FUSING SILENCE
By Ruth Daigon

In the province no one visits, she's still
waiting to be born. I can
almost feel her breath
brushing by me like a dark wish,

hear the lullabies
burrowed deep in time when I lay
under stars small fires, waiting

under sun's spiral, waiting
under vacant wash of sky
beyond barriers of sight, waiting.

If I empty my head of names
If I empty my pocket of coins
If I empty my shoes
will I feel the imprint of a palm
or hear a voice that fuses silence?

In thought's last extravagance
we reach toward each other
intent and unaware, and I imagine
fears that shape her nights
until the world leaps back to brightness.

Yet, she never quite appears
even in the downdrop of sleep
and the moment is never the moment
where grace begins.

Ruth Daigon was founder and editor of POETS ON: for twenty years until it ceased publication. Her poems have been widely published in E mags, print mags, anthologies and collections…She was Poet-Of-The-Month on the University of Chile's Pares Cum Paribus (an E chapbook in English and Spanish). Her chapbooks appear in WEBDELSOL, THE ALSOP REVIEW, FORPOETRY, POETRYMAGAZINE, THREE CANDLE REVIEW, KOTAS'S POETRY ANTHOLOGY both in hard cover and on the WEB. some of her earlier poetry collections are "Between One Future And the Next (Papier-Mâché Press) 1995, "About A Year" (Small Poetry Press, Select Poetry Series)1996. Daigon's poetry awards include "The Ann Stanford Poetry Prize, 1997 (University of Southern California Anthology), 1997) and the Greensboro Poetry Award (Greensboro Arts Council, 2000) Her poetry collections continue with "The Moon Inside" (Gravity/Newton's Baby), 1999. She is part of Pudding House Publications Poetry Chapbook Series "Ruth Daigon's Greatest Hits 1970-2000. "Payday At The Triangle" (Small Poetry Press, Select Poets Series) based on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York City,1911 was published in 2001 and one of her many readings was performed in The Lower East Side tenement Museum in Manhattan, the area where the fire occurred. Her latest poetry book is "Handfuls of Time" (Small Poetry Press, Select Poets Series) 2002, Her poetry was published by the State department in their literary exchange with Thailand and their translation program has just issued the first book of Modern American poets in English and Thai in which she appears.ruthart@aol.com