Merle Molofsky
Good morning, everyone. We first met Merle Molosky on a cold winter’s day, and now, here we are, in full — and very hot or very rainy — summer!
Merle Molofsky, MFA, NCPsyA, is a psychoanalyst in private practice. She serves on the faculties of the Training Institute of NPAP and of Harlem Family Institute (HFI), and the Advisory Council of HFI.
Ms. Molosky is a member of the Editorial Board of The Psychoanalytic Review and of The International Journal of Controversial Discussions. In 2012 she received the Gravida Award in Poetry from the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (NAAP). She is also a playwright and writer of fiction. Her play, Koolaid, directed by Jack Gelber, was produced at Lincoln Center, and her novel, Streets 1970 (2015) and short-story collection, Necessary Voices (2019), both of which had introductions by Gerald J. Gargulio, were published by IPBooks.
It’s my pleasure to share the following three poems by Merle Molosky:
-IRENE WILLIS
POETRY EDITOR
ANCESTORS
All my ancestors
were once children
I know —
They came to see me,
they came as children,
to know me,
to ask
to be remembered.
WHY ISN’T A POEM
Why not?
Why is, of course, a chronic question.
Is what a poem?
What is a poem?
or
What is a poem.
So declarative, without the squiggle
of question mark.
I want.
Why what want.
Why am I? What am I?
What do I want?
Delirious wonders of words.
Who told me to start all over again,
if I wanted the poem to be a poem?
Was it within or without?
If within, did I feel without?
When did I go within and feel without?
I know. Then. It was then.
|Memory feels the same as now,
|because I am. Ergo sum.
Do I know then and now? If I hum it,
I can play it. Why what want who
within without wonder of words.
Wow.
I am a poem. Whoever is, is a poem….
MEMORY
Tears, like pearls,
grow in oceanic depths
and adorn memory.