Why Am I Telling You This?

In this short poem, a morning walk around the lake gets C.M. thinking about doing versus not-doing, action versus non-action.

"The Wisdom of Not Being Industrious" originally appeared in Orbis Literary Journal in England, before making its way into C.M.'s poetry collection How To Carry Soup (Homebound Publications, 2020).  

In "Tread Lightly", C.M. suggests that not only is the journey itself the destination, but so is the spirit in which we take our journey and tread the path we find ourselves on.  He takes us on a journey of noticing, stressing the importance of giving up the search, allowing yourself to rest, and staying connected to a sense of "simple astonishment at the holy presence in all things".  

This poem is also available as a blog post: https://cmrivers.com/2021/07/02/tread-lightly/

C.M. touches on middle age, memory, the art of listening to yourself, finding your own guidance within, and the danger of holding on to past trauma.  "Memorial" first appeared in Spoon River Poetry Review (2015) before making its way into C.M.'s book "How To Carry Soup" (2020, Homebound Publications). 

C.M. ruminates on the pathways people take and the journeys they make, both intentional and unintentional, in this poem from his upcoming book "Along the Way ~ Poems for the Wayward" (Homebound Publications).

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://cmrivers.com/2021/01/31/high-road/

This poem - written from the perspective of a beach - recounts a married couple's vacation day.  The beach knows everything there is to know about this couple...even things they don't yet know about themselves. 

Excerpted from "How To Carry Soup", an award-winning book of poetry by C.M. Rivers (Homebound Publications, 2020).  

This short poem is for anyone who's ever stopped to question where they were going, what they were doing - and why.  C.M. invites the reader into a space where insight seems within reach...the insight that comes with self-observation.   

Excerpted from "How To Carry Soup" (Homebound Publications).

An old man's heart opens as he makes peace with his life and his approaching death, in this poem by C.M. Rivers.  Excerpted from How To Carry Soup (Homebound Publications).

The sensual and erotic intersect with spiritual renewal, in this poem from How To Carry Soup (Homebound Publications).

C.M. picks through a handful of ways to die, excluding terminal velocity.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://cmrivers.com/2022/05/22/post-mortem/

C.M. fixes his eye on his late grandfather, Captain Buddy.  "Net Man" originally appeared in 2020, in poem form, in Crosswinds Poetry Journal in Rhode Island.  This version combines prose and poetry to produce a piece of memoir. 

“The point is that he had – as we all do in given measures – an unknowable wildness.”

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://cmrivers.com/2020/10/04/net-man/