A Little Poetry

It's National Poetry month. In years past, I have participated. I have started in April with good intentions. Writing a poem every day, maybe. It seldom lasts.

This month, I've been reading the poetry of two of my favorite professors here and here.

There is something wonderful in forcing yourself to create art often. It isn't easy, and sometimes you don't like what you come up with. In some ways, that is what I'm doing with this blog: choosing to write even when I don't feel brilliant, or ready.

Poetry doesn't come easily to me. I have pushed back against it for years, and in some ways I still push.

But I can't deny the power it holds.

So today I'm going to share a little of my poetry with you. Enjoy.

I wrote this in Imaginative Writing, my first writing class in college. It was the first poem of mine that I ever loved. 

Oxford

I don’t know it well,

but this gives me no pause,

because you know your way

even if we travel a path

you knew only when

it was covered in snow.

I do know the important bits:

there is a cottage,

a fire,

a teakettle.

We will take possession:

quietly, temporarily.

Few will know we are here.

They will not stand at their windows,

pointing and laughing at the foreigners.

Aside from frequent walks in the damp,

we will stay inside.

I will brew us a pot of tea,

holding you while it steeps

in the glow of the fire

you may forget about the teapot,

and, indeed, everything else.

I wrote this one for a friend who was very dear to me, after she passed away. 

Elegy for Mary 

You and I had much

in common: two souls

who lived in books.

But your eyes were failing

you, faster than we knew.

The rest of you followed.

If I had known that

time would be so short

would I have come

more than once a

week? Come to read

into your blind eyes and

sip bittersweet lemonade

in the overstuffed chair

near the sliding glass door.

Perhaps when we meet again

you will read to me, with eyes

wide and clear, not straining

against the pull of darkness;

you and I, flooded with light.

This one was just for fun. 

We regret to inform you

that today is not the day,

the flight has been delayed,

the die has been cast,

the position has been filled.

We wish you luck in:

your future endeavors,

placing your work elsewhere,

sorry, try again.

Your call cannot be completed as dialed.

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