HEIDI MORDHORST

THE INNISFREE POETRY JOURNAL

Heidi Mordhorst

LISTENING TO THE LAUNDRY

(for Lynn Thomas Strauss on the occasion of her leavetaking from River Road Unitarian Church, with great gratitude for poetry in the pulpit)

Hear this:
Our days do not unfold
in a series of arguments
all lined up like so many
pairs of socks, matched
and smoothed and rolled together:
yes/no more/less then/now us/them all/nothing

No, we live through ebb and flow, through thrash and tumble,
like water filling and draining
in the washing machine,
like socks and skirts and scarves and shorts and shirts all
rolling around, tangled and wrinkled
in the hot dryer,
with the occasional sneaker thumping loudly,
unpredictably inside our hearts.

“The work of the artist is
to render the invisible.”
The work of the preacher is
to render the inaudible.
This tangled, wrinkled
thumping—we need to
hear this.

Heidi Mordhorst
Heidi Mordhorst's first book, Squeeze: Poems from a Juicy Universe, is published by Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press and will be available October 1. She squeezes her writing into the little open spaces that occur among parenting two young children, teaching nursery school, and doing the laundry in Bethesda, MD, where she lives with her partner of 15 years. Visit heidimordhorst.com for more information on Heidi's projects.

Home
Current Issue
Submissions
Contributors' Notes

Carol Ashworth

E. Louise Beach

Sandra Beasley

Anne Becker

Mel Belin

Rick Cannon

Nancy Naomi Carlson

Norma Chapman

Christopher Conlon

Michael Davis

Martin Dickinson

Jehanne Dubrow

Moira Egan

Sean Enright

Perry Epes

Lillian Frankel

Martin Galvin

Rachel Galvin

Bernadette Geyer

Patricia Gray

Laurie Hurvitz

Tod Ibrahim

Bernard Jankowski

Lisa Kosow

Michael Lally

Hiram Larew

Michael H. Lythgoe

Ebby Malmgren

Dan Masterson

Ryan McAllister

Judith McCombs

Miles David Moore

Daniel Abdul-Hayy Moore

Heidi Mordhorst

Yvette Neisser

Judy Neri

Bonnie Nevel

Barbara J. Orton

Eric Pankey

Jacklyn Potter

Ellen Sazzman

J.D. Smith

Rose Solari

Alan Spears

Gary Stein

Adele Steiner

Mark Tarallo

Colette Thomas

Doug Wilkinson

Rhonda Williford

Terence Winch

Rosemary Winslow

Kathi Wolfe

Anne Harding Woodworth

Bill Wunder

More

Email this poem

Printer friendly page

Last Updated: Sep 16th, 2007 - 08:34:32