The Night You Died

 for my friend Dallas

Known, though not at once identified

(the news came later) your shadowy presence

lifted me from sleep, your spirit waking mine.

                                ***

The only other bedside we ever shared 

was a hospital one, when I came to visit 

your newborn son and his mother.

Though ours was not a physical love,

you surprised me one time —

a light goodbye kiss.

You were being transferred.

Letters at least were free, until the years

of your sentence elapsed.

What was real, we decided gradually: you 

untrusting, wary; me uncertain ... at that first 

prison poetry workshop, 40 years gone. 

A revision of an earlier version which I thought was too lacklustre to adequately commemorate this long and dear friendship.

It's an important poem to me, because it was an important relationship. I'd love feedback on how it's working now, e.g. do you think it needs more detail, more explanation?

Sharing with Friday Writings #162 at Poets and Storytellers United.

Loss / Possession

 

I recall him:

handsome, saturnine aristocrat,

humourless brother of 

The Laughing Cavalier

on my mother's

wall ... fancy hat 

with swirling brim,

deep green coat.

Long lost now –

after she died,

all her property

dispersed or abandoned.

I remember too,

later, a card:

the Green Woman

wrinkled and wise.

A student begged 

to borrow, copy. 

I was reluctant; 

she promised return.

She never did. 

She moved  away, 

leaving no address…

Remembering, I see 

again, or still, 

that image of 

nut-brown, smiling face

kindly, knowing eyes. 

These decades later,

their clear features

revive: never truly

lost or stolen.

For Friday Writings #159: Making It New, at Poets and Storytellers United: a remix (or perhaps more of a revision) of an earlier version also written for P&SU. This one began as an erasure, then I rearranged it slightly in places for more coherence, and altered some words. It settled into three-word lines and four-line verses.

Not that I was unhappy with the original; this was just done for the purpose of the exercise. I actually like both versions and I'm not sure either is 'better', just different. However, such paring down can sometimes save a piece that isn't working. In poetry, often 'less is more'.

the future holds the final answer

 the future holds the final answer

thick with rain

pensive yet pungent

lift a seashell

an old song unforgotten

you could be journeying

falling through space

with great swooping cries

fierce and raw and loud

Golden Apollo who embodied the sun

bright and fierce

picked me up and threw me

through the thinning divide

rapturous light

purring across my heart

ever after

dwindling gradually

no bearing it otherwise

they are things I know

but I don’t understand

we don’t have to 

it needs so little

Poetic Asides prompt #28 for April 2021: a remix poem. Various possibilities were suggested; I chose 'take a line or phrase from each of your poems this month and work it into a cohesive new creation'. How cohesive, I'll leave you to judge! I picked whatever line or phrase jumped out at me from the rest; the title is one of them too. It seemed fitting to leave it all lower case, unpunctuated; perhaps it gives the reader more chance to make sense of it.

Shared in October 2021 with Poets and Storytellers United, for Writers' Pantry #92: Better Than Normal.