The Water in Which One Drowns Is Always an Ocean<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It is the calm and silence that drown us.<\/p>\n
Some people can disturb words
\nwith a mere movement of the teeth.<\/p>\n
The pouch of the mouth strewn with roses Pumpkins and habits have a smell The womb carries on its shoulders ……..<\/span>Absence washes …………………..<\/span>From the well of envy ………….<\/span>Every sickness has its herb.<\/p>\n Heaven is dark, yet quiet and limpid. Scum rises to the top of the heart.<\/p>\n ………………………..<\/span>A bubble on the ocean Do not pour on the strength of a mirage. A merchant in the rain saves only himself. When your cheeks beg for fever Habit is the shirt we wear for a midday nap.<\/p>\n Gray hairs its blossoms.<\/p>\n Hope a pearl worthless in its shell.<\/p>\n Death answers: I have a lot to say Those destined to drown The tears of strangers are only water.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “The Water in Which One Drowns Is Always an Ocean” is reprinted from\u00a0Starting Today: 100 Poems for Obama’s First 100 Days.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jeff Encke<\/a> taught writing and criticism at Columbia University for several years, serving as writer-in-residence for the Program in Narrative Medicine<\/a> while completing his PhD in English in 2002. He now teaches at Richard Hugo House<\/a>. His poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Barrow Street, Boston Review, Colorado Review, Fence, Kenyon Review Online, Salt Hill,<\/em> and Tarpaulin Sky.<\/em> In 2004, he published Most Wanted: A Gamble in Verse<\/a>,<\/em> a series of love poems addressed to Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi war criminals printed on a deck of playing cards. For the past six years, Jeff has hosted a biweekly social group of poets, journalists, translators, playwrights, and other writers. The group currently alternates Sundays afternoons between Brouwer\u2019s<\/a> in Fremont and The Pine Box<\/a> on Capitol Hill (for more information, or to add yourself to the mailing list, visit the Seattle Poets Gathering<\/a> blog).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Water in Which One Drowns Is Always an Ocean It is the calm and silence that drown us. Some people can disturb words with a mere movement of the teeth. The pouch of the mouth strewn with roses … Continue reading
\n…………………………..<\/span>roofed with lost causes.<\/p>\n
\nand breath is its beginning.<\/p>\n
\na beggar wrapped in earth.<\/p>\n
\naway love, taking the tint of all colors.<\/p>\n
\nthe child teaches us to weep.<\/p>\n
\nShovels of earth cannot quench a mountain.<\/p>\n
\na taste the teetotaler will never know.<\/p>\n
\nDo not torture thirst with shallow water.<\/p>\n
\nA shadow that always follows the body.<\/p>\n
\n……………….<\/span>you are halfway there.<\/p>\n
\n.………………….<\/span>but my mouth is full.<\/p>\n
\n…………<\/span>will drown in a spoonful.<\/p>\n