Ellen Kort: "Walking on Water"

You know how it is sometimes
when you look out on water
smooth as a mirror I've always
wanted to try it so I simply
stepped off the dock when
everything was clear and still
It wasn't like flying or
sleep-walking But the surface wasn't hard as glass either
and it wasn't like parting
the Red Sea or anything I think
it was just a matter of wanting
to do it putting one foot
in front of the other and going

I went all the way around
the island and when I got back
this friend of mine asked me
where I was and I said "Out walking"
Now that I know that I can do it
I can hardly wait until tonight
When the moon comes up
and makes a path on the water
I know exactly where I'm going

"Walking on Water" by Ellen Kort. © Ellen Kort.

Photography credit: Unknown (originally color).




 

Ellen Kort: "Advice to Beginners"

Begin. Keep on beginning. Nibble on everything.
Take a hike. Teach yourself to whistle. Lie.
The older you get the more they'll want your stories.
Make them up. Talk to stones. Short-out electric
fences. Swim with the sea turtle into the moon. Learn
how to die. Eat moonshine pie. Drink wild geranium
tea. Run naked in the rain. Everything that happens
will happen and none of us will be safe from it.
Pull up anchors. Sit close to the god of night.
Lie still in a stream and breathe water. Climb to the top
of the highest tree until you come to the branch
where the blue heron sleeps. Eat poems for breakfast.
Wear them on your forehead. Lick the mountain's
bare shoulder. Measure the color of days
around your mother's death. Put your hands
over your face and listen to what they tell you.



"Advice to Beginners" by Ellen Kort, from If I Had My Life to Do Over I'd Pick More Daisies, edited by Sandra Martz. © Papier-Mache Press, 2010.

Photography credit: Unknown (originally black and white).