lady with great wit and charm. We’re lucky, you and I to have known her just this little bit.
Al DeVito December 31, 2006 at 6:24 am
She was persistent and brave in the face of serious illness.
leslie January 2, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Thank you for publishing this beautiful poem of hers. It is XristiM.
Her place has changed now.
Her place is with the sun and the moon and the stars.
Her place is with the saints and the angels.
Her place is everywhere and nowhere.
Her place is in my heart.
~leslie
RJ Adams January 2, 2007 at 7:39 pm
Thank you, Leslie – and all of you who took the time to offer your thoughts.
Tengrain January 6, 2007 at 9:06 pm
Thank you for posting this. Xristi had a way with words, or maybe they had a way with her. I miss her and think of her daily.
Regards,
Tengrain
joseph f mcmanus August 24, 2007 at 8:02 pm
hmmm… this is so strange and sad. I didnt know that Xristi had such a large body of work… I knew she was talented. She didn’t really flaunt it, she just said to me “here’s some poems for the CD”. and I put together a CD for moontowncafe.com, with some of her poems included. I got to email her on occasion, and of course we traded critiques. When I heard she was gone, I must admit I cried a little. Its a feeling like… “wow now THERE is something that is gone that diminishes the world”. You know, when she “fell off the tree” (as she puts it) I bet a whole branch crashed down and made quite a noise. You can’t really forget someone like Xristi Megas, can you?
Yesterday I did a poem of remembrance for her…. its not anything great, but maybe its nice enough to read. here’s the link…
http://www.moontowncafe.com/poetry/view_poem.asp?cat_id=1&subcat_id=249&poem_id=50110
Tamsin June 2, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Xristi has been on my mind lately – her birthday is approaching (June 16). I googled looking for a message. Thank you for leaving this poem and page up.