Passages: Poetry by Mary Fumento

As if you were there, the memories exist and bind our pasts together. Spool and thread are we, creating the tapestry we call today and embroidering the thoughts we have into a dream of tomorrow.

Recklessly Irresponsible

It's because I cared
If not
I never would have tried

I would have shown
No effort
Reckless, but sure

So very much at stake
And then
Irresponsible, of course

The reverse continues
I care
And therefore I cannot

For so much matters
And I
Simply step aside
- Mary O. Fumento, 2008

Vortex

Death is a hole in the heart
Of those who are still alive.
Sometimes a slow sinking hole,
Or crash open: sudden and wide.

No matter how beloved ones go,
Fabric of our being torn apart,
We love, therefore we will lose,
Embracing only perforated hearts.

Loss is what loving truly means
We care enough to accept defeat.
By having people worth losing,
We are somehow made complete.
-Mary O. Fumento, 2007

The Irish Brook

Serenity where you go
Bubbling, flowing free
Deeper, quiet currents
Meandering towards eternity

Over unyielding stone
Destined to intwine with sea
Quenching parched sands
Ever wild, embracing liberty

Running a preset course
Decision internal, no question why
Mirroring more, life eternal
And clouds ethereal passing by

Comfort in your channels
Waves of peace, softest sigh
Soothing anguished shores
Forever bridging earth and sky
- Mary O. Fumento, 2007

Glimpses

A fleeting sight of you
Passing on your busy way
Moving in a predetermined rhythm
To something else, occupying mind
And time, until you weren't there
- 2006

Ember

But it would not die
And it would not end
On it burned and lived
Smoldering into my mind
Wanting to flame again
And to breathe and grow
Extinguishing life within
Demanding hope and strength

Red Feathers in the Wind

Red feathers in the wind
Floating among broken jars of clay
Rotting buffalo skins
Winter on the way
Coals long cold and dead
Amid bones left bleached and white
Village quiet and empty
With carved faces reflecting fright
The Spirit's voice was calling
Trails marking where He had been
But now all is gone forever
Red feathers in the wind
- 1981

Tenets

Gifts and love galore
To prove that you did want me
And demands without any end
To show somehow you did need me
But the acid of your words
And the malice of your actions
Led me to disbelief and hatred
And coldness in my reaction
For what should I take as truth
Your kindness or your anger
Only mixed memories remain
And bitterness all that lingers
For the nothing I was before
To the sum you claim you made me
I will never know if you made me
Or merely changed and maimed me
But here I stand today
A testament to what you do
Less an image of myself
Than the destructive side of you
- 1997

Truth

I don't know why I am surprised
At all of your inconsistencies and lies
For deception, falsehood is your way of life
And betrayal brutal is what you do
From the inner depths of something evil
With a rank and putrid air
Your darkened mind will churn away
Weaving and casting an awful web
That chokes all who dare come about
For to be with you is to be bound and hurt
And pelted with words of such despair
But your largest, most torturous tale
Was the one you told when you said you cared
- 1997

Muse

Silent one
You come in ways of wonder
Exploding with mystery and knowledge
Creating uniqueness from the mundane
Bearing gifts unrequested

Order emerges from chaos
Beauty redefines the unattractive
As you spring from the unsuspecting
Like a chilling August shower
Or the snap of an unruly flame

You demand rapt attention
Seeking acknowledgement alone
Not the usual acceptance or adulation
But how quick to plague or torment me
When I stifle your constant suggestions

You play me well, smoothly and knowingly
Like some fine-strung instrument of your creation
And quite unwittingly but by your design alone
A most divine music I birth for you
And vainly call the words my own
- 1988

Ships

Broken in the night
Fragmented shadows weep
Skeletons of centuries past
Creaking in the wind
Stripped and abandoned
Faraway a mariner's bell
And a drunken laugh or two
Leaning in the harbor
Absent aching, almost mute
With only waves for company
- 1988

Age of Innocence

Currents

Away from the rain
Up to the clouds
And beyond the storms
Ride the currents of wind
Into a brighter day
- 2003

Consummation

I accept the challenge
Despite my innate fears
Of what I do not know
The terror of what it is
The shadow of what it could be
Risks I care nothing of consequences
I only know I cannot withstand
The anxiety of indecision
Despite facing what I fear
And perhaps becoming what I dread
- 1988

Epiphany

Arise, for dawn has come
And joy inside returning
Warming space inside the heart
And alighting the soul anew
For life and love are yours
And you are mine at last
- 2002

Arches

Painted against the sky
And founded in the air
Stretched across the world
Bridging time everywhere

Conveyors of the past
Bring the future here
Remind us who we are
Show us where we’ve been
- 2003

Cathedral

Silent spires spear the sullen sky
And shroud streets in sacred shadow
A darkness which illuminates and guides
Showing seekers signs of presence
With sorrow evoking soulfulness
And the sun in solitary splendor
- 2000

Conversion

Looked into what I knew was real
Bound by what I already believed
I stared into the face of truth
And recognized none of what was me
- 2000

Shroud

Layer upon layer
Protective cover
Until no one sees
No one knows
As if no one
Had been there at all
- 2005

Definition

The spark of passion: chemistry
The simmering of blood and heart
The speed of passion: furious
Almost over before it begins
The length of passion: timeless
Its memory will always live
The art of passion: timing
Knowing when to accept, to give
- 2007

the zipperman

lovely, lovely zipperman
unzip a bit for me
I love what you hide
I crane my neck to see

lovely, lovely zipperman
you had me at your zip
not at clasp, nor button
only silence of the lip

lovely, lovely zipperman
show me what you are
I see hints here, there
proximity remains too far

lovely, lovely zipperman
exhibiting, hussy that I am
showmanship is the closest
To daring heart as I can

lovely, lovely zipperman
beauty in movement resides
not about being locked up
but releasing what's inside
- Mary O. Fumento, Nov. 19, 2007

Reeling

Straight for the sky
Where birds fly free
And clouds know no bounds
With room for even me

The heavens' endless space
Entice a turbulent rise
Barely grounded anymore
More open than I realize
- Mary O. Fumento, 2006