Poems by Laura M Kaminski
An-Nur: Taking Flight
for Jennifer Stokley
The job description of a human being
begins unfolding in a place of safety,
nest in a cavity thirty feet up in
a tree. Wood-duck hatchings spend their
early days waiting and trusting their mother
to feed them. They do not understand why
they are itching, why their down is falling
out, why something stronger growing in.
But soon enough, what the mother offers
in the place of safety fails to completely
satisfy their hunger, they feel a need
for deeper nourishment. Perhaps within
their bones they are beginning to hear
the call of water. Just because they start
here in the safety of the nest does not
mean this is their entire destiny. The job
description of a human being is fledging,
then stretching those wings, taking that
first flight despite all fear, launching
from the initial place of safety, being
willing to look and feel clumsy, taking
a step that seems unsupported by no more
than their own small wings, nothing more
than air between them and the ground.
An-Nur: Poem Still Unfolding
(italicized lines are from Howie Good’s poems “Exile” and “The Strange Situation Procedure” in his 2016 collection A Ghost Sings, A Door Opens)
The job description of a human being
is to continue staring, wide-eyed
into the darkness until the shapes
within it begin to make some sense.
I know this place, I’ve walked
here before in daylight. My feet
today follow precisely the same path
that they have taken each and every
day these many years. The ground I
walk on is no different than it’s
been, I walk in my own footprints.
It is like this: I have a daily dawn
appointment with the sunrise. I am
here, as always, but the sun is
tardy, and I’ve begun to wonder whether
it won’t show, has better things to do.
A grounded sparrow / gazes skyward
a place / just up the stairs /
but somehow / suddenly / hard to find.
But the job description of a human being
is to continue staring, wide-eyed, into
the darkness.
An-Nur: Poem Ending with Lines from Ruben
(italicized lines are from Ruben Quesada’s poem)
“Girl with Prayer”
The job description of a human being
is to be more than just the flame
sipping from the wick that floats
atop the oil of the lamp. Sometimes
I must be the whole of it – flame
and also wick and fuel and vessel,
I must carry the whole of it within
me. When darkness comes on suddenly
and drags me, strips me to the bone,
when someone else must help me limp
toward a place of safety, I must
carry within me sweet balm, attar
of roses, basil, myrrh. Heart is
lamp and lips are wick, and prayer
is flame. I am a child turning /
the corner toward home.
Laura M Kaminski (Halima Ayuba) is an Editor at Right Hand Pointing; she is also Poetry Editor and Editor of the digital chapbook series at Praxis Magazine Online. She is the author of several poetry collections and chapbooks, most recently the chapbook 19 Ghazal Street and the full-length collection Anchorhold.
