Poets and Poems - Helen Losse

Voices


I want to eat ambrosia,

dine with the gods. Dance.


Seraphim at the gate, velvet-winged.

“A plea is not a call,” says the tallest angel.

“One should not taste of success too soon.”


“Yes. Wait’s a word to ride the wind,”

says another. “And who will know the

mind of God?”


A celestial chorus in a quick response.

And I, reaching upward, raise uplifted palms.

A spurt of boldness: Each—in its own way.


The voices fade, and things I reach for seem too far.

Then just as silence slices through morning,

heaven’s jagged edge cuts my finger to the bone.

Helen Losse is the author of Better With Friends (Rank Stranger Press, 2009) and two chapbooks, Gathering the Broken Pieces and Paper Snowflakes and the Poetry Editor of The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. Her recent poetry publications and acceptances include Shape of a Box, Right Hand Pointing, Hobble Creek Review, The Wild Goose Review, and Blue Fifth Review. Educated at Missouri Southern State and Wake Forest Universities, she lives in Winston-Salem, NC.

Helen will be reading from and signing copies of Better With Friends 7:30 tonight in Room 204 of the Z Smith Reynolds Library at Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, NC). Please drop by and see Helen, if you are in the area.

88.5 WFDD radio interviewed Helen recently. An mp3 of the interview is available here.