24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
Dear Angelica,
If you’re reading this right now then you made it!
Congratulations!!!
I don’t have much to say
Except what you already know
Everything happens for a reason
Just know you’ll learn to love yourself
Your life is a journey
And YOU are meant to be
Born for a reason
For your Soul’s Purpose to fulfill your Life’s Mission
You Are Darn Good
Better than good
You are You
Copyright © 2019 by Angelica Stevenson
All Rights Reserved
Dad, if you were still here, you would die all over again. Your body would implode, like mine is trying to do. It would simply crack apart, like mine is trying to do. We are so much alike, unable to turn on others to ease our tragicnesses, unwilling to tear someone else’s hair out to sop up the blood pouring from our gapings.
You told me in that dream, we are not like them. I thought I understood what you meant, but now I really know. You and I are not like them. We do not attack others to make ourselves forget that we are being carried away by wolves who wholly intend to rip us apart, and feed us to their own. We do mpt become the wolves to try and forget the smell of blood in the air is our own, our childrens’, our grandchildrens’, our great grandchildrens’.
I am trying, Dad. I tried, but they are all gone now. There was a gun. There were two shots. They are all gone now.
I wish you were still here.
I’m so glad you aren’t.
Do you recall,
or not so much,
when you could speak
without rhythm?
When all your words
were simple
and you were happy
with ’em?
They suited
all your wants
and needs
and no one
thought
much of ’em.
And you could
speak,
then go to bed,
and dream without
suspicion?
Then one day,
you thought in rhyme
and wrote it down
and spoke aloud
and all the heavens
opened up
and poems fluttered down.
Then simple speech
was not enough.
You felt each thought
was coarse and rough
and so you smoothed
them, felt the tough
ones soften to your touch.
Sonnets came,
sestinas too.
Dividing them,
there held like glue
the free-form
words
and then you knew
you’d never sleep again.
So when the chance came,
MARATHON!
To wear your mind out,
wear it gone,
for just a little,
dawn to dawn,
you signed up,
COUNT ME IN!
Now here you are
dreaming of dreams
suspicious of them,
so it seems,
but missing where
adventure teems
and steams
to flavor all your sleep.
But you can’t sleep,
you said you’d write
from dawn to dawn,
all through the night,
and so this letter’s yours
alright,
so you can keep your word.
Tomorrow, after we’ve had
our sleep,
and eaten more than cheese
and meat,
and had a beer
and sat outside,
no poet then
we’ll be.
Thankful for the poetry
more thankful
for the rest
we’ll say,
“We’ll please not do this again.”
But I know you,
and you know me,
and come next year
we’ll both agree
there’s nowhere else we’d
rather be
than here,
Oh Marathon!
Love,
Your Pal,
Morgan
We never had much as potato farmers in the poor man’s village
But luck, your sibling, gave us a token to turn Lady Fortune’s wheel
With assistance, we escaped poverty but landed in a dreadful world
The middle class, where we all tread forward while you push back
Pizzas, pies, and cakes are divided
So that everyone may get a fair taste
But maybe, I want you all for myself
So that no comfort can get away
Riches are an endless chase but I’ve always been behind
You favor some but your loyalty is to no being
If opportunity is truly abound and for all, then why not me?
Why aren’t I the one sitting poolside in Malibu?
I always have to justify my reasons for being so possessive
You are a motivation, a beacon that guides my determination
I would give it all up, if I could only, experience you for a day
Then I would know the plight of a rich man and feel sorry too
Dear Jane,
How I wish you were here
to have an afternoon tea,
make sly commentary
on the women surrounding us,
their transparent wiles
and winning ways:
such a penetrating gaze
you leveled at our small world.
None were safe from your
pithy review.
Minutiae always held meaning
for you, the smallest detail
painted pictures of a world
since faded, lessened
by your absence.
The mortification of foolishness,
passion and practicality,
the misjudgments of hastiness,
the complexity of appearances,
and the persuasiveness of forgiveness,
in these you were very well versed.
You were taken too soon,
dearest of friends,
but your legacy for me
only becomes richer.
Fare thee well.
In darkness when we met
You shine light upon my path
Now I watch dawn glow
See, I am my own light
I am sun, moon, stars
Plankton, planets, sun
I am the centre
Too Brief
Virginia Carraway Stark
In the winter the days go by too quick
And you miss the sun
In the summer the night’s are too brief
And you miss the dark
The moon becomes a pale faced stranger
Who whispers in the light
The stars are distant wanderers
Foreigners
You used to love
In the dark if winter
It is the sun who becomes pale and wan
He never comes too close
he only peers over mountain ranges
As though afraid of the dark himself
Or perhaps the cold blackens his light
The stars become magnificent,
Magnified by the closeness to the polar wind
And their waltz with those
Conspirators
Who crackle like old hags
And make no better background
To the imminent meteor showers
Pulling back their pink, green, white and blue
Curtains of midnight colours
To reveal the cosmic show
That freezes in your lungs
And reddens your cheeks
As yet another too brief season
Plays out its drama in the sky
My Dearest Tim,
Too long apart,
though never really separate.
Our souls touch, connect …
always, forever, since the first lifetime.
It’s time …
to re-energize the twins;
that is our souls.
Meet me now,
at the place we know;
playing our hands…
winning the game,
the fame…
And mostly the love!
Love, Light & Laughter,
Always Your Angel
I need you now more than ever
the sphere that spins below my feet
is unforgiving
The sun that awakens and sleeps
travels faster each cycle
And there’s never a moment
when we‘re together
where the leaves don’t evolve
into another shade
Take me in your arms
and whisk me away
to a slow world
I want to be able to feel you, finally
with no ounce of urgency
or hurried manner
Just you and I
while eternal sunshine
protects us from the seasons.
One taste is not enough
a bite of sugar is too much
time better spent not eating
rather, try exercising, breathing
instead of picking up some eats
find painting, writing tomes as treats
find some friends, and confide an hour
till you find comfort and special power
there’s steps to take, defects to free
and then you’ll find a happy me
when storms abound, never cry
meditation clears the sky
in self loathing never stray
and future, past be always gray
in present may you always stay
if worry e’er erupts your day
sing a song, go out to play
if nothing works
just kneel and pray.
-Sandra Johnson, 6/23/2019