• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Willawaw Journal

Online Poetry & Art

  • Home
  • Journal
    • Willawaw Journal Spring 2023 Issue 16
    • Willawaw Journal Fall 2022 Issue 15
    • Willawaw Journal Spring 2022 Issue 14
    • Willawaw Journal – All Issues
  • Submissions
  • About
    • About the Journal
    • About the Editor
    • Behind-the-Scenes Creatives and Advisors
  • Contact

Brigitte Goetze

James, I Tried Your Arms, But…

… the only arms I allow myself to use—silence, exile, and cunning.
James Joyce: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

 

When each “What for?” limped my tongue with its frost,
just a few buds, hidden below hard leaves, could
bloom and, visited by a rare bee, ripen into seed.

 

It took time to see how
discipleship had shackled my soul.

But my mind, fertile, flexible, firmly rooted,
vast as a marsh of bulrushes
and my heart, that wild azalea, splayed open,
pulsing its spicy-tart scent into the breeze,

conversed, considered, resolved to turn
this self-made exile into an immigrant.

My choice: living arms
of bone and flesh. Akido-taught,
I aim to keep my three-point stance:

accepting challenges, I engage
to redirect what was received.

Brigitte Goetze lives in Western Oregon. A retired biologist and angora goat farmer, she now divides her time between writing and fiber work; in either case she spins her own yarns. Her work has been published in print and on the web. Links to recent publications can be found at: brigittegoetzewriter.com.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • Print

Related

Footer

Stay In Touch

Subscribe to our mailing list for news about special events and the launch of the latest issue of Willawaw Journal.
* indicates required
We respect your privacy and will never sell or rent your personal information to third parties.

Support

Please make a donation here to support the running of Willawaw Journal. Thank you!

Support Willawaw Journal

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram

Submit to Willawaw Journal

Submit through Duosuma

Click to submit through Duosuma (opens in a new window/tab)

Copyright © 2023 Willawaw Journal, LLC · WordPress · site design by Yeda, LLC