Sally Rhoades

Thistle

She wears the simple bud of the thistle
on a yellow shirt woven into
the cloth. It catches my eye.

I am, immediately, taken with
It. Where would I buy a
blouse with thistles.

I am a thistle, I always say.
I grow in cracks. I am the
swagger of the purple flower.

I have thorns from childhood,
but I am the blossom. I am 
not the thorns. I grew from 

rich soil with little nurture.
Thankfully, I am the effortless
child who needs so very little

to blossom. I carry it within 
me, the deep, dark soil that
I pull all nutrients from.

 

Non Pareils         

                         For my father

It’s morning here in the beauty 
Of Provincetown where I came
To catch a spell of calm endurance
Where Stanley** built a place for all
Of us poets and writers and painters.

I listen to the deep quiet surrounding
The land of the Wampanoag as the wind
rises up from the ground announcing 
That which can’t be seen. Only, felt. 

My hand moved to my heart as I heard 
The gull crying, the eagle in flight and 
The whispers of a past that was unkind.

There is no gallantry in worship whether 
They be the stars or the tides moving 
As they must bringing sand and more sand
To this rugged coast. It is the moment 

We let down our guard to see beyond that
Illuminates the dark. Where the dark meets 
the light belongs to poets and painters.

I hear my father’s voice coaxing the round, 
plumb chocolate, coated with white sugar 
sprinkles out of its box.

It was he who taught me how to see as we
walked the land, as the sun rose and lowered 
itself to bed. He walked. I walk. It is in walking 
that we see the deep blue of sky. 
 
  August 11th, 2022

 

** Refers to poet Stanley Kunitz 
who was a founding member of the 
Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA.

 

Sally Rhoades, a poet, playwright and performer, has been putting movement to words and words to movement for the last thirty years. She has been featured at most of the area’s open mics and is a frequent contributor. She was featured on Charlie Rossiter’s podcast Poetry Spoken Here and interviewed by Andrea Cunliffe for the Hudson Mohawk magazine at WOOC105.3 FM, a Sanctuary for Independent Media. She has been published in various anthologies and in on-line publications. She received her MA in Creative writing from the University of Albany. She has a chapbook, Greeted By Wild Flowers.