Elizabeth Kirkpatrick-Vrenios

We Know a Thing bu its Hunger

                         after “Lake George Reflection” by Georgia O’Keefe   (1921-22)

What seems                            an empty scene                     
is in fact                                  a whistle                                 
in the valley                            a cry to reseed                       
to leaf                                     to bloom

It is in fact                               a tremor
in a fire- collared                     morning
comprised of                           past and future
an open wound                       of womb
an echo to                               reflect
a form                                     yet formless

a dawn                                    of semen
to stamen                                to vulva
it is in fact                               a cry to fly
splitting                                   the sky
towards                                   morning
towards                                   creation

Elizabeth Kirkpatrick-Vrenios' award-winning chapbook, Special Delivery, was published in 2016, and her second, Empty the Ocean with a Thimble by Word Tech Communications.  Twice nominated for a pushcart prize, she has poems published in various anthologies and journals including Stories of Music, The Poeming Pigeon, Love Notes from Humanity, Stories of Music, American Journal of Poetry, Cumberland River Review, The Feminine Collective, The Kentucky Review, Unsplendid, Edison Literary review, Passager, and NILVX. She is a Professor Emerita from American University, artistic director of the Redwoods Opera in Mendocino, California, a member of international Who’s Who of Musicians, and has spent much of her life performing as a singing artist across Europe and the United States.