24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
I gulp fresh air with full breaths
Infuse life in lungs
I smell fragrant life of summer
the freshly mown lawn,
mingled with perfumes of
gardenias, hyacinth
jasmine
I run hands
through damp earth
I dance between the raindrops
Touch life
(inspired by my painting, SPIRIT OF THE WINTER BARN)
What haunts your vacant rafters
these cold mid-winter nights
where swallows nested in the heat
and cattle lowed in stalls beneath?
I feel a presence living there –
a spirit watching over you
a gentle, specter with no spite
who longs only to hold you tight.
So have no fear dear winter barn
I sense you’re safe ‘til spring returns
Enjoy this quiet, peaceful pace
‘Til life fills up your empty space.
I’ll go down
With him.
I’ll lay.
If a man
I’m with
Doesn’t get
Deez poems,
I’ll at least
Make him
Feel
This body.
It has
A lot
To say.
Lightning
(Hour 4 – Half Marathon 2021)
By David Hirsh
However you conclude
We will applaud
Some will stand
Others will stay sitting
The sound of your voice
Carries across the hall
Built for acoustic marvels
I, myself, am in awe
This is the third time
I’ve seen you recite
And each time
My mind dwells
In the words
I know so well
I wander around
With you
On your journey
Through the cities
And the places where people dwell
And the forests
Where trees, animals and forces of nature dwell
You show photographs
For those who need
Visual assistance
I prefer the words
That dwell between the silence
That live because you know how to hesitate
You talk about how you were almost hit by lightning
As a metaphor
And how you took long walks
To avoid playing cards all night
You were an avid loser at poker
Although you could read the other players
You felt bad for them
You weren’t that kind of killer
You would take a camera with you
And write about the pictures you took
And show those pictures as a slide
But I would rather hear the silence
Between the words
Than see what happened
To the tree you hid under
To avoid the rain
After it was hit by lightning
And continued to smoke in the fog.
Time drips across centuries,
turning the day bright
and bringing a starry night.
Life slips into memories.
It follows the sun
like currency
striking the sadness
like a match
it will crawl
into your new
into places never wandered
into your blank space
quilting upon your imperfections
making you see more than
what was intended
troubling your mirrored
reflection
you search your eyes
Eyes tell the truth sometimes
but like the earth
even eyes contain secrets
compartments
chambers
holes
wounds
from a life
of pushing down
The clouds surface onto your TOTAL
lack of understanding
of who you are in this world
your presence sparks conversations
making you lose sight
like fog
what is inside of you
surfaces pavements
unseen
cloudy and drifting
suffering to truth
Who Am I, when no one is looking?
Who Am I, when I am unseen?
The earth remains beautiful
whether we take notice or not.
Now its my turn.
Like cliffs in the distance
seen through a window
on an island in time
What a great mystery
is the rock we stand
high upon in the sky
Surrounded upon an ocean
of waving growing green
to the tallest tree
With a poem in mind
a song upon the heart
a whisper in the soul
Will it crumble to the ground
in small terrible pieces
or in a once great tumble
What will become of us
once the pillar falls
and time swallows us whole
Dreamy land
Where no man’s sad
Foggy skies
Where no one cries
Wind that blows
And I repose
Birds sing
And why not
It’s a Paradise!
Magical place
And I refuse
To shut my eyes!
She stares at the bridge, as she’s done years before
As memories across time come back to the surface
For once, she was younger, the foliage the same
As their timeless love story began
A young Marine and a seamstress in waiting
A summer romance gaining wings
That carried the pair across miles and years
Through whatever life tossed in their way
As she looks at the trees, she remembers his smile
In that sweet and yet, subtle request
To spend each forever, together as one
The start of their life ever blessed
Through trials and tears and all the good years
Their lives intertwined through it all
In memories, he’s there even if years removed
As the distance between becomes small
As the water bubbles and kisses her feet
She feels his warmth pass on the wind
She knows that still soon, her own life is complete
And for her, the angels he will send
To carry her home into his loving arms
Two hearts brought together once more
Together, as one, where the sand meets the sea
Reunited within Heaven’s Door
Plus lines from the book: THE GIFT OF ADULT A.D.D
By: Lara Honos-Webb, page 221.
You hide your peaks and valleys from me;
Afraid of all the unsightly things I may see.
And yet,
I only bloom with glee…
On your peaks,
I see you shining,
I see your growing
and your climbing
Reaching all the joys you deserve to have,
Cherishing all the warmth you were gracious to grab.
And in your crevices,
I see
the depths of love you hold for me;
The boundless zest
and the peace that gives Harmonious rest.
My love,
Be free!
There is only peace,
where you see travesty…
In what you hide,
you protect a vibe,
A pulsing treasure that’s a pleasure to see.
A Holy gift,
that the world longs for
And needs you to Be.
So,
In your crevice,
please know this —
“The world needs your gifts /
and your world needs you to stop beating yourself up /
playing small,
and feeling guilty about what you cannot do”.
