Tag: Phyllis Cole-Dai

ONE ART’s May 2026 Reading

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ONE ART’s May 2026 Reading

Date: Sunday, May 3
Time: 2pm Eastern
Featured Poets: Phyllis Cole-Dai, Karly Randolph Pitman, Ellen Rowland
Duration: 1.5 hours

Tickets are FREE!
(donations appreciated)

>> Register Here <<

~ About The Featured Readers ~

Phyllis Cole-Dai resides in Maryland. She’s the author or editor of more than a dozen books, including the popular Poetry of Presence volumes of mindfulness poems. She invites you to hop aboard The Raft, her online community.

Karly Randolph Pitman is a writer, teacher, poet, presenter, and mental health facilitator who helps people nurture a more compassionate relationship with their struggles. She’s the founder of Growing Humankindness, a gentle approach towards overeating, writes a reader supported poetry newsletter, O Nobly Born, and offers writing and mindfulness workshops to nurture self awareness and self compassion. She lives in Austin, Texas where she’s cared for the underbelly of long covid and autoimmune illness for the past five years. Her journeys through depression and illness continue to soften, teach and open her. In all she remains in awe of the human heart.

Ellen Rowland is a writer and editor who leads small, generative poetry workshops on craft and form. She is the author of two collections of haiku: Light, Come Gather Me and Blue Seasons, and most recently The Echo of Silence/L’écho du Silence, a bi-lingual book of haiku and tanka. Her full-length poetry collection, No Small Thing, was published by Fernwood Press in 2023. You can find her writing in ONE ART, Sheila-Na-Gig, Braided Way, Humana Obscura, and several anthologies, including “The Path to Kindness” and “The Wonder of Small Things” edited by James Crews. Her chapbook of after poems, In Search of Lost Birds is forthcoming from Kelsay Books. She lives off the grid with her family on a small farm in Greece. Connect with her on Instagram , Facebook and Substack.

Two Poems by Phyllis Cole-Dai

~ ONE ART ~ 3 Comments

WHEN THEY COME KNOCKING

& demand we obey
       we will not have knees to bend

& demand we leave
       we will not have feet to go

& demand we believe
       we will not have heads to nod

& demand we ignore the law
       we will not have eyes to shut

& demand we scapegoat
       we will not have fingers to point

& demand we snitch
       we will not have lips to tell

& demand we work
       we will not have backs to break

& demand we give them money
       we will not have noses to pay through

& demand we fight
       we will not have arms to bear

but when they demand we cook for them
       we will have hands to fix in our kitchen

such a sumptuous feast of won’ts and don’ts
       they will starve as they gorge at our table

                     After the “Ten Commandments” published by Večerní Praha
                     in the aftermath of the Soviet invasion, 1968

*

THE SHORTEST

I wiggled
in the pew
fussing
in my new Sunday dress
and patent leather shoes
and they told me
it’s true
Jesus wept
is the shortest verse
and I waited
for them to tell me
how that could be
cause when
my mama cried
it was never short
it was big as the house
and the world beyond it too
and when they couldn’t tell me
why that was
I began to stop
listening to them
and listened instead
to all the crying
all around
they didn’t seem to hear
cause maybe
I could catch the falling
tears
in the cup of my ears
and save them
for someone in need
of a little drink
and that’s when
my little mind
began to think
that little verse
in that big black book
had to be so short
cause even
the ears of Jesus
big as God
just couldn’t
hold no more

*

Phyllis Cole-Dai resides in Maryland. She’s the author or editor of more than a dozen books, including the popular Poetry of Presence volumes of mindfulness poems. She invites you to hop aboard The Raft, her online community.

I CAN’T BE THE ONE by Phyllis Cole-Dai

~ ONE ART ~ 3 Comments

I CAN’T BE THE ONE

to welcome you home, but when you arrive
tonight, the faithful trees keeping watch
in the yard curl their toes in pleasure, and all
the doors of the house throw their arms wide
to receive you, and all the curtains draw apart
to lighten the dark as you enter, and all
the chairs scrape back from the kitchen table,
bidding you to sit, and the stew ladles itself
into a bowl beside the candle that lit its own wick
for joy, and the crusty loaf breaks itself open,
to rest upon the wooden board for a dab
of butter, of jam, of honey, any sweetness you
might desire, and each empty bed turns down
its sheets and plumps up its pillows, hoping
to hold you in your sleep—while in one lonely
corner, hugging the wall, the patient piano
waits her turn, soft ache in her taut strings,
ready to play every loving song she’s learned
between the last time you left and this return.

                      for my son, Nathan

*

Phyllis Cole-Dai is a multi-genre writer in South Dakota, soon to relocate to Maryland. The author of more than a dozen books, she co-edited both volumes of the popular anthologies of mindfulness poems. Poetry of Presence. Learn more about her work at her website (phylliscoledai.com). Join The Raft, her online community, and ride the river of the creative life, buoyed by the arts and open spirituality (phylliscoledai.substack.com)