Talented People: Liz Flint-Sommerville

Do you ever have moments when you realize just how awesome your friends are and can not help but be a little proud? Liz is one of those people that I am proud to have as a friend. Liz is a super creative person. Her tofu nightlights have already been featured on this site. She makes crazy vegan concoctions that taste great (and I am not one to get too excited about vegan fare). But most important, she is a poet. I really wanted to showcase all kinds of talents so I asked Liz to give me one of her favorite poems that she has written.

A Needle Longer Than An Egg
for Tasha

She carries the egg tree
in a padded box in her brain,
like whale migration routes,
so we scavenge twigs
from the gravel
of the small playground
in a corner of the graveyard,
then rest in the basket swing
and find a sliding view
of beautiful yellow clouds,
and the feel
of the wide, crossed sea.

The eggs have a different name here
but the same, comforting shape,
she blows them clean as a new life,
the assemblage a ritual
solid at the center
of her spiraling snail-shell,
they’re light as mist now
and we wrap them in paint and ink,
she slides the thread
through the needle longer
than the egg,
ties a knot.

Suspended from twig fingers
the shells hum with air
while the sticks reach the glass bottom
of a repurposed decanter
like an anchor finds sand,
we are the circle of candlelight
at the table,
the bells beyond the window
swallowing the still night air,
the solid shell of the sea turtle
propelling strongly through the sea.