The Poetry Marathon

Every Time!
Virginia Carraway Stark

Every time I have begun
It’s time to begin again
Every time I think I’m done
I find I’m half undone
every time I’m half done
I become undone again!
Becoming done is half the fun
Becoming undone isn’t such a rerun
But running is a lot of fun
Especially if it’s in the trees
and not in a loop
Or backwards
Or forwards
But rather in whatever direction
I want to go
Trees whipping me in the face
And truly nothing getting done at all!
That’s the most fun at all
And then; panting for air
I haven’t earned
And falling all over myself
I know I’ve come completely undone
I laugh and fall onto the ground
For I’ve done the very thing
I was trying not to do
But in the most fun way of all
That is how it happens
That every time I have begun
I have to begin again
Every time I am undone
I happily begin again!

Rushing and I Can
Virginia Carraway Stark

Sometimes when I’m rushing
I have to wonder why
there are way more missiles
and satellites
than stars
than I can count in the sky
sometimes when I can
I wonder why
I let so many golden chances pass me by
Laughing and running
With flowers in my hair
Should I have been wiser?
Or was that part of the golden afternoon?
When I saw that I was covered in flowers
Did they evaporate into the air?
Sometimes on the pyre
I have to wonder why
the children were ever brought into things
especially myself
I have to wonder when
and who
thought they had the say
that dignity was more important
that childhood anyway

Don’t break the china on my riddle
my words are all in vain
the past has passed
the future’s come
lets enjoy it anyway!

Sunshine and Storms
Virginia Carraway Stark

One day you’re coming
Going is fine
Coming up the street
Sunshine on your shoulders
Clouds crossing your path
A delight in the sky
Rain pelting your your path
Refreshing and fine
Only to return
And to find
a tornado has taken
all that was yours
hailstorms have claimed
your crops and your wine
Coming and going
both were just fine
the wind was refreshing
the sunshine divine
how could you know
their was a twister behind you
taking everything you loved
leaving nothing behind
the sun still was on your shoulders
a breeze ruffled your hair
a bit of rain
devastation seemed a nightmare

I wish I knew
Virginia Carraway Stark

I wish I knew
A million years ago
what I know today
with the world
spinning faster
thousands of years go by every day
how many millions of years ago was it
that I sat in the forest and listened to
the crow say hello, hello, how are you?
how many thousands of years ago was it
that I lost my mother?
my child?
my brother?
was it a hundred years ago or a thousand or more that I was hit by a car?
all time and space have lost their place
in the immensity of the global events
but I recall when the I touched the tree bark
and saw the mushrooms sprout with joy
I know that that was millions of years ago
and in a dimension far far away

Every, if I could, if only,
Virginia Carraway Stark

Every muscle is slow and straining
On this saturdau morn
If I could stretch just a little bit further
I could poke through my skin
bird wings would spring free
From gashed skin
and every weakness would fall beneath me
Assuming I only knew how to use them…

I would learn how to use them
Now that the moment has come

Bandage my fingers
Virginia Carraway Stark

The road is at my feet again
I take a tentative step forward
I can’t wait to see
How each time I crest
Each new horizon
I fall in love
With every view
Again and again
And how there are the very few things
that never change
for if they did
the adventure wouldn’t be worth trip
hand in hand
ask me never
if I need your hand on mine
to make life worth living
or the spirit of adventure in my ever step

I remember the swans
floating on that stream
the one where I wore the llama shawl
and we plucked our first dreams
from weeping willows
trailing branches
broken fingers in the current of never ending delights

Examining each flower for perfection
finding it and it was more than enough
to leave it to grow and exhale

We are pioneers of love
of life
though they slapped our hands
and tried to break our fingers
Our children have become plentiful
Swimming behind us in a line of love
Don’t ever give up
I’m sometimes a bit slow
I trip on my love
as I drag my broken fingers in the stream
This is where we saw the sun rise
Land of unfettered dreams
Bandage my hands for me
make me whole again
then I’ll be what you imagined
and you’ll be all I dreamed of too
it can be like a movie
where there are clean sheets
and the movie is over
a new movie begins
it’s the land of new stories beginning
this old ones stale and done

Waiting, soon
Virginia Carraway Stark

On this summer day

the day slowly brightening
from a constenance of gloom
to one of brightness

hope that I’ve cherished
holding swaddled and tight
so that it can’t spread it’s wings
fly away
leaving me bereft

that sweet butterfly has grown
from a dream
to a hope
to a frightening reality

Not everything has to be so hard
even when it becomes clear
that a madman is writing the story of your life

Only then is it safe
to let it fly away safely
my hope born on strong wings
known that My faith is resting strong
Where once I knew only fear
And thought the story of life
Was in the epilogue or over

Now I know
I’m still drying my wings
like that butterfly
free of my chrysalis
but not airborne yet
soon
I hear it in the air
I hear it in the sunbeam
That dries my colorful wings
I hear it in my heart
That we’ll fly away together
Our story is barely begun
I can hardly way
To turn the page
And read our next adventure
So long as we’re together

Virginia Carraway Stark

If I had the dream
That we should be the only ones
Alive in a world of two
And we found away
To do away
With all those things
That we fear so well and true
I know you’d come away with me
But do you know I’d run away with you?
It seems so often that you think I’d rather not
If I had the choice
Of pristine beaches
and fishing troves
Coconuts and never-ending sun
Even if there were days when cyclones
Threatened to end our blue skies for good
I would run away with you
Just for the chance
Of endless beaches
And a world of two
Most of all I hope
That you know the contents of my heart
And in the knowing
Know that I love you

What was that Dream
Virginia Carraway Stark

What was that dream
I woke up from
That left me so soft and sad?
What sorrow woke me
From what shores of golden slumber
To troubled waves of darkened distress?

How glad I am to have that sadness
Taken from me by the raging of the clock
To wake up in the blazing light
And type my heart’s love

How wonderful it is to know
That I was sleeping not so long ago
And even though I knew sadness in a dream
A dream is woken from
As ease as opening the eyes
Acknowledging a new day’s dew
Now cools the brief fever that laid on me

Sexy Zebra
Virginia Carraway Stark

Laying like a sexy zebra
I didn’t get no sleep
I was thinking heavy thoughts
About love and sex and death and life
And all those other things
That keep us zebras up at night
I wasn’t able to close my eyes
Without hearing a crashing roar
And waking up with tears on my cheeks
For all the lost and lonely times
I longed for hands around my shoulders
I was thinking in black and white
Did you know that zebras start out black?
And that they only get their white stripes
As they grow up on their way?
In the same way I was thinking dark thoughts
I was wishing for things that could never be
Fragments that make me much more complicated
Than I ever wished I had to be
All I ever wanted was to love
to be loved
I never wanted to cry in the night
But like a little zebra
Growing into my white stripes
I became a little bit less sad
Because I thought
and… I think… about the love I gave
…the love I give
…the love was always there
No matter what others think
About the zebra big or small
And if they think that zebras come conceived
In stripes from the start of them all
I know that I love
That love is all I know
That the fragments that shard and break
And hurt those barefoot who walk around
I am hidden for survival
I am in love with light
Even when I have to hide in the shadows
From the big bad predators
That still stalk and walk
To this day
Sexy zebra
Not enough sleep
But hell; I always look good enough to eat