Playing, Agnes Martin, 1993-1994
The gray strip under clouds plays with you
becomes darker and wider as it descends
comes on faster than you want
even though you are tired of watering the garden
want a relief from the obligation to nurture
want the rush to first snow
that will cover your faults and the heaviness
of fruit that weighed you down
brought you to your knees
still with a chance of seedlings in spring.
Kyle Laws read and responded to the psalms during her studies of contemplative prayer in the Benedictine tradition in monasteries in Colorado and New Mexico. A number of the poems were published as Going into Exile, a chapbook supplement to the journal Abbey. Other collections include Ride the Pink Horse (Stubborn Mule Press), Faces of Fishing Creek (Middle Creek Publishing), So Bright to Blind (Five Oaks Press), and Wildwood (Lummox Press).
