HER FACE, a poem

 

What do her expressions

in the photographs say

In most, she is smiling

In some, she is offering

an inexplicable face

 

Her happy countenance

captured in that moment

renews my memory

of her engaging smile

every day of our lives

 

Time erases most images

Photos make them available

to revive instances of life

that bring recurring pleasure

in again remembering

 

  

TOGETHER, a poem

 

 

Songs we sang together

spin through my mind,

lingering memories

of those happy times

With you

 

Walking all alone

to our park now

rouses a hunger

for those happy times

With you

 

Our breakfast table

began the feast

in my daily life

of those happy times

With you

 

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A WILTING BRAIN

 

        Struggling for the name

          of the sweet singing bird,

my ever-wilting brain

awaits a sudden spark

of minor memory

 

To every man and woman,

this form of mild dementia

cometh soon or late,

becoming ever worse

as we wait at the gate

 

Like Horatius of old,

I now stand ready to fight,

wielding a creative sword,

forged of my poetry against

the darkening of my light

 

Many readers will recognize the influences of Thomas Babington MacAulay’s THE LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME and Dylan Thomas’ DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT on this poem.

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MY RESERVOIR, a poem

My reservoir of words

of English with smatterings

of French, German, Italian,

and Spanish with bits

of Farsi and Arabic

available at my call

throughout my life

were collected from parents

from school, from books, from films

from conversations, from theater

from dictionaries and thesauruses

          The right word, the right phrase

          flowed at will

          into my novels, poems, articles

and conversations

then old age struck

The wanted words

slow in coming

or even blocked

by feeble recall

My reservoir remains full

but difficult to access

GRIEVING, a poem

          Real men don’t cry

          tell that to my eyes

          filling with tears

          when I speak her name

          I loved her so much

          Fire consumed the shell

          that contained her spirit

          Mix my ashes with hers

          around the rock and path

          I loved her so much

          Perhaps soulmates

          are earthly fantasies

          that disappear in death

          There is this certainty

          I loved her so much

         

           ====

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