Watching a Sleeping Pig

Benner's pig lies asleep
on this sunlit June afternoon
bedded in her slatted wooden pen
ears like banana leaves,
snout, watery and sucking
in time to her porcine dreams.

The cloven trotters, perfectly paired,
kick out with each snort.
Dozing in the muddy shadows
she rests on summer hay, dried flowers
and a newly gathered bag of corncobs.

I want to lie down by her freckled back,
nuzzle her silvery hairs, stroke her huge ears.
I want to snort, kick and dream with her
between the sunlight and the shadows.

- Ginger Williams

to order his book click and scroll to “poetry by individual author”
88 pages, 5.5 X 8.5
ISBN: 978-0-9818661-5-4
$15, plus shipping

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From the backcover:

Exciting combinations of everyday words are released with Ginger Williams' open-ended imagination. The title is a tip-off to the fun of Ginger's ideas and language: pigs' "ears like banana leaves," "four moose all legs and chins," "whispering of worms," "dandelion roots and their jazzy tang." As well, she conveys the human condition: ". . . you wrap around me in the silkened dark."
   - Maxwell Corydon Wheat, Jr. - First Poet Laureate of Nassau County, NY

What we see in this second book of poetry are poems reflective of a deeply humane intelligence, the work of a skilled and keenly observant writer. These poems are moving and filled with clarity, and because of their honesty, the reader willingly travels with the poet as voyeur or participant, to examine truths, secrets, and to honor all of life and what it may teach us.
   - Gladys L. Henderson - author of Eclipse of Heaven (Finishing Line Press),
     and the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association, 2010 Poet of the Year

Page by page, Ginger Williams unfolds her passionate and empathetic communion with the animal kingdom. From the ant to the whale, you'll discover them all in this marvelous collection of poems.
   - Russ Perry - poet, photographer, videographer
                       www.youtube.com/russperry111

In her poem "In the church of holy storms . . ." Ginger Williams focuses our attention on those who wait for the blessed ark's arrival; for me, this collection is that "ark." With language that retains the wonder of her subjects, Williams allows us to "dream with her between the sunlight and the shadows." And this is where these poems most fulfill their promise – in those "between places" in which what we perceive and understand meets with what we dream and wish. These poems welcome us on a path, "so familiar, I knew it by heart." Finding this collection for me is being "first in line for the blue bowl."      
   - Linda Opyr - author of If We Are What We Remember:                                             
     New and Selected Poems. Poet Laureate of Nassau County, NY, 2011-2013
 

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poems © 2012 Ginger Williams
website © 2003-2012 Walter E. Harris III