Margaret Saine was born in Germany and currently lives in Southern California. She writes poetry, haiku, and short stories in five languages, also translating other poets in those languages. Her books are “Bodyscapes,” “Words of Art,” 5 haiku chapbooks, plus the mss. “Awkward Child” (in German, to be published), “The Five Senses,” “Lo efímero queda” and “Reading Your Lips” (tbp). Her poetry has also been published in Italy, Germany, and India, as well as on the internet.
WRITING ON WATER
After I beat the ink to pieces
on the tablet
I drop the letters
on the watery sheet
one by one
I write myself on water
spread myself on the surface
see bleeding shadows descend
waving and wafting
deep into the water world
becoming algae and fish
creatures of water
released from my mind
setting out on a life
of a watery freedom
on their own
forming of my words
underwater gardens
becoming
a part of nature
SHARING MOLECULES
We shall try
our watery best
and we shall trust it
We shall have
our watery best
when we are flowing
into each other
My body no longer mine
belongs to another
to you
to the being
called us
Bodies for each other
free for the taking
–for we are free–
Eating and kneading
–needing–
each another like bread
Our own won bodies
stir in a hunger
we feel
commingled molecules
pangs of fervid joy
with each stroke
the joy of becoming
We shall have again
our watery times
our watery selves
when we are flowing
into each other
NERVE OF LIFE
Water
when the blood boils
Water
when ripe dreams rip life
devour it
rein it in
in their riverbed
like barbed wire
When waking hours
corrode the nerve of life
the liquid river will
renew its glistening flow
We are a world in flux
our raft is life
Fiery volcano
convulsions
end dissolved
resolved in the sea
*****