Home » Poems » Best » Elizabeth Dispenza » Best Elizabeth Dispenza Poems

Best Poems Written by Elizabeth Dispenza

Below are the all-time best Elizabeth Dispenza poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Elizabeth Dispenza Poem

Carpentry

Carpentry
It’s the first nail 
That hurts,  the sharpness
That pierces right through the  framed  constructs
Of our wooden fears
 With
 unrelenting precision 
As if we could unhurry our blood or 
Hammer a dismantled dream 
Into a different shape  
 Unfurled  blueprints  mark  the unfinished house 
Where a  doorjamb is still  annoyingly unaligned
Or a window frame not plumb
We call upon  the   carpenter , 
 The one who can hold nails
In his teeth, 
The one who knows 
Crossbeams shudder
In the gold dust of  what they must  bear.

Details | Elizabeth Dispenza Poem

She Is What Came After Me

She is what came after me
Tempted by  her beauty
You had to reach out and touch 
She is what came after me
That beauty that called you 
Her allure is one you  like more 
Or maybe the way she looks at you less
In her eyes what do you see?
Her nakedness and form unlike me 
And the urges to woo her so strong
Not wanting to wait the afternoon,
So it was  all night and even more right than before 
In the  four poster bed
Able to erase All The past
 you might wonder Will this last?
 I wonder how you Moved so fast?
She is what came after me
The wisewoman in me says  let it be
Let it be.
Because I know, I know, that hope is too dangerous 
And pride a sin,  
Your silence lets me know you let her in
And anyway,  an empty  heart is better than no heart
so this is my  song of despair, because I know she is still there
She Came to You after me.

Details | Elizabeth Dispenza Poem

Lil Black Dresses

They say only a witch can wear a black dress 
But  my guess is like this …
who knows the spells
I could cast
 Living  a millennium
In this one
This  Dress made for conjuring
A cauldron of  trouble
The kind of dress that
 Hugs  just Right
 No  belted rope to untie sins
 just plain Silky softeness  draped across bare shoulders
 Walking past the church in it
The eyes of altar boys worship the outline of  my thighs
This dress will cost me, 
It’s Just the right shade of black
 Ebony threads with a shimmering  measure
Dark and sweet as the devils pleasure, 
 I want to be that woman where
Professors and priests turn back
At the sound of my high heeled clack
A woman who walks In the  the audacity of
Midnight
Oh yes, a high heeled woman
In a phenomenal black dress     the only question
 Brave or possessed ?

This poem is based on the late great Anne Sexton and Kim Addizano 
What Do Women Want

Details | Elizabeth Dispenza Poem

The Storm

The Storm

      There is just enough love 
      to know what I should do
      I did not know the spirals
      the zig zag, the sharpness
      of the cuts
      of being your mother

      Thirty five years now of no-sleep nights
      the knocks on the door at midnight
      the 911's of motherhood 
     
      I still hear the echoes of your cries
     burning my ears
     as I stand in the summer rain 
     the amber red lights of porchlights
     flash like the police cars you encounter

     what good will my tears do now?
     shackles that click 
     encircling your strong wrists
     a sound I thought I'd never have to save you from

     You came into this world innocent and hungry
     and when I gazed upon your face
     I named you for the archangel 
     the votives still lit with hopeful prayer,
    
     You are walking in silence 
     over a path of stones,
     in tragic orange,
    a butterfly so beautiful
    with clipped wings.




Elizabeth Dispenza.  all rights reserved 2021