Poems

I love poetry. I love reading it and I love writing it. Oddly enough, I used to hate poetry when I was growing up… I had no time for figuring out what the heck these people were trying to say! But when I was a child I loved it and now that I’m in mid-life (what an ugly expression… it sounds so matronly) I seem to love it again, especially Emily Dickinson.

Anyway, I wrote these tonight (except for the first verse of the second one which I wrote about a month ago and left hanging around). I was playing with Iambic Pentameter… I love that phrase.

***

To See

The vacant eyes and vacant hearts of those

who come to take what they know we supply

look through me, like a ghost my person fades

not flesh & blood, can neither live nor die.

But I see them and wonder what they are

with colored hair tied back in fashion drawn

as guilty if I only guess their worth

while having not the facts to base it on.

Are we all people who still laugh and cry?

Do all of us unite in hope and pain?

I watch your plastic face and see it change

from mask to flesh, humanity is gained.

For me, I find my tension starts to fade

as I remember you are human too

and start to feel the way I think you might

while wishing you would try to do that too.

***

Different

Your way and my way are different,

But there is no problem I see

’til one of us says to the other,

”I think you should do it like me.”

My land and your land are precious

our customs and language diverse

all our beliefs are held holy

‘Til one of us says, “Yours are worse.”

My life and your life are simple

Until we feel that we need more

and turn to the other to grab it

leading our two lands to war.

All of our children are fragile

With bullets or bombs they will die

And all of our hearts will be broken

when, grieving as parents, we cry.

So, clearly there’s only one answer

To making the violence cease

To accept and enjoy our divergence

As, gently, we move toward true peace.

***

Iambic Pentameter

I love the way the words roll off my tongue

The beat, the sound, the meaning that I find

Like grapes so sweet and bursting forth with juice

Refreshment greets my ears and fills my mind.

No definition quite can fit their hum

No box to hold them tight or keep them neat

They’re just an exercise for moving lips

That makes your mouth feel happy and complete.

Like golden flowing hair in rainbow shapes

The words float through the air and fill the room

They twist and waver in your hungry ears

As if they’re threads upon a magic loom.

A phrase, a name, a certain lovely word

Can fill my mind with wonder at the sound

And even if I don’t know what it means

I feel the joy in speaking it abound.