Rosaly DeMaios Roffman
 |
| |
Rosaly DeMaios Roffman teaches and directs a Myth/Folklore Studies Center at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Co-editor of Life on the Line and author of Going to Bed Whole, Tottering Palaces and The Approximate Message, she has collaborated on ten pieces with composers, musicians and dance/theater companies. She’s the recipient of National Endowment Grants and a Distinguished Faculty in the Arts award. She has published in journals, magazines and anthologies and read her poems on a 1997 BBC production entitled the “Wild and the Sacred.”
The Grace of Invention
Where inventions come from
is one holy place.
Inventing car-energy
and light and planes is holy.
The kindness of the man
who invented little pins is holy.
And whoever thought of flutes,
and writing down notes for more music
is holy. Be careful when you joke
about levitation and lifting off
from your body,, that’s holy.
The Chinese have known for centuries
which peaches and brushes are holy
and breezes through the banyans are holy
as is one man’s wisdom of numbers,
and the pleasures of coming down rain,
Just thinking of what is holy is holy.
Where inventions come from
is one holy place.
Inventing car-energy
and light and planes is holy.
The kindness of the man
who invented little pins is holy.
And whoever thought of flutes,
and writing down notes for more music
is holy. Be careful when you joke
about levitation and lifting off
from your body,, that’s holy.
The Chinese have known for centuries
which peaches and brushes are holy
and breezes through the banyans are holy
as is one man’s wisdom of numbers,
and the pleasures of coming down rain,
Just thinking of what is holy is holy.
The Professor Watches the
Male Nurse
You wear your ice mitts like a prizefighter
and kneel as if in prayer, cradling those packs
around his feet. You turn him over in bed,
feed him his eggs with all the sureness that comes
from drinking with the men in Tanoma
before they sewed up that old mine—-
those buddies whose language was fouls and runs
all of them volunteers in Viet Nam, all of their sons
stiff football players, driving reluctantly now
to a university some people consider the enemy
But the sureness of the I-V needle
like an ancestral pickaxe in the rock
startles even you, lets your eyes meet his
while you change the bag for him, give him
a sip of water, and without speaking,
take away his diapers- yes, startles even you
new to holding men, and rocking this one
till he went under- startles even you
who worked beneath the earth Eke him
and came up all black and proud once
Oh, I want to tell you as I stand by this door
that every Greek hero had permission to do this—
-to find his sacred womanhood without making speeches
And I am on my knees
to you whose name I don’t know
and to those great gods
who wouldn’t have any of that
DID YOU EVER SEE A GROWN MAN CRY nonsense
You wear your ice mitts like a prizefighter
and kneel as if in prayer, cradling those packs
around his feet. You turn him over in bed,
feed him his eggs with all the sureness that comes
from drinking with the men in Tanoma
before they sewed up that old mine—-
those buddies whose language was fouls and runs
all of them volunteers in Viet Nam, all of their sons
stiff football players, driving reluctantly now
to a university some people consider the enemy
But the sureness of the I-V needle
like an ancestral pickaxe in the rock
startles even you, lets your eyes meet his
while you change the bag for him, give him
a sip of water, and without speaking,
take away his diapers- yes, startles even you
new to holding men, and rocking this one
till he went under- startles even you
who worked beneath the earth Eke him
and came up all black and proud once
Oh, I want to tell you as I stand by this door
that every Greek hero had permission to do this—
-to find his sacred womanhood without making speeches
And I am on my knees
to you whose name I don’t know
and to those great gods
who wouldn’t have any of that
DID YOU EVER SEE A GROWN MAN CRY nonsense
Collaboration
My friend told me his little girl
is reading to him in Gibsonia-she is five
and reciting whole books of 3 letter words
Myth again, the magic of three
I told him I would get into the act
get and act-1 would try to write
a small one for her, a 3 letter word book
while waiting for my voice to return
from the unspeakable, can I do this
can I do anything, everything seeming unseemly
and could one dancer I have to meet tomorrow
dance this piece, could we— she and I with work
arrange a story, start the world again with bee
or could we start over with green pea
or catand have a world with a blue light lit
could we have toe and try and tin
Could try become rub and could we rub
into man and toy and nap what is worthy
what is worthy and then go on to 4 letters
4 letters—teach kind, teach kind
with hurt and deal and move
Could we make a place for safe
a safe children of the world place
I can only ask the sages and gods
to help, to take us past death, past the voice
past the dance, and for little hands holding a book
please take us beyond raw and win and now
My friend told me his little girl
is reading to him in Gibsonia-she is five
and reciting whole books of 3 letter words
Myth again, the magic of three
I told him I would get into the act
get and act-1 would try to write
a small one for her, a 3 letter word book
while waiting for my voice to return
from the unspeakable, can I do this
can I do anything, everything seeming unseemly
and could one dancer I have to meet tomorrow
dance this piece, could we— she and I with work
arrange a story, start the world again with bee
or could we start over with green pea
or catand have a world with a blue light lit
could we have toe and try and tin
Could try become rub and could we rub
into man and toy and nap what is worthy
what is worthy and then go on to 4 letters
4 letters—teach kind, teach kind
with hurt and deal and move
Could we make a place for safe
a safe children of the world place
I can only ask the sages and gods
to help, to take us past death, past the voice
past the dance, and for little hands holding a book
please take us beyond raw and win and now
