Mary Marie Dixon
Common Seasons
I live beyond watermelons and pumpkins In that marriage of extreme seasons. I live where fortune does not exist Except in feedlots and cornfields. I live on the edge of mainstreams But not urban ones. I live with my spirit On bones washed up in the riverbed. I live out west on prairie and dirt Under the vast dome of blue. I live without heart sometimes Among poplars and sand dunes Wrought by the Little Blue at flood stage. My heart exposed at other times, I live Where irises flag their golden stamens And willows pillow grey. I live without malice under hail and wind In the midst of tornado alley. And I live quietly near the Blue Hill cemetery Where my mother rests under sod. I pass time in seasons And remember that I am dust.
Mary Marie Dixon, a visual artist and poet, has published creative works in periodicals and a collection of poetry, Eucharist, Enter the Sacred Way, Franciscan University Press, 2008, and exhibited visual art. Her focus on women’s spirituality and the mystics combined with the Great Plains and the spiritual power of nature makes for an eclectic mix.
