Irene Mitchell

A Talent for Longing

There is ecstasy in yielding
to the forbidden,
in uprooting the flowers
for the delight that springs
from causing a small disruption
which might reveal something new to the eye.

One exemplar is the meditating primrose, the only
flower that persists through each sun.

It is not light I am after
but a lightness often forbidden
by the weight of longing for it.
I conclude,
while stretching out by integers
against the garden wall, that there exists
a different kind of longing, a more peaceful,
soft exercise such as keeping vigil
at the fountain
for the goldfinches sipping there.

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Irene Mitchell, a long-time teacher of English and Writing in inner city and rural New York, is the author of nine poetry collections, most recently An Overdose of Meditation (Dos Madres Press, 2024), My Report from the Uwharries (Dos Madres Press, 2022), and Selected Poems (FutureCycle Press, 2021). Dos Madres Press has published two other recent collections, Clerestory (2020), and Fever (2019). Formerly Poetry Editor of Hudson River Art Magazine, Mitchell is known for her collaborations with visual artists and composers. She was a recent Associate Artist in Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts.

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