Calling All Poets

[Charlotte's Web]

This is a call out to any poets among you: come out of the woodwork!
All week I've been sorting/packing my writing & decided to share a
love poem I wrote once upon a time.  I chose it for its' brevity &
also because, in its' way, it speaks of new beginnings. 
Don't be shy.  Like any good fool, just rush in...

:heart: Charlotte
Happy New Year!


In High Grass
For Joel

In high grass  
You helped me set my tipi poles & stretch the skin.
Meant to be a milky pyramid for me.  

All that burning long day we
Labored in our cutoff jeans, dragging Alder poles
You'd cut & peeled for me.  Standing, interlocking
Till---as if by magic---the smoke hole took shape.  

Oh, how we struggled, wrestling the monster canvas
Stretching, snugging the lovely taut white skin.  
Compass pointing due east.  Rising sun,
New beginnings.
 
It was August. Oat grass a ripe rippling carpet.
Nearby, your old blue pickup, hunkered down in a
Tangle of fireweed.  Your hickory pipe patient
on the dashboard. Your pigskin tobacco pouch.
(Oh, there was nothing about you I could not forgive.)

At last!
We drank tequila from the bottle
Taking hard pulls.
Your laughter a soft pelt around me, moist arms
too long in the sun, fragrant as salty peaches.

Oh but we were mad with love!

And puzzling over mysteries of Sioux design,
high & salty
Impatient for communion
We took our time beneath the smoke hole.
                             #

 

[lenny flank]

Here's the poem I want on my tombstone:

From nothing I come,
To nothing I return.
What is this light
Between darkness and darkness?

 

[jimindenver]

Most of my writing is from decades ago. This I wrote this spring.

I now know the cure and I am sad.
To Tommy

I now know the cure and I am sad.
Even knowing there is a cure saddens me
I never wanted to be cured
I wanted to go on forever being in love with you
Even if there was never was
And never could be the slimmest of hope
I never wanted a cure to exist
I would have gone to my grave happy
Happy to know that I was truly in love with the one I could never have

Why want to be cured of something so strong it spans a lifetime
even against all odds
even if you couldn't understand
even if it disappointed you
Why wish away what few would ever, could ever feel
Accepting never is easier than being cured of you

The cure exist yet my heart resist
How could a spark so weak and short lived betray it
How could it let a spark, any spark diminish yours
The spark was weak and yours is still stronger
Yet it showed me there is a cure and I am sad
Sad to know that someday I may be cured of you.

 

[bpdchief]

Many years ago a friend worked at the drive in bank. Every payday I would see her to deposit my check - I would say " How's the prettiest gal in town", she respond "there's my guy". There was never anything between us (though I sometimes wished). One day she responded with a very terse "What do you want"... I just said to "deposit my pay". As I drove away that day, before I'd gone a block I came up with...

To put a smile on your face,
would mean more to me
than a soft kiss
from your sweet lips

While the essence of you kiss
would linger on my lips
the image of your beautiful smile
is forever etched in my mind
and in my heart

As time goes by
and I think of you( as I often do)
the image of your smile will remain
long after the taste of your kiss
is forgotten