Perie Longo
photo by Rick Carter

Poetry Therapy

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A Widow Discovers Her Tires Are Bald When the “Check Engine” Light Comes On

Thirst: Kuwait Poetry Workshop

What I Forgot to Write

Fishing With My Father

What We Live For...

Peanut Butter

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Playing Crash

"Ish"

Dedication (Douglas Family Preserve)

"What Do Women Want?"

Biography

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Marriage & Family Therapist | Registered Poetry Therapist | Poet

Baggage Claim, WordTech Editions 2014 ($18), The Privacy of Wind ($10) and With Nothing Behind But Sky: A journey through grief ($12) can be ordered directly from Perie.
To order, contact her at perie(at)west(dot)net, visit Amazon.com, or phone her at 805-687-1619.

"What Do Women Want?"

Dr. Sigmund Freud, from his diary

we want to be rain and thunder

want our voices to summon

sustenance from our battered earth

we want to be heard in the sheaves of wheat

the rustle of scarves

 

want to fling a stone of hope in the still pond,

watch ripples pulse across the great divide

 

want to step from behind war’s shadow

want to be sun, gather and stand

in gardens we’ve planted, firmly rooted,

up to our ears in green, rich in food

that bulges from each mound

and heavy branch

 

as we hack back vines that choke us all

open windows in walls, open doors

through which we freely come and go

and return without dodging snipers

without running away from our lives

 

may we never again give birth to martyrs

flown home without limbs or vision

everywhere women want to be whole together

make stew, simmer all that is true

in the broth of human goodness, invite

 

every man, woman and child to toss in

a favored spice, a wish, a way to rebuild

our fractured world and with tomorrow

in our wombs, we will carry bowls of peace

from hearth to each table, however remote

this is what we want

 

by Perie Longo © Santa Barbara Poet Laureate Emerita Written for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Annual Awards Peace Banquet
“Women for Peace,” Nov. 7, 2009