Ave Maria

Ave Maria

Our Lady Queen of Peace, New Jersey

Sunday Morning

1969

She is dressed in flowing blue robe. I sweat in an itchy white nylon

communion frock, feeling like a fraud.

Even at age six, I knew there was something wrong

with coveting Our Lady’s rhinestone crown.

Oh! how I wanted it, I imagined the weight

of it, how it would sparkle when I turned this way and that.

I plotted ways I could sneak out of my grandparent’s house,

dodging behind hedge and tree. Running the half a block

to the little church where, dressed as a miniature bride I first

received the wafer. It tasted of cardboard and went instantly limp.

I had a moment of panic when it became lacquered 
to the roof of my mouth and I couldn’t prise it loose with my tongue.

There was nothing I could do except wait miserably for it to dissolve,

wishing I owned that crown,  pretty sure I was going to hell.

Kids told me that holding the host too long in the mouth was satanic.

I realized years later it was probably made of cornstarch.

New Poetry Website

Thanks to the creative team at Desolate Spectre Studios I have a new  poetry site. It was designed and made my Margaret Pickering, who listened closely to my brief and produced a site that I am delighted with.

There's a page about the poetry and me personally and a separate page with my bio that contains links to poems published online. Read excerpts of works in progress.

The site reflects my poetry visually and represents my personal interests. There are also clues to my family history in the graphics. All the objects pictured are from my vast collection of vintage paraphernalia and years of  beach combing and general magpie tendencies.

The site will be added to over time, with full versions of poems and more imagery. Enjoy MarisaCappetta.com

CPC Spring Season of Readings

We're in the middle of poetry season here in Christchurch. Last night was superb, the guest readers satisfied my need to hear well crafted poetry read in the poet's own voices. The open mike readers were of high calibre with the likes of James Norcliffe, Bernadette Hall, Kerrin P Sharpe, Helen Lowe and new voices that were a treat to hear.

I'm at the lecturn next week with Sean Joyce and our star poet, Louise Wallace. Looking forward to it!

Poem Poster

Phantom Billstickers made me a poem poster.

My Lover as Hat

I love you, my hat. 

I love the brim of you

pulled over my eyes. 

I love you thrown

in the air. I catch you.  

I love you crushed

under my foot.  

I love you, my hat,

feathered, ribboned or flowered. 

I love you abandoned

on a chair. 

Worn in the rain

at a funeral, in church  

where the parson

compliments you. 

I love you, my hat. 

I have worn you so long

you are sweat stained.

Blackmail Press #32 is Live

Blackmail Press #32 is live. You can read my poems here.

One Handed Woman is a character I made that reflects some of the questions I have about being a woman with feminism as my birth right. How did it shape me? Advantages, disadvantages, even disabilities? The poem is part of an ongoing dialogue I have with my contemporaries.

Emissary to a Neighbouring Kingdom, The Parson Falls in Love and Goes Mad and One Left for a Hero, came from a paper I read sometime last year on the disconnection men feel from traditional archetypes. These poems are my reflections on this sociological phenomenon, the characters are the king, the cleric and the hero respectively.  I am continuing to write in this series, several more are included in my manuscript, A Machine of Herbs and Flowers

The Water Gleaners is a retelling of the story of Oberon, Titania and the fairy Mustard Seed from A Midsummer Nights Dream. It’s a story built around my concerns for the politicizing and future distribution of potable water.

Enjoy Blackmail Press #32, there are some wonderful poets included. It’s a great read.

Published Poems

A few folk have asked me where they can read my poems. Some are here on my blog  of course. Here's a summary of poems published elsewhere.

E-zines
Snorkel, the literary journal of the University of Sydney, you can read Turning the Seasons with the Dead here

International Literary Quarterly published Biological Name for Moth and Coracle here

Turbine, Literary Magazine of the Victoria University, Wellington NZ published Found Farther and Farther Out here

Shot Glass Journal published Nude on a Staircase here

I've been a Tuesday poet on Catherine Fitchett's blog, with Young Woman Marries the Farmer's Son here

Samuel Peralta featured Drawing Grasses in Okains Bay New Zealand on his blog The Semaphore Anthology

Print Media
In addition I have been published several times in Takahe, which you can subscribe to here. Numerous times in The Press. Voiceprints #3, which is available to purchase through the Canterbury Poets Collective. Also Enamel and Crest to Crest Anthology of Canterbury Poetry and Prose.