Good Morning, Everyone,

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Good morning, everyone, In keeping with our plan of re-visiting poets and their work that have been especially popular with our readers, we are again featuring Alicia Ostriker.Her wise, beautiful poems help women understand themselves better and men understand women in a way they never did before.

The poem below: “Blessing of The Old Woman, the Tulip and the Dog” appears in her book, “The Book of Seventy”:

To be blessed
said the old woman
is to live and work
so hard
God’s love
washes right through you
like milk through a cow.

To be blessed
said the dark red tulip
is to knock their eyes out
with the slug of lust
implied by
your up-ended
skirt.

To be blessed
said the dog
is to have a pinch
of God
inside you
and all the other dogs
can smell it.

This was my first introduction to these three characters who may not be talking to each other at all but rather addressing the audience in a series of down-to-earth dramatic asides.  We can almost see them on stage, casting an occasional sly look or even a wink at one or both of their companions.

So, as waiters say in restaurants before setting out a delicious feast,”Enjoy”

Irene Willis
Poetry Editor