Articles
Lynnie Gobeille is passionate about poetry.
Along with Jan Keough, she is one of the co-founders/co-editors of The Origami Poems Project, a world-wide “free poetry event”. She believes in the healing magic of words and is helping to change the world: “one free poetry book at a time".
Her worked has been published in The Orange Room Review, The Sow's Ear Review, Crone’s Nest, The Avatar, The Prairie Home Companion, New Verse News, The Providence Journal (Poetic License) and The Naugatuck River Review. She was the Editor of the Providence Journal's Poetry Corner (South County Edition).
Her personal essay about the Origami Poems Project was broadcast as part of the This I Believe series on WRNI, RI's NPR affiliate. In 2012 she recorded another essay for the series on the healing power of writing: 'Daily Words'.
► Lynnie's Origami micro-chapbooks and select audio* & viewable poems are available below.
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Origami Micro-chapbook |
Selected Poem(s) |
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On meeting margie in paris
red checked tablecloth
order chilled wine - ice on side
sip slowly - savor
talk of poetry
talking of art and magic
leaning towards words
two elder ladies
eating a moveable feast
we laugh at ourselves
sharing time and space
falling in love with language
rejoice in word play
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Lynnie Gobeille © 2012
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Photo by Richard Benjamin's kind permission |
Opening Lines
suddenly i am eighteen again
under an overpass on I-95
where my friends have left me
to overcome my fear
of being alone.
• Lynnie Gobeille © 2009 |
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The Reading
Read by Lynnie Gobeille
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Opening LinesShe arrives in patterned flower pants floppy sea green sweater, clogs, her hair loose and matted beaded woven bracelets dancing on her arm. Introduces her first poem with the rambling saga of her divorce, the recent death of her cat, how just today she discovered a mouse had chewed through small wires in the ice maker of her mother’s old refrigerator… Her mother’s death resurfacing in all that water. All of us are flattered when she remembers our names. Talks to us as if she knows us. Or we know her. • Lynnie Gobeille © 2009 |
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The Weight of Stones in Pocket(Remembering Virginia Woolf)
Back lit by skies winter light
oceans ebb and flow, gulls cry, circling us in flight. I watch the stranger on the beach as she bends picking up sea-glass with her hands. Dusting off the webs of salt and sand bringing the treasure to her lips as if to devour it. Working her fingers over the smooth surface, mesmerized by the glimmer of lavender dye.
“A rare find,” she tells me
when I inquire. “more rare than eclipse of sun and moon.” Beloved sea-flower in her outstretched hand, ‘Reason enough,” she states “to empty my pockets of their weight.”
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Lynnie Gobeille © 2009
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happiness
the year you lived with me
here, in my small writer’s cave, you complained bitterly about my 5 a.m. writing habit. i worried when you were late to dinner (a meal i seldom prepared before your moving in) passion gave way to discussions of light bills.. taking out the garbage… the simple acts in our day to day life. so much depends upon being the mistress not the wife. •
Lynnie Gobeille © 2009
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Lessons
Read by Lynnie Gobeille
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LessonsHaving been taught From the time She was very small That her body Was all she had Her legs Her best attribute She’d learned To use them wisely, Learned to wrap And bend and twist To “please” as Only a woman can. In bed and out Back seats And floors Hotel Lobbies Elevators Road side stops And places that would Make even the most Seasoned whore Blush. And so she views This man with Both fear And amazement. This one who’d rather Read to her, Seeking out her heart Her passion With the spoken word. • Lynnie Gobeille © 2009 |
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Photo by Maureen Conley |
September 11, 2011
10
Years Ago The Towers Fell And Thousands Died. The World As I Knew It Changed Forever.
The
World As Our Children Viewed It Fell. 10 Years Ago Today Hundreds Of People Boarded Jet Planes On The Way To Work Or To Visit On Family Vacations Or To Simply Escape Life For A Time. They Never Made It Back Home. My First Spoken Words Today Were To My Cat, “God, this is good coffee.” And The Coffee I Am Blessed To Be Sipping Is Hot And Served In A Clean White Mug Of My Own Choosing Let freedom ring. Let the peace flag fly. Let God, in all his infinite wisdom, Love us deeply. Let our planet keep spinning. Let us seek a means to honor each other. Today Is September 11th 2011. •
Lynnie Gobeille © 2011
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* Recorded at Symposium Books, East Greenwich, RI