{"id":404,"date":"2018-09-26T04:03:33","date_gmt":"2018-09-26T04:03:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/?p=404"},"modified":"2018-08-20T04:06:55","modified_gmt":"2018-08-20T04:06:55","slug":"poetry-by-leslie-dianne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/2018\/09\/26\/poetry-by-leslie-dianne\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetry by Leslie Dianne"},"content":{"rendered":"
Leslie McGriff (Leslie Dianne) is a poet, novelist, screenwriter, playwright and performer whose work has been acclaimed internationally in places such as the Harrogate Fringe Festival in Great Britain, The International Arts Festival in Tuscany, Italy and at La Mama, ETC in New York City. Her stage plays have been produced in NYC at The American Theater of Actors, The Raw Space, The Puerto Rican Traveling Theater and The Lamb’s Theater. Her screenplay, Strivers Row, was chosen as a finalist in the Urban World Screenwriting Competition. She holds a BA in French Literature and is currently working on a collection of poetry.<\/em><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

I Try To Separate<\/h3>\n

I try to separate
\nthe faces of the
\nfamilies, friends
\nand strangers
\npressed against
\neach other
\noutside the station
\ntrying to enter
\nI cannot distinguish
\none pair of black
\neyes from the other
\nI cannot tell
\nthe shape of one head
\nfrom the one next to it
\nI cannot tell
\nthe gnarled leg of
\nthe rickshaw driver
\nfrom the twisted hand
\nof the field worker
\nI have trouble
\nseeing which bare feet
\ngo with which
\nbony knee
\nI move through all of you
\nbrownskinned and foreign
\nI am visiting your planet
\nlike a meteor crashing
\nlost in the swarm
\nof cardboard suitcases,
\ntoddlers, thick heels
\nshuffling in cheap flip flops
\nno way
\nto know where
\nto go until an eager teenage boy
\nguessing at my language
\nsits by my side
\nand says hello
\nand an entire
\ntrain station moves close
\nto hear my destination
\nand help me
\non my way
\ntomorrow Shanghai
\nanother train station
\nand another hello boy<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

October<\/h3>\n

It would happen in October
\nthe fortune teller said
\nwhen the leaves
\nlose themselves
\nand pretend to be
\nsomething else
\ngather their rust and brown
\ninto clumps of defiance
\nto fight the cold
\nthey believe that their green
\nwill not survive
\nthey believe that they must
\nchange their color
\nin order to bend
\nwith the wind
\nthe frost
\nthe snow
\nthe too harsh rain
\nbut it is not true
\nthat they have to fight
\nthey can ease into the
\nnext season
\nrelease their hold
\non the branch like
\nthe fortune teller
\nsaid I would
\nrelease my hold on
\nyou, let go and
\nbegin the dark
\nbeginning that
\nwould guide
\nme to the truth<\/p>\n

There is more me
\nwithout
\nyou<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On a Sicilian Beach in Milazzo<\/h3>\n

On this rocky beach
\na thousand pebbles
\nwashed white by the waves
\nare stamped with the memories
\nof distant soldiers marching
\npressing their weight
\ninto the earth after having
\nwhipped the sea<\/p>\n

they are ghosts
\nhere beside us
\nAl Kalbi\u2019s sons
\nmarching on this
\nbeach of Bal\u2019harm<\/p>\n

their Moorish sweat
\ntravels in the mist
\nthat conceals the shapes
\nof dozens of African ships<\/p>\n

you offer your brown jacket
\nand on this spot
\nwhere you insist
\nwe stop
\nand kiss
\nhistory watches us
\nfall in love<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leslie McGriff (Leslie Dianne) is a poet, novelist, screenwriter, playwright and performer whose work has been acclaimed internationally in places such as the Harrogate Fringe Festival in Great Britain, The International Arts Festival in Tuscany, Italy and at La Mama, ETC in New York City. Her stage plays have been produced in NYC at The … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa867U-6w","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":407,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404\/revisions\/407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}