Diamond in the rough

Poems by Tara Rudd

DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH

"A diamond in the rough"

They wanted to polish up and shine –

but she’s a salt stack, not a jewel,

the Himalayan type.

We want to shinify the grit

but in real life salt stings;

it doesn't protect you from the fall,

It protects you from fall-ing.

We can't all be rounded boulders;

let life glint with lava shards!

Dangerous and different,

they scatter the earth

like excited eyes,

unbuffered, awaiting the

blazing elegance

inside us all.

NEW STRINGS

If it’s laced with beauty let’s fight harder than ever to see it.

Don’t get bound up – panic, ‘productivity’, spiral

cause then you freeze.

Even if it’s into nothingness,

don’t pressure ‘now is my time’

it doesn’t matter;

if you can take the hit, take the hit

don’t be selfish

relax and swoon yourself in.

When the spider weaves her home

do you think she’s got headspace,

to stew over a million other things?

No, edge to edge she winds,

and if some human comes sticks their fist in it

or a ferocious feather duster

she’ll start again.

She’ll stack some different dewy diamonds

– ah opportunity for new bling! –

that otherwise she wouldn’t have seen.

Water is the new currency,

soft and strong,

where the power’s always been.

Let’s create something from the back of this

our own new sticky strings,

a new globe of hexagonal heartfulness

that in every corner

ALL droplets of humanity can sing.

KEEP YOUR ART

Keep your Art

You never know when you might need it;

We wear masks now

but let’s keep our hearts on our sleeves.

How long can we keep laughing?

Petition after petition in the online ring.

Everything’s laced with a new meaning of beauty –

or is it irony.

One day we’ll be writing about these times

How we never saw it coming, or did.

I don’t know whether to cry or sing.

7 millions jobs lost overnight

Whole industries caved in –

but what’s really beautiful is that we’ll never forget

the last person we hugged,

or that the last meal out was a momo served

by a gloved hand

in the spring of Covid 19.

We’ll get through this.

INNER SOLDIERS

Gather

the inner soldiers

in your heart

your bread & blood army

ready

to cannon fire

system

blast.