{"id":3125,"date":"2024-11-18T05:19:38","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T05:19:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/vice-versa\/?page_id=3125"},"modified":"2024-11-29T05:28:38","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T05:28:38","slug":"wendi-white","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/vice-versa\/wendi-white\/","title":{"rendered":"Wendi White"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Three Poems<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holding Vigil<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u02bbll stick with being human
even if it means shivering
in an almost empty sanctuary
while rain thunders the roof
wind sweeps the pews
but the candle on the altar
refuses to go out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u02bbs Pentecost and we pray
lightning will strike our hearts
fire will cleanse our minds
and send us into the world
to blaze a path of peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I find solace knowing
such revelation will never come
through VR goggles or Chat GPT.
You could ask Siri to compose
a prayer for the children of Gaza
and Israel nursing on fear,
but what effect would that have
beyond the screen where joy
and grief, wonder and horror
whirl in currents able to spare
a single votive’s flame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long Division<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Where did the split begin?
Was it in air as glass shattered
and wings tore steel? Or was it
on the street below as thousands
raised their hands skyward as if
they could avert the towers\u2019 fall?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps it began as the first lash
of wind whipped the skin
of Ponchatrain and the Ninth Ward
filled with water and emptied of people:
some pulled from rooftops,
some rescued by boats bobbing
above their windows, others
retrieved after the storm.
They were found face down,
spinning in a flooded overpass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I suspect it was much earlier:
when Cortez toppled Teotihuacan,
when Magellan raised his cross in Cebu,
when Smith surveyed the James,
when Cook kidnapped Kalani\u02bb\u014dpu\u2019u.
Whatever moment broke us
from the One Tree\u2019s trunk, sent us
branching toward oblivion. May we
change our course once more:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

stretch toward daybreak,
bend toward tumbling stream,
sink ourselves back into soil so
we might withstand the storms
we\u02bbve summoned.
<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Washing of Feet<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My garden where life
delights in life will be lonely
if lizards leave the stones
for cooler climes and birds
abandon Mango\u02bbs canopy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the final leaf has fallen,
the orange cat will choose another
spot to lick her paws in shade.
Without \u02bbilima blossoms,
the butterflies will flutter off.
And what will be the point
of tending flower beds gone hard?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So much depends upon ridgetop rain
making its long descent into the pu\u02bbuwai,
the pumping heart of O\u02bbahu. Filling
her form until water springs up
between H\u0101l\u0101 roots to bathe our feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Wendi White<\/a>, raised in the Adirondack mountains, is a poet and educator now musing among the geckoes and ginger scented ridges of O\u02bbahu. She earned her MFA from Old Dominion University’s Creative Writing Program in Virginia\u00a0and was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her first collection of poems, Turtle Island Rising,<\/em> is forthcoming. When not at her writing desk, she advises students from across the Asia-Pacific region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three Poems Holding Vigil I\u02bbll stick with being humaneven if it means shiveringin an almost empty sanctuarywhile rain thunders the roofwind sweeps the pewsbut the candle on the altarrefuses to go out. It\u02bbs Pentecost and we praylightning will strike our heartsfire will cleanse our mindsand send us into the worldto blaze a path of peace. … <\/p>\n

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