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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 6, 2017)
Street Roots • Jan. 6-12, 2017 Poetry Page 13 Gaia by Raven Mother; I ask your rawness to envelop my yearnings, my restlessness. To find my door yawning wide. Mother ... shall I enter? I desire only your embrace for no one else can hold me. My Decaying Heart & Soul by Brian Nye I’m so tired of living this way It’s beer and weed that get me through the day. I’m tired of holding these feelings at bay My heart & soul, they decay Everyday I ask God and pray But it’s me that has to obey Why do I seem to always pick the wrong way I do my best and surely pray So what can I say? I get up and work at doing better the next day I must act with no delay Because soon my heart & soul will completely decay Then there won’t be another day What Is in a Name by Aileen McPherson I was given Heather at birth, by definition it means purple flowering shrub on the moors. Attached to that was Aileen, which was defined as a lightbearer. While lasts can be many, and are either inherited or married into. After time my given name was the cause and subject of triggering events and past tragedies. I had to change it, but to what? Many names were thought of before the decision was made. I have a name I like and it is already mine, all I need to do is use it. So I was reborn Aileen, a fine name I have loved and cannot be taken away. She is the writer, the Author of Dreams, and creator of scenes. What of my other loves, drawing and such, isn’t Aileen just a bit much when trying to hide the artist inside. So to shorten this name would be insane, but for ease of space and drawing tastes, I look for a way to show my face. It was in the Japanese slang I found a name that made my hearf bound. It was me and love wrapped into one, and Ai was born. Ai is love and I, Aileen, love to create, design, and educate myself as well as others. My creativity is a brevity of musings from the mind, of rhymes made to describe past times, While sketching like retching, vomiting on the page, Sometimes it hurts, but afterwards it fades Just like the darkest of shades. Better dental health can lead to better whole health. healthy mouth connects you to a salthy body. Just one of the ways 'e’re healthier as a whole. CareOregon* health « [ sha re ourwholeneaun.com P a rtn e r
