Welcome to the poetry of Mary Fumento.

Elements

Etched upon the sky was I..

Impressions

Sunset Shadow, cloud and sky
Purple ink display
Dissipating
Closing on a palette
At the end of day
Like a cloak of rain
Permeating sunny ways
The peace and quiet unfold
Grasping at land and sky
Twilight, a mysterious time
Introducing a beautiful night
Streamed with lavender, periwinkle
While images vanish and emerge
With hidden, undirected haste
Reappearing momentarily before
Evading, retiring from sight
- Mary O. Fumento, 2010

Tundra

Frozen earth
Landscape silent
As if locked away
All secrets buried
In a world of white

Crags cracking ground
While the sun sets
Pink hues emerge
Forgotten buried gem
Shaded in shadow

Emerging then and now
- Mary O. Fumento, 2010

Intersect

It was less where we came together
But more when and how we went apart
And the distance between the places
Outlined where we would end and start

The things you gave I didn’t have
The skills you brought I had sought
What I returned you had been seeking
Transactions we shared never bought

What one gives of self to another
Over and over throughout the years
Amid the laughter and the longing
Despite remorse, regret and tears

Pure outreach from self to others
This defines why we needs friends
The bridge from who we are now
Back to the people we have been
- Mary O. Fumento, 2009

Caught Up

Racing
At amazing speeds
Beyond the reach
Of sound
Or light
Or
Anything reasonable
Lost to an extreme
Over the edge
And then some
Never stopping
Until
It all caught up
At once
- Mary O. Fumento, 2009

Corridors

Take your polluted air, tainted water
Embrace your filthy, cowardly spawn
Who roam like hounds the ravaged streets
Retrieve those angry, hateful pawns
Who prey relentlessly on their own
And leave the night, sweet and clean, to me

Recall the littered, tortured rivers
With a million poisoned lives
Find those cruelties which you allowed
And take them all from me
Retreat with the spoils you stole
And give me back the night
- Mary O. Fumento, 1988

Rainstorm

When the sky cries
An echo is heard
The circling mists seek
And long for comfort

When the sky cries
I weep for you
- Mary O. Fumento, 1997

Scribe

Because the words were there
Begging to be released
Needing to be exposed
To make the madness real
And put the passion in place
Where they could safely be recalled
Transforming scars to shields
- Mary O. Fumento, 2003

The Man of Stone

The wise one stands silent, forlorn
His face locked in memory of the past
His eyes thoughtful and in the stone worn
His shirt draping his chest like a mast
Tendons sturdy from walking miles
The blistered feet have felt many sands
His gaze reflects a faint smile
Perhaps in memory of other lands
A shame this soul will never talk
Only stone makes him live and last
Somewhere in the lands he stalked
He found the secret of the past
-Mary O. Fumento, 1981

Birthday Roses

The silken folds
A treasure enclose
And embrace a soul
A display of love

Bulbs caress the stems
With their fragrance

The miles will fade
And the years erase
As if nothing had changed
Your heart remains
- Mary O. Fumento, 2000

Icebergs

Jagged crags shatter the sky
Small waves lap solid walls
Stinging wind whips about
An immense palace, alone and tall

A weathered ancestor with faces new
Unaccustomed to the sounds of science
A stoic of the past, present, future
Nothing disturbs the deepening silence

As if indicative of unpredictable habits
A rumble erupts from below
Reminding the observer of mysteries
Which beckon to places forbidden
- Mary O. Fumento, 1985

Boundaries

Within your tranquil shores
A deep calm bestows your peace
Like a veil of leaves and canopy
Harboring creatures to your cheek

Your current rides with strength
And omniscience flowing force
Rolling unseen with waves
Channels cutting far below

Volume surges, then subsides
Maintaining momentum as you go
Rocks succumbing to your foam
Releasing the elusive to the sea
- Mary O. Fumento, 2003

Symmetry

In search of a balance
And structure only true
I sought a wholeness
And found solely you

What are the pieces
Of me falling apart
I lost so much of my soul
When you filled my heart
- Mary O. Fumento, 2004

Hollow

Because he does not want
And he does not need
His fire won’t burn for me
But that is the drive I feel
And that is the draw for me
His lust and longing exist
But will never be for me

Perhaps as a measure of safety
Maybe the distance feels secure
Whatever the logic and reason
To an empty completeness I cling
- Mary O. Fumento, 2002

Shimmer

In the snow, we start over
The world is fresh and new
No traces of where we were
No memory of who was who

In morning light of wonder
All peaceful, silent, white
The darkness buried in ice
Its cry covered in quiet
- Mary O. Fumento, 2007

Sediment

And I will let you sink
Deeper, deeper into me
Channeling the depths
Navigating the chasms

Until you strike the core
And rest at the heart of me

There you will always lie
Becoming part of the sea
As sand gently washes over
Covering every facet of you

Disguising features and face
Until buried, you let me be
- Mary O. Fumento, 2007

Soliloquy

Silent was the voice
Booming in the head
Shattering all my hope
Filling me with dread
Screaming in self-denial
Shouting words of hate
Erasing all composure
Reducing me to fate
- Mary O. Fumento, 1999