Judy Johnson
Judy Johnson has published three poetry collections, a verse novel and a novel. In 2011 she spent a month at The Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland as part of the Varuna Alumni exchange program. A poetry collection is forthcoming in 2012.
The Right Fit
Always your thoughts
too big,
too small
for the world.
As though a seamstress
took your measure early on
with a cool yardstick
and what was kept for the record
was an outline
you immediately outgrew.
There is no cure
for not living in the moment
but it can’t hurt to ponder
the methodical dust
released by its action
instead
of the tailor’s chalk mark.
It can’t hurt to meditate
with a mouthful of pins.
Words, after an absence
Tend the graves of photographs,
love letters, dried daisies.
Finger the devotions
one by one
like knots in a prayer rope.
Gather inklings and injuries
as kindling for fire.
Attune to textures
especially
the soft crystals of silence
in the air above old monasteries.
Listen to which footsteps
placed
on the heart’s risers
produce a squeak
and which treads
are noisless.
Accept that the poem already exists
in no known language
and in perfect order.
And now that your task
is impossible
take the one tool you have.
Try hard to find
a way back to the page
with words.
Try harder to do no harm.