Inspiration
Magnetism, she claims
is the source
of her inspiration.
Our earth’s a gravid rock that begs
to be pierced. Perceived.
Confessed back to itself.
She gives it her mothered tongue
dips its grudges, stropped cleavers,
embers of dark inheritance
into a potion made of potent odes and madrigals.
Ejecting its dead clichés
its random brutalities
she also dredges
the poverty
of alarmist speech.
Goes to the masters
and feasts on their warrior words.
When she is sated
she throws her engorged heart
into the fire
and the shriving letters rise of themselves.
Florence Weinberger is the author of five published collections of poetry, the most recent Ghost Tattoo (Tebot Bach). Four times nominated for a Pushcart Prize, her poetry has appeared in a number of literary magazines, including Antietam Review, Nimrod, Poetry East, Rattle, Baltimore Review, North American Review, and Los Angeles Review. Poems have also been published in many anthologies. She served as a judge for the PEN Center USA Literary Contest in 2012.
