New Mother, Turning to the Kora

When you still fit
my arms
like an instrument
beating rhythms
at my heart, you would, at times,
cry without cease,
without reason–without reason that I
could reason out–and I, almost without
reason myself, would play a music
of Kora and guitar
in which the strings,
sounding of bells,
plucked us from the closed-in walls
and wails,
lifted us
from the hard wood floor we walked, transported us
to some bigger brighter world where sun streamed
vibrationally, where leaves echoed, where
life strolled, where tears caught in scrunched cheeks seemed almost
ripples re-centering a well
on a day when one
craved water, a natural wrinkle
of wells and water.

Whirled shine glinted
upon our faces whether we looked
up or down, and even though, in that apartment,
metal gates shadowed the nearest windows;
we knew–even as an infant you could hear–
that the music held want as well
as tinkle, that knells mourn even as
they proclaim, that the lone also
harmonizes,
still you at last would smile, me
too, as if both of us were tuned
by those stringed scales,
so gratefully tethered.

– Karin Gustafson

© 2014, original artwork, poem and portrait (below), Karin Gustafson, All rights reserved

Kora ~ a twenty-one string bridge-harp used extensively in West Africa

KARIN GUSTAFSON (Manicddaily) ~ a guest contributor to Bardo focuses (sometimes) on the interface between creativity and stress, with a side of little elephant drawings. She is a writer and illustrator, having published a collection of poetry, Going on Somewhere, a children’s counting book, 1 Mississippi ( for lovers of light, water. and pachyderms) and, most recently,Nose Dive, a light-hearted mystery novel about teenagers, Broadway musicals, love, noses, New York City.  (More information about the books may be found at www.BackStrokeBooks.com and at Amazon.)  Since July 2009, Karin has been engaging visitors to her blog with her observations, poetry and artwork, especially her elephant sketches and cartoons. She is an active participant in d’Verse Poets Pub and a member of its d’Team.