Roll With The Changes.org

from
PERHAPS YOU COULD BREATHE FOR ME

PRAISE

Say prayers where it is dark, unfathomed, unworthy. 

Whisper them in a quiet, desperate voice

as if—instead of God—you were talking to a scientifically-tuned stranger. 

Say the prayer of the gap-toothed man

who touched the stripper’s shoe, knowing—if caught—

the bouncer would have him shaking blood from his hair like a dog emerging from a lake. 

In any case, that would be the prayer to say.  It will not,

cannot keep you from dying,

but may give you enough time

to stop cringing, perhaps change direction, change the color of your body,

learn to give off some kind of light the way animals do,

the way birds do when they check under each wing then

praise, full-voiced, their ability to fly through the great skies.

"Many people say they don’t get poetry, but what they don’t get is that their own interior dialogue. Poetry is a natural way to make sense of things. Newberry’s work throws open a window on this truth. When you read her poems you understand that you yourself are a poet, that poetry is going on in your mind all the time."
Djelloul Marbrook, Winner of the Kent State Poetry Prize 2008

  “…a compelling story telling style reminiscent of Robert Frost, the enigmatic brilliance of Emily Dickinson and the working class insights of the great singer-poet John Prine…”
Saul Landau, internationally-known scholar, author, commentator, and filmmaker

"Whether playful or sad, boisterous or tender, Martina Newberry's poems always feel like affirmations--heartfelt, and hard-won."
Lawrence Raab author of What We Don’t Know About Each Other
Winner of the National Book Award