TRADING PASSION FOR CLAY TO A CLEAN KEYBOARD

TRADING PASSION FOR CLAY TO A CLEAN KEYBOARD

- Joy Krauthammer

When my heart is in my clay

why no more

pot throwing for me today?

To take up less space 

I remind myself

missing the grace.

Instead, I write.

Poems don't break

when a letter falls away

yet portray a broken heart.

No more muddy showers needed.

Writing keeps me clean

and off the mean

streets at midnight.

Both addicting

clay clearly more passionate -

diving into the center

of the spinning pot,

miraculous

and useful 

when finished, fired.

Writing contained,

on computer screen

through keyboard,

yet, unlike a wheel formed

clay vessel,

computer also is a container -

for my passionate soul   (neshama).

Ah, fingers, either way,

ten fingers all used for rhythms

for endless possibility.

           ~ ~ ~

2.21.2011

Read at Ruach HaAretz, Canby, Oregon, 7.12.2104

Show me your 10 fingers. My story.