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Mary Fumento | Professional
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Welcome to the poetry of Mary Fumento.
Passages
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.
Absentia
(I came to know you outside the bounds of how I have always known you.)
Proximity is a blessed comfort
But a crutch, of course
I see what I want to see
Because you are close to me
And in distance I learn
What was hidden all along
Present, but buried deeply
Under my own interpretation
Be you; I’ll find out in time
I’ll recognize who you really are
I’ll finally see beyond distance
Regardless of ultimately how far
- Mary O. Fumento, 2013
Landslide
Salvaging wreckage
Dipping into debris
A life focused forward
Just now returning back
For things buried before
Blessings securely there
Safely awaiting a future
Promises still unspoken
And a world to behold
- Mary O. Fumento, 2011
The Beckoning
Shadows on sidewalks
Branches that beckon
Inverting the sky
With a force of reckon
For low can be high
And high can be low
Depending on perspective
And which way to go
So listen to the shadows
And directions they give
An alternative destination
And a new way to live
- Mary O. Fumento, 2011
Inside Out
I’m not a canvas
Upon which to paint
Someone’s art to define
An illustration to uncover
Instead, I revel
From the inside out
For I learned the meaning
Of internal grace
And the art on a page
I am my own person
To see me will take a life
- Mary O. Fumento, 2010
Stolen Glances
A shadow of you here
A glimpse of you there
And not sign of you
Anywhere
You were already gone
So distant and lost
I should have known you
Vanished
Although you show up
In places unexpected
You were already gone
Forever
A shadow of you here
A glimpse of you there
And memories abound
Everywhere
- Mary O. Fumento, 2010
Release
How to let you go
Unclasp you from my heart
Open my arms so wide
And embrace wherever you are
I’ll look inside and find
The trace you left behind
By the comfort of your trail
Burned deep within my mind
- Mary O. Fumento, 2010
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
(to the memory of Larry Anderson)
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
(For Megan McClung)
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
And there you were
Through the window pane
Passing before me, unseen
Just watching the beauty of you
However unaware of the audience
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
- Mary O.Fumento, 2006
Ember II (revised)
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
Exhaling into life within
Residing where I don’t go
I cursed the ash it would leave
Remembering, feeling warmth
And in the battle revisiting
Emotions agape and torn
But the fire once known
It instinctively rekindles
- Mary O. Fumento, 1997
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
- Mary O.Fumento, 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
- Mary O. Fumento, 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
- Mary O. Fumento, 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
- Mary O.Fumento, 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
- Mary O. Fumento, 1988
Age of Innocence
A child's eyes view the world's potential
Yesterday is gone and today is forever
Tomorrow is only an unfathomable promise
Wonder and awe exist in each leaf and blade a grass
Clean sheets and falling rain are personal luxuries
Squiggly worms in fresh, dark dirt
And drivelets of dew trickling
Down the pane are amusements
- Mary O. Fumento, 1986
Currents
Away from the rain
Up to the clouds
And beyond the storms
Ride the currents of wind
Into a brighter day
- Mary O. Fumento, 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
- Mary O. Fumento, 1988
Epiphany II
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
- Mary O. Fumento, 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
- Mary O. Fumento, 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
- Mary O. Fumento, 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
- Mary O. Fumento, 2000
Shroud
Layer upon layer
Protective cover
Until no one sees
No one knows
As if no one
Had been there at all
- Mary O. Fumento, 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
- Mary O. Fumento, 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
Alone
Listening for the silence
The echo never returned
However heartfelt the call
There was no response
And the sky stood still
Absorbing only emptiness
No breeze to even murmur
A distinct solitude to embrace
- Mary O. Fumento, 2009
Fragments | Imagery
| Elements | Hope
| Passages | Light
| Eclipse | Reflections
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