The soul should always stand ajar 

by Nancy K. Jentsch

 
A hammock is like the arm 
of God, rocking, coddling, connecting— 
rocking away tears and trembles, 
coddling after a fall, connecting  
tree to me to tree so I float 
amid the basics of wood and air. 
Lying in a hammock, dappled 
with sun-scattered shadows, 
all other creature comforts— 
morning news, cappuccino, 
felt slippers—lie sidelined 
and focus heads upward, with legs 
taking their rest so the mind 
can venture—into oceans waist-deep  
at shoreline or into head-turning 
meadows not of poppies, but of roses— 
coral pink and Sleeping Beauty red— 
that blossom despite snow’s  
calendar-challenged coverlet. 
 
O, to cross fantasy’s threshold    
in the crook of God’s arm, sip 
an aperitif of Emily’s lithesome 
lines, and dream. 


* * * * *
 
"The soul should always stand ajar" was inspired by “Hamac blanc” by Yash Godebski, 2013, and Emily Dickinson’s “The soul should always stand ajar” 1055. 

Nancy K. Jentsch’s chapbook Authorized Visitors and the collaborative ekphrastic chapbook Frame and Mount the Sky, in which her poetry appears, were published in 2017. Her collection Between the Rows debuted in 2022. Since she began to write in 2008, her work has appeared in journals such as Amethyst Review, Crowstep Poetry Journal, Tiferet Journal, and Zingara Poetry Review. In 2020, she received an Artist Enrichment Grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women. Retired after 37 years of teaching, she finds a bounty of inspiration in her family and her rural home. More information is available on her website: https://jentsch8.wixsite.com/my-site.