Saturday, May 28, 2011

Bloom by Anne Selden Annab

Bloom

Sight
and sound
and touch and taste
awaken bloom
as Spring
is plucked up
by fluffed white clouds
refracting light to spin
into a multitude of brightly
colored threads… patterns
tightly interlaced by
the warp and woof
of nature's busy loom.


Birds & Blooms (Beauty in your own backyard) Feb/March 2009

Reflections By The Lake by Anne Selden Annab

Reflections By The Lake

An amethyst
dawn geodes
into a crystal

gaze: Clenched
within its tight
sphere,

our winter tree
splinters into
two; shivering

shadows to
reach into rippling
shades of self.


Reflect Winter 2003

Sub Rosa by Anne Selden [Annab]

Sub Rosa

In brief...
a brown eyed leaf
blinked open into
a bright flash
of winged blue


Reflect Winter 2003

On A Branch by Anne Selden [Annab]

On A Branch

A bird on a branch
in caw caw caw caw thrashing
brambles with thorned sound.

Reflect Autumn 2002

Autumn Mums by Anne Selden [Annab]

Autumn Mums

Autumn mums
and marigolds
mimic maple leaves
sugaring orange blaze
into scarlet breeze.



Reflect Autumn 2002

Aspens By Anne Selden Annab

Aspens

Gold
coins
dangle
in the
dancer’s
arabesque
shimmer
jeweled
wrists
with
bright
brisk
breeze:

tease
twilight
into dawn.


2002 Christian Science Monitor

Iris by Anne Selden [Annab]

Iris

blue paper poem
ruffled fist
unfold

fluff air
into breeze

being
dream


Reflect Summer 2002

The Orchid by Anne Selden [Annab]

The Orchid

splashed leaves
plunge color
into tongued
curves
quivering
with bee touch.

History
flits off
to find
ladles
of liquid
tipped
into the air.

Reflect Spring 2002

Imagine Beauty by Anne Selden [Annab]

Imagine Beauty

Imagine beauty
before mirrors:
It’s in the breeze
and the fragrance of bloom.

It’s in the careful planting of wheat
and the tedious grinding of grain
and the cautious baking
that brings you this brittle loaf,
offered with a delectable mash
of razzberries.

Let us stain ourselves
with each other’s loving eyes.


Reflect Spring 2002

Thatch by Anne Selden [Annab]

Thatch

A sod house
in Spring
will fling
a roof full
of wildflowers
into bird song bloom.


Reflect Spring 2002

Within An Average Day by Anne Selden [Annab]

Within An Average Day

I step through pages
of history's incredible contortions
played out with words...
Chapters organized
by politics.
Each paragraph peppered
with names of effective men
changing the course
of culture.
Warriors.
Conquest and ruin.
And time is translated
into campaigns-
remembered for what we have now
in our everyday lives.

The taste of a spice.
The pattern of a carpet.
The scent of a perfume.
The rhythms, the textures,
the rituals and revolutions
within an average day.


Reflect Winter 2002 ( vol. 22, no 1)

Combat by Anne Selden [Annab]

Combat

The mine field
where words where ever
how ever who ever
detonate into perpetuity.

Words have no choice
but to etch themselves into
where ever they might land.

Liquid ink on the page;
the page itself deteriorates
before its script can fade.

Chiseled chinks in stone;
the stone cracks and crumbles
yet the wedge remains in
air.

Always air.

Rock: Paper: Scissors:
Air



July, 2002 issue of
Wired Art from Wired Hearts.

The Pony Cart by Anne Selden Annab

The Pony Cart

In Spring’s melt,
past the meadows
and the plank barn,
deep in the timbered thicket
and down the farthest gully,

A wooden wheel appears
out of the newly washed earth.

Its perfect orb escapes
thistles and thorns.
Vines twine into the spokes
and fresh rust crumbles
out of old hammer blows
on the outer iron rim.

In Spring’s melt
a child touches history
as I pull the reins
of twisting vines,
creaking and rumbling
through time.


Branches online magazine

To Wendy by Anne Selden [Annab]

To Wendy

I am the texture
on paper;
the ink inked onto me
clings
here and there

so much empty space.

But all others see
are symbols:
Mere thimbles
that think themselves
something
so much more


2001 Reflect

My Middle Child by Anne Selden [Annab]

My Middle Child

It's the eve
of his ninth year:

He gangles up to
my rocking chair;
A slender shifting spright
with a sprig for me…

Flowers.

I lean into them inhaling
and the dog becomes a pup
jumping eagerly over up
to take a wagging sniff.

Even the cat comes alive,
languidly lifting from my lap,
delicately tasting a whiff
of whatever aromatic scents

Swirl outside.


2001 Reflect

Alice Inspired Anne Selden [Annab]

Alice Inspired

A window hole
in a solid wall,
can I lean out
and softly fall:

Into a world
Alice inspired-
just close my eyes
when I'm a bit tired.

To fall asleep,
to fall into...
I look at the sky
and the sea's so blue.


2001 Reflect

The Fist by Anne Selden [Annab]

The Fist

The star fish
came home curled
in a tightly
closed bucket of sand,
stashed in the garage
with the beach chairs.

We forgot.
When we opened the lid
expecting stench
there wasn’t even smell-
just rough beige
granules

sifting through our sticky fingers.


2001 Magical Realism

Janus by Anne Selden [Annab]

Janus

I don't know
which way
to twist time
which face
to follow...

Am I of
the East
ticking ticking ticking

sinewy and tight

Or of
the West
where
somehow hours
sputter
like a spurred
maverick
rearing

ready to run rushing
landscape
into dust.




2001 The Lucid Stone

untitled but was “the latest scoop” by Anne Selden [Annab]

untitled but was “the latest scoop”

walking a white dog
on a long black leash, armed with
a page of old news


2001 Christian Science Monitor

Reconstructed by Anne Selden [Annab]

Reconstructed

Resolution was determined long ago
by a young distracted mind
and time takes up all memories
polishes them by turning and tumbling

making them over into
memories of memories of memories.

Slide inside entirely,
and accidentally find that the view
has tumbled into something entirely new.




Reflect, Spring 2001

Oasis by Anne Selden [Annab]

Oasis

A gem like quality-
it's light perhaps
gathered in thoughts
to gleam back at me
becoming buoyant
with his calm voice
lifting me
up over the threshold
through the mirror
into a safe place.

A safe place
where we play
words like objects
weightless
tossed into ever-changing
patterns of response:
Jade's warmth with in
the sharp walls
of stone.


Reflect, Spring 2001

White Egret by Anne Selden [Annab]

White Egret

The far flutter
Of white on wind
Sparkling…
Is as if Angels
Have willed this shape
To be absorbed
absolutely
as it swoops
close
so close
I am only air.



Reflect, Spring 2001

Slung by Anne Selden [Annab]

Slung

Old oak reach,
Root a thick branch
Into the bowed inlet
Of shaded earth below.

Melt orbing wood
into earth spin splurge:
A branch a bough a bed.


Reflect, Spring 2001

Conch by Anne Selden [Annab]

Conch

C
o
n
c
h
shell
nuzzle
t i g htly
latched into
smooth wet sand
as the rippling retreat
of the foaming tide pulls
swirling small whirlpools
round the curved ridge
o s p e
f h o d
a I g
r n e
p t .
e
d







2001 Wired Hearts, Online Magazine

Gifts by Anne Selden [Annab]

Gifts

A small Arab boy,
A young shepherd
Exploring,
Discovered
the Dead Sea Scrolls.

And deep in the stark desert
The barren windswept rock
The shifting sands
With scorpions and storms
And thirst that blisters your lips
As the desert itself rises
Up into the air rushing pelting
Tattering
All to threads…

In the bleak and barren desert
Deep with in it's fortress
Of formidable journey

A cache of precious oil thrives.


2001 Struggle

Columbine by Anne Selden Annab

Columbine

The sky weeps
white tears
slow whirl mourn…
melt the cold cruelty
crisp
in our minds.

The sky weeps
white tears
as the tendrils of Columbine
twist through our egoisms
blooming outrage
at the bombs that it finds.



2001 Parnassus Literary Journal

Aeronautics by Anne Selden [Annab]

Aeronautics

Peace is a butterfly
sculpted flutter by flutter
into flight:

Wing shape chiseled
by justice
equally
applied.

And justice,
justice depends
on decency…

The sweetest nectar
in a well tended garden.



Spring 2001 Volume 28 No 1 $3
Aim Magazine

Evolutions by Anne Selden [Annab]

Evolutions

Not knowing, is nicer-
just going ahead
and curling round
each curve
connecting contour
with nerve.
Straightening the spine...
each vertebrae
disrupts the line
with ticklish
sensitivity


2001 Reflect

Sculpted by Anne Selden [Annab]

Sculpted
(Off the Rotunda in the Smithsonian, National Gallery of Art)

Marble elf-girl
Listening to a sea shell:
Sound seems to carve her,
To curve her crouching form
Like a shell itself...
Ocean erupts into air-
She is the splash
Retained in rock face.




2001 Reflect

Amman by Anne Selden Annab

Amman

The city
is tightly packed
with boxes- buildings
stacked up on hills
that rise every which way.
Round hills holding
cliffs of square white stone structures;
a canvas of bluffs
soon to cull colors
preluding sunset.
Each blanched building
diverges with dark squares
of windows
where warm people patter
about within
everyday lives.





2000 Riverrun, Glen Oaks Community College

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery by Anne Selden [Annab]

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

To whittle words
Among these bones
Sparse granite slabs
Stuck into the earth

Dissolving.




2000 Black Buzzard Review

the dwindling by Anne Selden [Annab]

the dwindling

all curves are culled
airbrushed daintily

with thin getting thinner-
women becoming girls
becoming boys
becoming wisps
mere strands

continuously
shrinking into
emptiness


1999 Radiance Magazine

Walnut Street Bridge by Anne Selden [Annab]

Walnut Street Bridge

Under a great sweeping cape,
whipped by the bitter wind.
Under the dark gray hood
that hides half my face.
I stand on the creaking bridge
and look down at the drama
of huge ice chunks shifting
on the river.
A desolate landscape...
I could fall through the fragments
cuts my flesh while crashing
through the sharp edges of ice
and drown in that cold dark place
swallowed completely-
unable to surface
for even one last glimpse of the sky...

Instead I giggle.




1999 Radiance Magazine
ECLIPSE
LADYBUG LAND
THE ROPEBRIDGE
PERTURBED
HAMSTER
STARGAZING
Place in The Woods, bought all rights $ 60 , 3900 Glenwood Avenue, Golden Valley, Minnesota, 55422-5302 (612) 374-2120

Baskets by Anne Selden [Annab]

Baskets

I see my grandmother's fingers
Flow throughout the reeds
Blending breeze into song

Gathering gathering gathering
Twisting wheat
Into winter's shaft
Of light




Wired Hearts June 1999

The Immigrant's Daughter by Anne Selden [Annab]

The Immigrant's Daughter

Generations rise
into her young face-
an old old grace,
and deep dark eyes
sparked with surprise
at her place.




Skylark 1999 issue Purdue University

Mold by Anne Selden [Annab]

Mold

From the clay the creature comes,
Cloys to minds, to hearts once pierced
By persecution.

Truth began the breath of being
Till time itself starts distorting; reaching
sludging sprawling Golem gaining strength:

Soulless substance searching kin
Golem festering into the stench of sin.




1999 Poetry Society of South Carolina: Carruthers Contest

Pachysandra by Anne Selden [Annab]

Pachysandra

Pulling up pachysandra:
yank a long root,
and it leads to another knot of leaves
a foot away.
This thick matte of growth
has swallowed balls and toys
and a gardener's spade-
the mangled handle hints
that it was two owners ago,
the one's with a dog.
Scary stuff this pachysandra.
To reach in to retrieve
is to wonder what
you'll touch or what
will touch you
claw and bite and swallow
as your finger's splash into green leaf,
and your hand disappears into the thick burgeoning growth
of deceptively tall low plant.
And it's up over your wrist
And you can't help but wonder
what else is underneath.
What lurks there
waiting.



Poet's Paper, Anderie Poetry Press, Winter/Spring (Jan)1999

A Chair by Anne Selden [Annab]

A Chair

A chair that rocked
The bewildered child;
A chair with arms that
Cradled the aching elbow
and the limb full of nursing
gurgle…

The creak of old wood
Reupholstered to be
Yet another chair
in yet another house
Making home

As my lap shifts
from cradle
To desk.




Poet's Paper, Anderie Poetry Press, Winter/Spring (Jan)1999

LD by Anne Selden [Annab]

LD

There is a paleness
in her movements-
more than the alabaster white flesh
reflecting it's weakness,
neurological I suppose.
But there are so many theories.
My magic child
who can't quite connect ideas the way most do.

But she is brilliant
hurling sparkling laughter
from that delicate self:

Nothing is easy.
Affectionate creature,
I can't expect anything
of you

except everything
you so eagerly do upside down and inside out.
My Magic Child
all sense gone wild.




Poet's Paper, Anderie Poetry Press, Winter/Spring (Jan)1999

The Wave by Anne Selden [Annab]

The Wave

Your music
has entered my mind,
and it's entered my heart
and everything else it can find.

Let's dance with the cosmos-
our sound and reception
will merge and burst
into perfection.



1998 Night Roses

Sleeping by Anne Selden [Annab]

Sleeping

Sleeping:
She wanders
through a winding
mirage of mind induced
shapes.

Waking:
She wonders
and her mind
files thoughts
for future
illusion.




1998 Night Roses

Adagio by Anne Selden [Annab]

Adagio

His walk is heavy;
his body's extensive mass bears down in each striding step
and bores through sound echo
into bass.

He is of the storm cloud's pas de deux-
he is the pounding
of my nymph heart running turning twisting
into a tree so as to reach more deeply

into our whirlwind

with all my fingers.

He is...



1998 Harrisburg Review

Sketch Inklings by Anne Selden [Annab]

Sketch Inklings

Black buzzard drift
Stretch your stiff feathered span
And wobble wind bound...
Dip into a wide whirl
Neatly spiraling
Round.

Round like the clutch of claw.

Round like the pupil's watch
Rapidly expanding in the blaze
Of brainstorm.

Sketch inklings
of the space shuttle's spiral thrust
Through a collage of sunsets
whirling into dawn.



1998 Icarus

The Estate by Anne Selden [Annab]

The Estate

Life once lived here:
now it's just looked...
lens polished
with tissues
that fall, fluttering
like a limp
page.



Candlelight Poetry Journal, Fall 1998

Taybeh- Wadi Moussa, Jordan & The Craft's Souq by Anne Selden [Annab]

Taybeh- Wadi Moussa, Jordan

We arrive at sunset.
Stretch out stiff limbs
and open eyes to see the sandstone sculptures
carved from cloud shape shifting above Petra.


The Craft's Souq

There's a glass blower-
the solid daub ledge holds a cotillion
of green and blue glass-
breakable shapes spun as he blows
and pulls and dips and spills and whips
and drops and pulls a cobra
from liquid glass dripping and twirled.

The hot furnace is a nest of orange red
in the dusky room.
Night is outside and we stand near enough
to be warmed by the stove,
desert nights can be colder than you think.

I hold the youngest child,
feel him twitch and twist as the glass blower
moves arms stretched up and out suspending
red glass that drops into a iridescent swan.


Harrisburg Review, July Issue, 1998

A Mountain by Anne Selden [Annab]

A Mountain

A mountain
in the mist-
a mirage of
rock.
A mind induced
shape
in a bluish mood,
rising up
to cower
behind a tree.



Black Buzzard Review, 1998

Summer's Stretch by Anne Selden Annab

Summer's Stretch

Poke of
Crocus
spreads
To daffodil
And Magnolia

Dogwood follows
And Lilac, and violets
and lily of the valley
and honeysuckle...
As trees come to green again,

And Summer spreads warming into the air itself.

Candlelight Poetry Journal, Summer 1998

The Treasury by Anne Selden [Annab]

The Treasury


Legends
of the old world...
Folktales enchant me:
My ancestors listened to,
and live within,
my mother's lilting voice:
So like the fragrant garden
behind our home- long ago-
with the resonance
of the deep, dark woods beyond.
Once apon a time
the fire in our hearth
was stirred by an idle girl
child -long ago- listening.
She'll tell her own soft babies these stories,
change them bit by bit perhaps,
as her own growing self is changed
by listening
to fables.


1998 Womenkind Anthology, Anderie Poetry Press

Resonance by Anne Selden [Annab]

Resonance

Last night
you stepped outside
into the flashes
of a summer storm.
Warm humid night
rumbling.
Your voice called to me
from our front step
with all the dazzle
of the dashing light
and the power
of thunder's deepest tone.
I came out to you
on the edge of the summer storm
(you- of the summer storm)
I stood by you
so close we touched
electricity.


1998 Because We Love- Anthology; Anderie Poetry Press

Write Lightly by Anne Selden [Annab]

Write Lightly

Write lightly
as the wildflowers do,
becoming their own bouquets:
The land a lovely lady
so delicate,
step closely to the earth
ankles touched by bloom
and eyes downcast, delight
little blue bloom
cradles a star flicker.
Red poppies with papery purpose
daze the heart
as they cluster
like congregations
to singe the air with brilliant
fresh blood flame red
soft petal.
I am in silk
inspired by the small flowers
touched by their gentle
tenaciousness,
Tucked into rocks everywhere
and flowing out
into fields.
They are of every hue
though the wild mustard shouts
and sways
and seems to push all else aside
with it's flamboyance.

But the its the little bouquets
found everywhere underfoot,
splays of delight, that catch my eye.
Floral mosaics.

Everywhere there is garden
herb and flower flourish-
a brief enchantment
in a desert land
that soon enough
will be all browns
brushed with bare earth.


Summer 1998 Issue of Poet's Paper, Anderie Poetry Press

The Spitfire by Anne Selden [Annab]

The Spitfire

Whiz of spinner
and then a roaring whine,
The engine's voice-
a smooth high rapid sputter.
Quiver of ailerons.
A World War II bomber on the grass
twitching to lunge up
to swell breeze into wind and surge and soar.
He takes it by the torso-
the fuselage-
lifts it up agilely,
this thing he built in our dingy basement,
and carries it out past the rail, puts it down.
It scurries off, bumping a straight line up the field.
Distance makes the model more real
and she gathers speed, lurches up and off
to swoop with pleasure or nerves
I'm not sure, as my husband twitches the controls
on the radio, both our hearts thumping as origins flit up-
Duxford, where we first saw that shade of blue on a Spitfire.
Ipswich, where we found the kit in a narrow shop.
Gatwick's airport customs which almost made us miss
our own long flight home:
Our three exhausted children fidgeting
and we lost the baby's bottle somewhere in the airport
because we were so absorbed in carefully
keeping the Spitfire, with foam core wings, safe.
The box was bigger than our oldest boy.
That same boy has grown several inches taller while
spending rapt hours watching his father build the Spitfire.
And now that child gazes with blue eyes at the Spitfire's grace
as she loops and leans into a turn and waggles
as she zips past us, into another era, up over
always on the edge of crash, as her pilot hurries to learn
how to fly her.



Winter 1998 Issue of Poet's Paper, Anderie Poetry Press

Clearing Paths by Anne Selden [Annab]

Clearing Paths


I trudged through darkness
with my shovel on my shoulders,
eleven or so inches
of fresh dry snow.
All was inaccessible.
I worked and watched:
The moon was luminous,
the deep dark blue sky
turns into dawn,
starts with a sliver of ice
that melts with soft roses
and touches of smooth pearl gray
spreading and the sky
becomes light blue.
With buoyant spirit
I shovel substance,
pure glistening stuff from the sky-
light little wisps
fall to the earth, settle and cling.
I welcome the weight
as I work
clearing paths.




1998 The Candlelight Poetry Journal

The Twitchy Woods by Anne Selden [Annab]

The Twitchy Woods

Deep in the twitchy woods
Where tawny pine needles dry
Sound's absorbed step by step:
A crackling far off
Over the trestle
Could be man or bear
Turn swiftly back
up the path
Like a frightened doe

As a chipmunk
crashes past.



1998 The Candlelight Poetry Journal

Granite by Anne Selden [Annab]

Granite

Smooth granite rock
Weight in my hand
Thumb tucked in a nook
Of knarled time

From the trees
Round the reach
Of Walden Pond
In the bright Fall

Leaves that curl
Crackling
Into Earth.



1997 Texas Poetry Alliance, Rhymes of Greatness Anthology, Famous Poet's Soeciety, 1998

The Seaweed Tree by Anne Selden [Annab]

The Seaweed Tree

We are
underwater;
darkness drips
through a seaweed tree.
Electric eels dance, rigidly,
away.

Some great fish roars nearby-
must be crumbling reefs
into rubble.

I hear the tide
in the seaweed tree,
it's waning

like the moon
that's come creeping
through a cloud.



1997 Harrisburg Review

Contents by Anne Selden Annab

Contents

The blue Wedgewood bowl
sits up high in its place,
as figures from an urn turn,
frozen on its face.

The blue Wedgewood bowl,
round like a ring;
I spin it slowly, and listen
for the white shadows to sing.



1997 Yesterday's Magazette

The White Feather by Anne Selden Annab

The White Feather

A white feather
in a library book
falls out to fluff and float;
descent combs
its quill.
A small curved feather
perhaps from under wing.
Where have these words been,
what shape, what form?
Have the strokes
been sketched
by this feather's flight?

What winged creature
came to read these words.

What person found this plume
and treasured it.

Or perhaps, it simply escaped
from a soft pillow
as some stranger slipped off
into a dream.



1997 Amelia Magazine: Alice Mackenzie Swaim Prize $50.00

Barefeet by Anne Selden [Annab]

Barefeet


Indian paths unfurled
wrapping round earth's slow evolution.
The rock pressed by glacial weight.
The tree planted by squirrel whim.
Skirting
skittering, scampering
a narrow channel.
Not like our roads now,
although some once
were Indian paths
made straight and wide and smooth
by chopping trees,
uprooting rocks,
slicing into a shale hillside.
A pipe swallows a stream,
rather than have me leap
rock by rock across
each slippery, jiggly stone.



1997 National Fed. Of State Poetry Soc.: 4th Honorable Mention in the 38th annual Our Native American Heritage Award

In Flight by Anne Selden [Annab]

In Flight


A shadow on the snow
of a bird in flight,
a sweeping line
of gray on white
as he wings his way
with all his might.



1997 Cats,Canines,& Other Creatures, Anthology Anderie Poetry Press

Kiawah by Anne Selden [Annab]

Kiawah


On the gray balcony
of a private house.
A private beach front balcony,
looking out at a starry night
of ocean breeze and ocean sound
that washes over our words,
making them softer, significant
as we stand naked to the waves
of sound and star sprinkle,
naked to the blustery breeze flit
brimming with salt and a bit of sand.
Naked is naked rock.
For all my fantasy, naked on the balcony
the star sprinkled wind swept balcony,
naked is not to flutter and quiver with buoyant life
it's to be solid and stark.

Surf pulling sand sketches designs.
Wind pushing sand whirls patterns.
The exquisite night hits my bare flesh stunned:
I slip back inside to emerge in a moment
wearing a silken gown
to ripple whish whirl
and feel the flourish of sea breeze
splash through me
and sway and surge and swirl
and swish
with being.


1996 Womankind, Anthology, Anderie Poetry Press

Picnic by Anne Selden [Annab]

Picnic


Children capture hearts
and focus eyes;
opening emotion
with their simple surprise,
as they laugh
and play
unaware of enhancing
such a beautiful day.


1996 The Child Within, Anthology, Anderie Poetry Press

Costumes by Anne Selden [Annab]

Costumes


Costumes-
I surround myself
with me in silk
spinning
the robe falls
and I slip into a gown
of antique lace
spinning
my feet feeling a ruffle reeling round and round
spinning

I am a dance.



The Child Within, Anthology, Anderie Poetry Press 1996

Binary by Anne Selden Annab

Binary


Cityscape
on a card
paths patching
progress:
An android in
my microwave.
Tasks programmed-
routes
everywhere I walk.
Minuscule maps
of circuitry-
impulses:
You either are
or aren't
But I always am..
though often unaware.


1996 The Harrisburg Review

Dinosaurs by Anne Selden [Annab]

Dinosaurs

Arranging wheat thins neatly, carefully
four fit into a perfect square.
Methodically, the five year old adds
two to an end in order to construct
a precisely wrought rectangle.
His father blithely removes one cracker on an upper edge,
says "Look it's a School Bus."
Growing son says "No."
Father puts it underneath,
like a wheel,
adds another to the rear.
"A School Bus." he repeats
"Silly daddy" replies bemused son
"That's a stegosaurus."



Yankee Magazine- March 2000

Sheen by Anne Selden Annab

Sheen


Light comes- quickening
into color,
blending bows
of iridescent flows
that swim
brimming.



1996 Explorer Magazine

A Gander by Anne Selden [Annab]

A Gander

I stroked the sky
with a bluish hue;
my brush swept past
as if it flew.

An eye with wings;
a soul that sings.




1996 Explorer Magazine

Stag by Anne Selden [Annab]

Stag

I stare,
shuddering,
moonstruck
with your

eyes
blazing
into mine.



The Artful Mind, late spring issue 1996

Liquid Flutter by Anne Selden [Annab]

Liquid Flutter


The tree frog in hand
is a liquid flutter of
squishy soft, fat round, weightless hop

elongating
into stiff straight shot
airborne

and plop
back into
bulb camouflage
tucked into leaves


elongating
into stiff straight shot
airborne

and plop.




Ribet: A Celebration of Frogs and Toads, Anthology 1996

Tumbling by Anne Selden [Annab]

Tumbling

Buildings like blocks
dropped from a child's hand
as the child wanders
at his whim's command.

Windows become texture
to individualize each side
and everywhere they look
their views collide.




Black Buzzard Review, Visions International, 1996 Issue

Jordan by Anne Selden [Annab]

Jordan

Geometry rises
out of rubble;
The strength
of a simple square-
a home to how many?
Geometry abruptly
spills down
a low round hill,
recedes into erosion and air.

Day breaks brings color
to dust and rock,
rolls each silhouette
with reds.
Morning goes on to gild
this ancient land,
carves the stones
into embellished shapes,
chisels details
with daubs of pigment
which noon bleaches out
entirely
until
evening shadows
come back to claim
line
& form.




Raconteur (SP?) Magazine, July 1996

Reality by Anne Selden [Annab]

Reality

Clothe a dream
with woven clothe
and out from a fold
flies a moth



1995 WordPlay magazine

The Span by Anne Selden [Annab]

The Span

The elongating cat's
sleek sands
slid down
through my hands:

The hourglass has a tide
until he lands.




1995 Golden Apple Press: Joy of the Journey (anthology)

Big Bang Theory

Big Bang Theory

Heart pounding
I'm hurled away
from a soft
suction like kiss,
still feeling the pulse
the warm play of your lips
pulling me
stretching my self
a thin wailing strand
that's strung tightly
between us,
a violin's string
its sound ascending
as space increases
and the universe
explodes.



1993 National Library of Poetry- Sound of Poetry Anthology

The Citadel by Anne Selden [Annab]

The Citadel

Walk through ruins
antiquities...
The earth underfoot
includes rocks, rubble, and dust,
pebbles and bits of pottery.
Shards of archaic lives.
I reach down
and my finger's flesh feels
the warm porous clay.
I lift it up.
Long ago this fragment
was a whole
hot from the kiln.
Long ago another woman reached
and her finger's flesh felt
the warm porous clay,
held the earth in her hand
a vessel to fill...
as fluid
reflections
flow.



1992 National Library of Poetry Anthology

Touch by Anne Selden [Annab]

Touch

Touch tingling,
senses mingling-
your skin on mine
like tangled twine,
a macramé..
as our fingers play.




1991 Heart Essence- Anthology

Heaven by Anne Selden [Annab]

Heaven

I woke with awareness
of the man beside me-
his worth a warm calm.
I lay still, absorbed
in the kindest of moods.
Who knows what I dreamed
snuggled into his weight
but waking I know
heaven.


1991 Heart Essence- Anthology

Andromeda by Anne Selden [Annab]

Andromeda

We searched for Andromeda...
Waited all summer
for the early autumn sky,
then several days
for a cloudless night.
Plotting star charts,
pouring through texts:
I read of her meanings-
such folklore sparkling
in the constellation
that holds the galaxy:
The most distant object visible
to the naked eye.
A spiral galaxy
swirling.
Using Pegasus as our guide,
We adjusted the telescope
and leapt star by star,
prancing through the sky
until at last we found her !
And I'm struck
by the haze-
nebulosity.
Her mythic impact
so much more immense
than the visual one.

But for all our research
she might have been
merely a smudge
on the lens.



1991 Outer Space Poems- Anthology

Spin A Dream by Anne Selden [Annab]

Spin A Dream

Close your eyes
and spin a dream-
each gold thread
an ethereal stream
that weaves itself
into a wonderous scheme.



1991 Tigers, Turtles & Teddy Bears; children's anthology

Growing by Anne Selden [Annab]

Growing

A folded flower
underneath the earth,
patiently waiting
for its birth:

A sprout pokes up
and breathes the air-
its leaves reach out
and a plant is there.




1991 Tigers, Turtles & Teddy Bears; children's anthology

Wings by Anne Selden [Annab]

Wings

A beautiful bicycle-
shinny and new;
glistening silver
and midnight blue.

Twelve gears oiled
to smoothly slide
one into the next
as I glibly glide.

Up hills, down hills,
through every town-
the wind in my hair
has become a crown.



1991 Tigers, Turtles & Teddy Bears; children's anthology

The Children's Sermon by Anne Selden [Annab]

The Children's Sermon

Filled with spirit
all his words
waltz with air:
The children fill the nave;
stand starring up at him
like a field flowing
with various wild flowers-
His words sparkle
like sunshine
on their small bodies
as they sway
listening.

He holds two rocks
tells them of the stream
that smooths the stone
shapes it
that glistening flow-
the gentle strength
of water on our lives
in our lives
shinning
and the flame
flickers in eyes ignited.

as elements of this earth
shepherd heaven's birth
in a child's soul.



1991 Praise Him- Anthology; American Arts Assoc.

The Brink by Anne Selden [Annab]

The Brink

The broad creek crawls
through the wide cleft
of cliffs
nubbed with trees.

The brown water ripples
with droplets of summer light.
High above I
seem to splash
through a trillion leaves;
a trillion shapes
of effervescent green
flourishing on branches-
so obviously twigs
so easily snapped...
why even try to
hold on
tight.


1991 Poetic Voices of America- Anthology; Sparrowgrass

Concurrent by Anne Selden [Annab]

Concurrent

Should glasses spill:
Set on a sink's porcelain edge,
as I reach for the spicket
and tipped accidentally over...
Rush of water and the will
of weight within air
dropping
a tad of pandemonium
as they touch.
Two lenses perhaps dissolving
on the tile floor-
crisp vision turns to mist:
My glasses melting
in a tryst.


March 1991 Thalia- Anthology; Mile High Poetry Society

Vitality by Anne Selden [Annab]

Vitality

When does
the stellar stuff twinge
into sparkle?
The embryo
struck by light
absorbs reflects
shines.
An infant's limbs
twinkle.

Out of goop
the shapeless surge
splits over and over and over into
an individual
quickening.




August 1990 Wine & Roses Contest for serious poetry-honorable mention
Wallace Stevens Chapter

The Acorn by Anne Selden [Annab]

The Acorn


My probing thought
seems caught,
swirling- hurled
like a rock.

I never meant
my touch
to wreck so much.

But the structure dissolves
with tingling,
conclusions mingling

I never meant
my touch
to yield so much.




1990 World of Poetry Bonus Contest- honorable mention

With Words by Anne Selden [Annab]

With Words

I am the infiltrater,
taking the buds of blossoms
and flinging them
to bloom in foreign lands

Another mind might
repaint some petals,
rearrange the pattern
in which they fall.

But still, each flower blooms
vibrant-
her fragrance available
to all.



May 1990 Treasured Poems of America- Anthology, Sparrowgrass

Brown Eyed Earth by Anne Selden [Annab]

Brown Eyed Earth

Brown eyed earth
come peeping-
creeping, leaping
into furry form.
Thistles brushed
by splays of grass,
ruffled by the breeze;
and muscles move
our limbs.
Brown eyed earth
glisten
nurtured by a blink:
Animism's mirror
is made quite distinct.



1990 Parnassus- Anthology; Mile High Octoberfest Contest

The Hillside by Anne Selden [Annab]

The Hillside

The shape of shadows
dancing dark forms,
dried weeds rustle
as their buds are torn.

Brittle branches
still with briar
are whipped by the wind
into a brown fire

that sweeps up over
and out of view;
its flames consuming
though never through.



March 1990 Telestar- April Issue & FIVE DOLLARS!!! payment

Behold by Anne Selden [Annab]

Behold
Behold this delicious bouquet,
full of a Bumble Bee's prints-
pollen on his toes
he's flown away
buzzing...
Each flower sways
with his weight
wavers when he leaves:
Blooming regardless
of what he believes.

Each mood's mirage
blues, purples, reds and pinks
every aspect of color
feels his hum and drinks,
drinks his soft round being
nestled in her bloom-
savoring his ballast
as he sips her perfume.



1990 Over the Rainbow Anthology

To Pour Myself by Anne Selden [Annab]

To Pour Myself

I want to give of myself,
pure spirit shinning...
I want to glimmer in another,
to grow inside a child
as that child once grew inside of me.
To pour myself, so pure
through her mind
let her reach,
then reach some more.
I want to give of myself,
this sparkling self,
all the kindness and care
the gentle probing touch:
the light that lingers
to ignite the leaf.



1990 Over the Rainbow Anthology

Songbirds by Anne Selden [Annab]

Songbirds

Breath in.
a bug scuttles.
The sun descends
glowing
with the smooth
shades
found inside
an oyster shell.

I am a round pearl
glistening
for you,
listening
to the stillness
with in.



1990 Wide Open Magazine

The Tinsel Tree by Anne Selden Annab

The Tinsel Tree

The tinsel tree
tingles with ice,
as brittle light
breaks
through each branch
tickling up
an avalanche
of dazzles.



1990 Telestar & FIVE DOLLARS!!! payment

Commitments by Anne Selden [Annab]

Commitments

This morning
Nell needed to cling;
she wrapped her growing body
around me like a wing.

And I was like a bird asleep
all my thoughts buried deep

with in this loving
life of ours:
A bird whose dreams
are filled with stars.


1990 Poetry Magic- honorable mention

I've Dressed by Anne Selden [Annab]

I've Dressed

I've dressed in symbols;
lace at my throat
and Cinderella at my wrist.
A bride in brown
for the earth is my soul
and ivory for purity
or perhaps piano keys.
Black shoes for the shadows
left where I walk.
A brown leaf in my hair.
White underclothes.
A tapestry bag
woven flowers
in earthy tones,
it's black inside
like a vacuum
tucked round
my pocket calendar.



Poetic Reflections- Anthology; Shamrock Publishing 1990

Too Round by Anne Selden [Annab]

Too Round

Are you two?
How many heartbeats
does my husband hug?
(three?)
How many hands
push against my womb?
(four?)
How many legs
get ready to run?
Either
two squared...plus
two squared;
or it's all I ate.


December 1989 Mothersong- magazine

Wild Flowers by Anne Selden Annab

Wild Flowers

Wild flowers
picked by the road-
my true rapture
was all you owed.

You brought them to me
and I paid your debt-
The only chapter
in etiquette.




December 1989 Mothersong- magazine

Eleven Days of Rain by Anne Selden Annab

Eleven Days of Rain

Eleven days of rain
drop by drop, drizzle...
it fills our earth
floods the stream
with wide brown rippling-
pulls green plants,
and sticks like snakes rush
through currents.
Eleven days of rain.
Polished worms promenade
on the wet pavement.
Drop by drop drizzle-
step off into the soup
of our lawn
luxuriant grass grown
in sinking mud.
Eleven days of rain,
of twilight.
A brown bluejay
plucks and pulls out
a long reluctant worm.
The ground sucks my steps.
Pulls me into
as the worm
is pulled out of...
Eleven days of rain-
the darkness gulps.



November 1989 Pages from the Fountain, Fall Issue; Zander Press

Reviving by Anne Selden [Annab]

Reviving

In demurral delirium
soft bleached sheets,
a bed with metal rails
a button pressed
adjustes the slopes
of my numb shape.
How many days
of tossing
are in my wild hair?
She comes in
through the open door
cool hands on my head-
her little girl again.
She brushes my hair
braids my hair
gentle soothing
healing hands.
I fall asleep,
wake to the nurse
noticing neat braids
my brushed hair:
I'm human again.
The childish style
sculpted by
my mother's hands
has brought forth
a trace of the woman
I was last week.


October 1989 Southern Rose Review

Chincotique by Anne Selden [Annab]

Chincotique

Chincotique's most pleasant path
is the one in my mind
as I close my eyes to sleep.
Thoughts drift through with leisure
as half dreaming I think
of the sunset in the marsh tonight-
Birds wading, drifting, floating
anything bluish will do.
Then the sky starts to simmer
the marsh starts to burn
with all the sunset hues.
The edges are the inside
of an oyster shell.
Blue turns to pearlish pastels
then simmers into the sunset.
Red and orange mingling
clouds and pools and ponds,
even the sea, reflect
the sun's last hues
as she disappears.
"one more wildflower"
she whispers
"before I go... one last bloom".
and she blossoms all over
into everything.

My barefeet feel the sand,
still warm
the ocean din grows louder.
I watch the whitecaps
like gulls
dissolving into spray.

And your moon Moon comes out
such a full moon
so close to this earth of ours
reminding me...

And slipping asleep
I see ponies, grazing.
One looks up at me
with kind eyes.
The sea breeze
is in my hair
in the pony's mane,
threads of thought
spun from pure air
and strolling
through a wildlife refuge.



October 1989 Southern Rose Review

Airmail by Anne Selden [Annab]

Airmail

Your words,
softly scrawled,
crept up to my lips
and kissed me.

There you were
with me again
in my arms again,
enveloped.



Wide Open Magazine- Winter Issue 1990

Haze by Anne Selden [Annab]

Haze

A misty haze
is solid to sight-
my eyes try to penetrate
with all their might.

As I, without thinking, walk
through its allusive form,
watching my wall of white
in the haze's pliant swarm.


September 1989 Dreams- Anthology; poetry Unlimited

Bonsai by Anne Selden [Annab]

Bonsai

A little grove-
pines in moss
on a rock
flecked with crystal;
a score of growth
painstakingly pinched into place

by a mind
imagining...

A diminutive kingdom.

My eyes stroll
through the shade
expecting a Monarch
to grace this enchanted glade.


September 1989 Moments of Memory- Anthology; Publications Press

Angled Purpose by Anne Selden Annab

Angled Purpose

We are, all together,
perfection;
the scheme of reach
within the winter tree
as every twig
turns,
rounds out the tree's shape
with angled purpose.

Come summer
all you'll see
is a smooth mass
of greenery.


August 1989 Images- Anthology; Poetry Press

Preservation by Anne Selden [Annab]

Preservation

I am here
face upward
to the wind,
sun splashed shadows
form a sphere
a ring arround me
a bright bubble

and away I'll rise
escaping
into amber eyes.


Pegasus- Anthology; Mile High Poetry Society, Sept '89

Perimeters by Anne Selden Annab

Perimeters

The kaleidoscope shifts
fragments regroup
the impression changes
with a nudge or a swoop.

All these bits of color
contained in bits of shape
... constant reconstruction
is their only channel of escape.




August 1989 Stairway To The Mind- Anthology; JMW Publishing

Implosions by Anne Selden [Annab]

Implosions


Out of blackness
I bloom
great bursts
of blue-yellow-red
green
every mood
of wildflower chewed
by grazing sheep
let illusions leap
and fusions reap
reality.





August 1989 Stairway To The Mind- Anthology; JMW Publishing

Saturation by Anne Selden [Annab]

Saturation

Blue ink
come spill stories
from my heart:
come draw my pulse
into a letter's shape.
Like a strummed guitar
vibrate
into sound.
Blue ink
be my breath
exhaled.


May 1989 Windows On The World- Anthology; National Lib. of Poetry

Omniscience Esoteric Existentialism by Anne Selden [Annab]

Omniscience Esoteric Existentialism

There's an urge
in art,
depart into the bizarre-
impact of image
swelled with symbolic suggestion
somehow disconnected
into the meanful.
Like, if we don't understand-
it's profound...
Abstract impressions
falling into a place between thought
pulling us into a voidish state
the brink of conclusion
aware that some urge
has somehow
been stroked
and satisfied

It's easier you know
not to.



May 1989 RSVP Writers Exchange- honorable mention & blue bic pen

Wind Chimes by Anne Selden [Annab]

Wind Chimes

Wind Chimes
ringing in the breeze,
whirling with
the rustling trees.

Shimmering notes
sailing in sound
holding the world
gently spellbound.


May 1989 American Poetry Annual Anthology; Amherst Society

Sound Through Darkness by Anne Selden [Annab]

Sound Through Darkness


It's a soft, dark
night.
Cars slid past
like coins
in a coffe machine.
One by one
they drop-
sound through darkness,
I listen;
it's a lullabye,
and each drone
is a dream.


April 1989 Living Stones- Anthology; Fine Arts Poetry Forum

Waking by Anne Selden Annab

Waking

Waking
body by body
breathing
two of us
breath by breath
thought by thought
inching towards consciousness
arms reaching around warmth
aware of where
we are
lingering.


April 1989 Heartsong- Anthology; Southern Rose Productions- merit awards

Skyline Drive by Anne Selden [Annab]

Skyline Drive

Winding up
a thread of road
that's been woven
through
the woods-
the Blue Ridge
has turned to trees,
lushly green.
A magic doe,
her fur the color
of a fallen leaf,
nibbles foliage.
She looks up,
blinking brown eyes.
The shutter snips a shot
as I cut images
out of endless curves
that curl catching
twigs trembling
with a bird's release
and leaves
swilled with light
shadows splash
deeper, as we drive
and the road rims
Blue ridges
turned to trees.


March 1989 The Lighthouse magazine

The Candlelight Service by Anne Selden [Annab]

The Candlelight Service

Every spark
ignites me.
Each candle
reflecting round the pool.
Each open face
I see.
We've carried the flame
it's in our eyes.
It glows beneath our skin.
Its in calm voices...
I can feel myself
ripple in the growing wave
filled with lights
lifting and shimmering
see the stars
so many shine
such strength
inspiration.


March 1989 The Lighthouse magazine

Precious Stone by Anne Selden Annb

Precious Stone

Diamond dally
with light:
edges ignite
the ice into
nuance construe
prismatic shift
to lift flashing:
Zeus on my finger
light linger
to cast iridescent-
darts blaze...
Come alive Olympus !
in metamorphic displays.


March 1989 The Lighthouse magazine

Lifted by Anne Selden [Annab]

Lifted

The wind, so warm,
as if a breath-
but no kiss,
no soft lips on mine.
No fingers in my hair
while it's lifted, lightly
as if a lover would.


3-1989 The Lighthouse magazine

Song Of David by Anne Selden [Annab]

Song Of David

I went down by the river
and danced
to the song of David.
It was twilight.
The magic hour
when the sun and the moon
exchange beams.
The sky was a slow
swirling spectrum.
I wore white,
a full skirt made fuller
with a ruffled slip
that wove my movements
into the wind.
Such a warm wind,
and beams from both
the sun and moon
washed through my dress
making it whiter,
washed through my limbs
making them lighter
as I flushed
and glowed
and danced.


March 1989 The Lighthouse magazine

Twilight by Anne Selden Annab

Twilight

The cats gather
tensely
leaning
towards
the bird's cage.

The bird
cracks open seed,
one by one,
and drops the shells,
two by two.

The cats grow bold.
One creeps up quite close
to the cage,
lip licking,
puts up his paw
prepared to seize

but the bird is free.



March 1989 The Lighthouse magazine

Surfaces by Anne Selden Annab

Surfaces

In a mirror-
cold flesh
hard eyes-
soft hair is steel
my fingertips feel
smooth.



March 1989 The Lighthouse magazine

To Be A Sunset by Anne Selden [Annab]

To Be A Sunset

I hope someday
to be a sunset...
A splendid spilling
of each incredible color
that's contained within light.
Caught by every cloud
every lake
every puddle.
I'll go down
with all the majesty
that I've absorbed
throughout my day.
All the beauty
that I've encouraged
with my warmth.
I hope someday
to be a sunset-
at twilight
along the river's edge.


2- 1989 Christian Poetry Anthology; Spiritual Quest Publishing

Tethered by Anne Selden [Annab]

Tethered

Tethered
by trembling
thoughts.
I stroke the string.
I know it'll sing-
A note swells
from one wisp
to a million twined
and twisted
round and round
I am bound.



January 1989 World of Poetry- honorable mention

In Tempo by Anne Selden [Annab]

In Tempo

The clock by my bed
has a steady snap,
a cluck-
each second stroked
with sound,
like lashes in a blink.
It's measure meets me,
a metronome
for a bird outside
whose notes sweep
round and round.
Occasionally identical-
bird and clock and pulse
peep once in unison
then flit away
flirting
like lashes in a blink.



1988 Poetic Voices of America; Sparrowgrass Forum 10$ prize

Roles by Anne Selden [Annab]

Roles

Roles
haven't wrapped
around me, yet...

No slipping
into
something sure.

I seem to dress
untouched
by clothes;

Although costumes
have
allure.


December 1987 World of Poetry- honorable mention

Laurels by Anne Selden [Annab]

Laurels

It's all in attitude
and I'm about to soar-
Hear this Lion roar!

I am of the jungle,
Touch my tangled mane
feel the tendrils of my reign:

Everything that once made me flinch
invigorates my clinch
for I've turned it all around
and let the tangles become my crown



1989 My Heart Sings- Anthology; Literary Pathways

Tresses by Anne Selden [Annab]

Tresses

Time is only moments
movements in thought:
Each shaft of hair
is near to naught-
each but a wisp
beside anouther, caught
to cascade into tresses
such kind carresses
to my cheek.



1987 Creative Enterprizes- Anthology

Phosphorescence by Anne Selden [Annab]

Phosphorescence

There's an owl outside my window-
I live in the city
his hoot takes me home
to the woods.
I'm naked as a nymph
following that sound
as sunlight seeps into my skin
I am like a leaf
filled with phosophoriscence.

A naked child-
my clothes wiggle on the branches
of a tree...
They've been emptied of me:
My bare feet
take me much farther
than any shoe can possibly go..

Each step feels the moist ground
leaves, moss, twigs
a stream to splash in
then let the cold water drip
on to a warm rock.

Last week I heard that owl
for the first time in ages
I was in the church offices
Why does he call me
after all these years,

and lead me back home
into the woods.

I am a leaf
filled with phosphorescence

A naked child
growing into a woman

listening
to an owl.



1987 Pinewood Poetry

Of the Earth by Anne Selden [Annab]

Of the Earth

I am of the earth
spinning through space:
a mountain of rock,
and a sprig of Queen Ann's Lace.

So strong I bend-
break into sand-
stem snaps, sap spills
as sky becomes land.



1987 Todays Modern Poetry- Anthology; American Press

A Love Poem by Anne Selden [Annab]

A Love Poem

Old soul, ancient tree
Are you aware of me?
Am I like an insect
antennae fingers to inspect
the textures of your form.

Would you reach down
branches sweep to the ground
to gather me into you
if time would allow you to
bend and hold me back.



1987 World of Poetry- honorable mention

Searching by Anne Selden [Annab]

Searching (retitled- Aglow)

Searching for symbols
in all that I see
substance in the shapes
deemed as reality.

I'll sculpt myself
far beyond stone
flesh is firm
and blood provides tones.

But its my thoughts- aglow
that shape this quivering embryo.



July 1987 Chasing Rainbows- Anthology; Quill Books

Floating by Anne Selden [Annab]

Floating

I go to the river
step through the snow,
footprints to the edge
where I let myself go.

Wind washes my face
plays in my hair
lifts my thoughts
I am everywhere.

Sipping strength,
my eyes drink...
Such euphoria fills me
on the river's brink.



June 1987 Modern Poetry Treasury; Quill Books

Tacturnicity by Anne Selden [Annab]

Tacturnicity

This silly wooden floor
that I walk upon
erases every path I've drawn.
Never minds when I walk out.
Never minds if I'm about.
This silly wooden floor
that I walk upon,
plank by plank, like piano keys-
but my footsteps find no harmonies.
Plank by plank, this silly floor
is all I have, here, to explore
and warm flesh needs, at least, a little more.



1987 Poetic Voices of America- Sparrowgrass Publishing

Growing by Anne Selden [Annab]

Growing

The sun's in some grass
growing
glowing green.

The sun's up
in the leaves of a tree
growing
glowing green.

The sun's
in a seed
inside the warm soil,
dark brown
growing
glowing green.



May 1987 Alive for Young Teens; Christian Brd of Publication

The Answer by Anne Selden [Annab]

The Answer

The answer's in a shard of glass
lying by the road;
a sparkle in the gravel
signaling some code.

The question's in my hazel eyes
as I walk along the brim-
that sparkle so unexpected,
so absorbed in him.


1987 World of Poetry- honorable mention

The Tree Dance by Anne Selden [Annab]

The Tree Dance

A winter blue sky
silloettes the tangled trees
as they spin so slowly
they seem to be still.

But their fluent branch-hair
gives away the scheme
twisting and twirled
they dance in a dream.


1986 World of Poetry- honorable mention

Mercury's Song by Anne Selden [Annab]

Mercury's Song

The ear quivers
unaccustomed to tones
so exquisite.

Sound leads
my senses...

I sail
words are just shapes
like ships filled with gold,
cruising Bermuda blue seas.

I'd ask you to dance
but can one dance with a breeze.


1886 Illusions- Anthology; Quill Books

3:15 by Anne Selden [Annab]

3:15

I am Magic-

a trick
of time and space,
a sculpted face
with eyes that see
some conjured up

reality.

The Circle by Anne Selden [Annab]

The Circle

The circle
sinks inside
as my mind
meets...
skimming & skipping
round and round
we are one
a channel
charging
round and round

infinity.


September 1984 American Poetry Anthology

Barefoot by Anne Selden [Annab]

Barefoot

I'd like to walk
barefoot
on the moon,
to swoon through
dunes of silver dust swirling
twirling
round my curling
toes.

1984 World of Poetry Anthology

To Reach by Anne Selden [Annab]

To Reach

I began to reach
and you took my hand.
Your touch flowed through me-
I felt it enter and expand.

It was a touch of love,
gentle and strong
and it just kept growing
as it swept me along.

1984 My Heart Belongs to You- Anthology; P & S Publishing

If Only by Anne Selden [Annab]

If Only

If only
keeps creeping
up and into
all that I do.

If only this
if only that;
if only I had wings
(I'd be a gnat).

JULY 1984 Odes To A Cockroach- humorous magazine

Rhyme by Anne Selden [Annab]

Rhyme

Through out time
the rhyme,
of what was once when
and is almost again,
shall always be-
never quite free
enough to escape.


1983 PA Poetry Society; Kesner Poets, 4th prize

The Susquehanna by Anne Selden [Annab]

The Susquehanna

The river's water-
so much the same,
as always.

The sun swims
in its ripples-
so much the same,
as always; and yet

if I
could trace
a drop.


1984 PA Poetry Society; Kesner poets, certificate of merit

Flowers

1980 World of Poetry

Sleeper's Descent by Anne Selden [Annab]

Sleeper's Descent

Oh Evelyn, dutiful dutchess of dreams
among the queen's lace on a silver night
the will of the roses has taken to flight
as she alludes on silver-light beams
and climbs, climbs, climbs, climbs- down:
through the dusks of long lost castles
forever seeking her long lost crown.
and down, down, down, down she flows
rousing the rats in the dungeons
till they scatter & scurry, giving way
to the princess fair and fond
bearing a lantern lite with eternal day
and the moon sings softly
to those who pray.

1977 American Collegiate Poets Anthology

The Rooster By Anne Selden Yellott [ANNAB]

The Rooster
By Anne Selden Yellott

September tumbled away
into march-
the inbetween frooze
and was chipped into icecubes
for a massive cocktail
on the rocks

Published in the Patriot News 1976

Bloom by Anne Selden Annab


Bloom

Sight
and sound
and touch and taste
awaken bloom
as Spring
is plucked up
by fluffed white clouds
refracting light to spin
into a multitude of brightly
colored threads… patterns
tightly interlaced by
the warp and woof
of nature's busy loom.


* PUBLISHED
Birds & Blooms (Beauty in your own backyard) Feb/March 2009

Blending by Anne Selden Annab

Your Ocean Poems

Wed, 05/04/2011 - 5:15pm

....Blending

One ocean
oscillates
with a billion shores
splashed
in zillions of ways...

I walk firmly on one
wet beach
following tide lines
salt air in my curling hair
evaporating

- Anne Selden Annab

Aspens By Anne Selden Annab

CSMonitor

Aspens

By Anne Selden Annab / October 16, 2002

Gold
coins
dangle
in the
dancer's
arabesque
shimmer
jeweled
wrists
with
bright
brisk
breeze:
tease
twilight
into dawn.

.

Orthodocks by Anne Selden Annab

The Web Poetry Corner

Orthodocks
by Anne Selden Annab

Shagspere made upwards

not just spells
but the words them selves!
Imagein
living in an age
where you could (should, might)
right
with out the rife of rules
witch fools us into
err go
I can rite.

.

Genetics by Anne Selden Annab

Genetics
by Anne Selden Annab

She is a medley

of a million years:
Remnants and reams
of galaxies
flit through her face
deserts and caves
and forests and lakes
sand and sea and sky...
All entwine together
into a glance.


.