Wild River Review
Connecting People, Places, and Ideas: Story by Story
February 2012
Open Borders

POETRY - The Bath:

Athens, Greece

The Bath

(Athens, Greece)

Mayumi Oda

My daughter sits on the edge

of a deep narrow tub

and washes my back.

 

I close my eyes and smile

as she says,

Now, we'll wash your hair.

 

I hold it in my hand,

a fountain

flowing between my legs.

 

She smoothes shampoo

through my hair and says,

I want to go back to the island.

 

Her trousers are rolled above the knees,

her white cotton blouse

splashed transparent.

 

And the water–

Oh how we wish to live near

the blue blue–

 

Water streams through my hair

over forehead, nose,

lips and breasts.

 

Sweet sweet-smelling.

And my daughter

like the dolphins

 

who guard the harbor

off the island of snow white houses,

lifts her head and sings.


 


Joy Stocke, WRR Editor-in-Chief

http://www.amazon.com/Anatolian-Days-Nights-Dervishes-Goddesses/dp/0983918805

Joy E. Stocke is founder and Editor in Chief of Wild River Review. She has published fiction, nonfiction and poetry, and has written about and lectured widely on her travels in Greece and Turkey, as well as religion, ancient and modern. She is the author of a bi-lingual book of poems, Cave of the Bear, translated into Greek by Lili Bita; and a novel, Ugly Cookies, co-written with Fran Metzman. Her travel memoir, Anatolian Days and Nights, based on ten years of travel through Turkey, co-written with Angie Brenner will be published in early 2012 by Wild River Books. You can visit the book'x website at: Anatolian Days and Nights.com. Or order Anatolian Days & Nights by clicking here: ADN. Her essay - Turkish American Food - will appear in the 2nd edition of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America.

An experienced editor, Stocke works with many of the writers who appear in the pages of Wild River Review, as well as clients from around the world. She has interviewed Nobel Prizewinners Orhan Pamuk and Muhammud Yunus, Pulitzer Prizewinner Paul Muldoon, Roshi Joan Halifax, anthropologist and expert on end of life care; Ivonne Baki, President of the Andean Parliament; and Templeton Prizewinner Freeman Dyson among others. She is currently working with Harriet Mayor Fulbright, widow of Senator J. William Fulbright and President of Harriet Fulbright College, on Mrs. Fulbright's memoir.

In 2006, along with Executive Editor, Kim Nagy, Stocke interviewed scientists and artists including Princeton University President Shirley Tilghman and Dean of Faculty, David P. Dobkin for the documentary Quark Park, chronicling the creation of an award-winning park built on a vacant lot in the heart of Princeton, a park that united art and science and community. She is on the board of the Princeton Middle East Society , and a member of the Turkish Women's International Network.

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, with a Bachelor of Science in Broadcast Journalism, she participated in the Lindisfarne Symposium on The Evolution of Consciousness with cultural philosopher, poet and historian, William Irwin Thompson. In 2009, she became a Lindisfarne Fellow.

EMAIL: jstocke@wildriverreview.com
FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/joy.stocke
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/

JOY STOCKE IN THIS EDITION:

» View all articles by Joy Stocke

Comments

Joyce Spindler (not verified) Posted 03:29 AM on Feb 8, 2012

Don't we love the memories of our little children.?

Elizabeth Bako Posted 03:29 AM on Feb 8, 2012

This is so, so sweet.

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
2 + 9 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.
Website by Mile Nine