24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
Pulled along,
leashed to your expectations.
Fast, slow, on course or off,
you set the pace.
I’ve had enough.
I use my weight
and dig in the tread of my shoes.
Resist.
Stop.
We stand at an impasse.
Each staring at the other.
I turn right, you lean left.
I step confidently, changing direction.
I tug, you follow, striding with me.
It is no longer you leading me,
but the two of us traveling side by side.
Estate sales are crazy.
Perusing all that is left of a life,
Hunting for bargains in memories.
A handwritten note falls out of a cookbook,
Elegant cursive,
Was the dinner a success?
This person LOVED Christmas,
Two rooms stacked full of ornaments,
Star cookie cutters well used.
What will my estate sale look like?
I hope nothing,
Let me leave nothing and take all love with me.
Footsteps repeating, life taken in at the pace of its original intention. The labor of my body propelling itself forward, swaying in stride. The soles of my feet touching the earth, Anywhere I may venture, is an honest measure of my efforts The sidewalk, night air, city lights, and trees, What orchestra will arise in the hours ahead? And in this quiet motion, will my words rise to mind? As oxygenated blood flows to fingertips Wherever I may arrive, My pride will never surrender the dignity of my feet. This mode of travel is pure Earth-treader, a wanderer is something to be.
If all I think is moving on earth
With bare foot and a crown of tears,
Then I really do not wish to be on earth
With a crown of tears.
I’d wish to fly some place far
Far above crowns on earth.
as if your breath could contain the world
to bridge me to pieces of myself lost to you in the folds of the leather
in your back seat
staring at the world meant to join us
in between all those moments we promised
we would save for ourselves
before we were all we had
in stolen seconds between rain drops
in the back seat of your car
meant to take us places
instead of separating here from there
until we are in the back seat of your car
stuck to leather
together
until someone finds out.
(c) r. l. elke
What does it mean to move
one foot in front of the other,
under boughs of trees planted long before
we were born,
under a rising sun, that since
creation has risen and fallen into
her place obscured some days but
always there,
under the pretense that we don’t have
to forage food or to be neighborly and kind?
Driving away our steps lost,
and our early demise comes fast.
A simple act, so recently neglected,
but so needed in this hyper, coddled existence
if only to feel the cool breeze,
to see the sun peeking out waving in cerulean glee
grateful to see us out and about on feet, moving forward.
Hour Six
Their eyes met
as they had done then
the band began to play
and her feet fell in step with his
like they had done
decades ago.
They danced to their own tune
their heartbeats making up
for the lost conversations.
The years in between crumbled
to nothing
their forked paths again intertwined
as they glided through the floor
their bodies rejoicing
in the familiarity that was feared lost.
the band played the last song,
the night faded to dawn
to twilight to dusk,
their dance continued
adding new chapters to
an old story.
So what makes you think I’m a millionaire?
take a closer look at yourself
because I don’t give a fuck?
about your money
your fame?
about other people’s fame in my legacy?
how many people you call devotee?
Because I walk in power and purpose?
because I know me and even when Im on some shit I stand in account?
nah. money can’t buy me.
Never could.
can’t buy this life
ain’t for sale
This Music of Life
Telling tales through the guitar
As violin weeps.
Poem 6 By Ingrid Exner Poetry Half Marathon 2021
Gathering of Elders
(inspired by my painting, GATHERING OF ELDERS)
I heard their whispers as I passed
in throaty, deep and resonant tones
They spoke of mankind’s lack of care
of genocide and lands stripped bare
So many species gone for good
Could we not see what harm we caused?
I sensed their sorrow, the searing pain
of generations lost in vain
They called on to me to share their plight
to be left alone to nature’s will
their hope we will leave them to thrive,
allowing all life on earth to revive.
I made a vow to them that day
with hand upon the tallest tree
I’d do my part and change my ways
to re-establish nature’s reign.