"Joan Burstyn views the stuff of our daily lives with keen observation rendered in thoughtful expression. These lyrical poems remind us that the life cycle and our emotional reactions to everyday occurrences bring to the surface love, memories, regret and thoughts of life's ending. An inspiring book." -Ferris Olin, Director, Institute for Women and Art, Rutgers University "Finally, the public can enjoy Joan Burstyn's poetry as the Woods Hole community has for years!" -Margaret McCormick, Director Woods Hole Public Library In Path Into the Sun, award-winning poet Joan Burstyn shares her beautifully intense collection of lyrical free verse. With an engaging style, Burstyn weaves together her internal musings and images from nature in this her third volume of poetry. Such universal emotions and experiences as forgiveness, grief, loneliness, lessons learned, and the value of friendship are highlighted as Burstyn leads others down a path of personal reflection sure to invigorate, and inspire. An excerpt from Path Into the SunWide-eyed, bewildered as a wakened child, a wombat looks up at the humans viewing it. We walk the sanctuary as though we own it, talking loudly like teenagers let out of school, but wombats, emus, and kangaroos are regulars, expansive, calm, like neighbors at a bar, just tolerating us intruders.

Path Into the Sun

Poems from 1985 to 2006By Joan Burstyn

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2009 Joan Burstyn
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4401-3566-8

Contents

A Steaming Lava....................................................1Dream Buildings....................................................2Forgiveness........................................................3Niagara............................................................4A Pinch of Coriander...............................................5Encounter..........................................................6Silenced...........................................................7April Catastrophe..................................................8Lessons............................................................9Child's Play.......................................................10Healesville Sanctuary, Victoria....................................11In the Dandenong Mountains.........................................12Fragment...........................................................13In Sylvan South....................................................14Fall Fever.........................................................16Grief..............................................................17Lost Door..........................................................18Alone..............................................................19Prayers............................................................20Stranded...........................................................21Winter Reverie.....................................................22Like Furrows on Stony Ground.......................................23Returning..........................................................24Evasion in Chicago.................................................25Path into the Sun..................................................26Fog Horn...........................................................27The Curtain Has Been Pulled Aside..................................28The Vines are Strong...............................................29Off Balance........................................................30Loneliness.........................................................31Crossroads.........................................................32Wind Change........................................................33Flood Waters.......................................................34Newcomer at Blue Mountain Lake.....................................35Unfinished Portions................................................36Bettina's Mother...................................................37Mayan Hubris.......................................................39A Black Bird Caught My Eye.........................................40Patterns on the Curtains...........................................41"What You Need is a Stress Management Course!".....................42Altercation........................................................43Fireflies..........................................................44Storage Problem....................................................45Office Reverie.....................................................46The Seagull........................................................47Blanched Bones.....................................................48Reading by Two Poets...............................................49The Knife Grinder..................................................50Summer Bells.......................................................51Shadow Play........................................................52Dream..............................................................53Shabbat at Kibbutz Ravid...........................................54Beach-ball Sun.....................................................55My Turquoise Crayon................................................56Lost in a Sea of Time..............................................57Covering Up the Rust...............................................58In the Lake District with My Brother...............................59Abraham's Understanding............................................60Conference Encounters..............................................62Time For Remodeling................................................63Grace..............................................................64Atlanta, History of Education Society, 1990........................65Parting............................................................66Discordant Music...................................................68The Water That I Swim In...........................................69Columbine..........................................................70Fall...............................................................71The Gates..........................................................72Conundrum..........................................................73The Knight.........................................................74Middle Age Recollected.............................................75Brief Encounter....................................................76The Visitor........................................................77

Chapter One

A Steaming Lava

There was only a desire, small, intense, deep embedded, welling up from below my earth's mantle, a steaming lava that broke loose and overflowed, leaving me like a volcano spewing forth flames, scattering ash, smothering friends, and scorching the landscape.

Dream Buildings

All this was a long time ago, I remember, And I would do it again, but set down This, set down This: T.S. Eliot, "Journey of the Magi"

There was a purpose to it all, a message hidden in the midst of the formalities. There was persistent tugging at me, to be more than I intended. To follow paths well trodden, building begun but left before completion, not with intention but because an enemy had claimed its victim all too soon. Too soon. And all were mourning, a community drawn closer in their grief, searching for leadership. So I, quite unprepared but eager, stepped onto that stage, an understudy, improvising with bravado.

But then, I pulled away. You wooed me back with silken words, seduced me to believe you needed help, not for our building's sake, but for your own. I thought we'd be a diadem in your crown. A flimsy dream. I look back now and realize that neither building stands as solid and as noble as we planned.

Forgiveness

In whose dream did she beg forgiveness, in whose did she die alone? Diane de Prima, "Loba"

The princess, far from home, bereft of all the trappings of her palace - walls bare, no tapestries, no paintings of gold leaf, crimson, and sapphire blue, but beige and fl at, her life like vinegar, sharp and sour - the princess dreamed she begged forgiveness. Waking, surprised, she sought the person to forgive her, sought in vain, scouring the corners of her mind.

Another night she slept, restless, like the princess in the story writhing on top of the pea. She dreamed she died, without companion and without tranquility. She died alone, and unforgiven.

Next morning when she woke, she stood before the mirror, and recognized the person she was seeking.

Niagara

Steady hold on thoughts, tight reins jerking the head high, while hooves prance with nervous motion. Suddenly,...