MARIANNE PEEL
★ ★ ★ ★
POETRY
Image by Michael Krahn
I Played Among the Talking Trees
Their words notes on a rosewood marimba
stretching four octaves. Language rooted in roots.
One tree showed me how her leaves were the double reed
of the bassoon, vibrating one against the other.
Another revealed how her tulip flowers
contained the bell of the French Horn.
But another whispered how she kept her secrets
in the knothole at the base of her spine.
She invited me in, lifting me into the pulp of her symphony.
I curled into this forest womb, spiraling in on myself.
Long into the night, she whispered
her secrets to me. Etudes on vines. Sonatas in buds.
In the morning, I woke open-throated, pulsing with breath,
singing arias I learned in my sleep.
After having taught middle and high school English for 32 years, Marianne Peel is now nurturing her own creative spirit. She has spent three summers in Guizhou Province, teaching best practices to teachers in China. She received Fulbright-Hays Awards to Nepal (2003) and Turkey (2009). Marianne participated in Marge Piercy’s Juried Intensive Poetry Workshop (2016). Marianne’s poetry appears in Muddy River Poetry Review, Nauguatuk River Review, Belle Reve Literary Journal, Jelly Bucket Journal, Gyroscope Review, among others. She has a collection of poetry forthcoming in 2021 from Shadelandhouse Modern Press.
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