24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
the gumball machine belonged to my sis.
i wanted it, but more than this
i wanted what was in it,
she never let me have.
one night i took the machine
and smilingly said
you can have it back when i’m dead.
she got that look in her eye
you know the one
and i felt some regret
but the deed was done.
i smiled again
and began to run
straight to the shed.
i don’t know what was in my head
but she cornered me there
and took the machine,
opened it up and said
lets share.
love is holding your newborn baby for the first time
love is sharing a bond
love is respecting your partner
love is being kissed good night
love is being kissed good morning
love is getting a hug when you’re in a bad mood
love is being tapped on the arm by your cat to get petted
love is an adult child worrying about their parent
love is getting a gift for no reason
love is going to Paris with your lover
love is sharing a secret
love is having a best friend to grow old with
love is a surprise birthday dinner
love is saying I’m sorry
love is cooking food for your family
love is turning on the TV for your husband who can’t figure it out
love is a pet sitting on the bed waiting for you to open your eyes
love is being told that you are loved
love is being taken care of when you’re ill
love is watching a sunset with your granddaughter
love is having dinner at a fancy restaurant with your grandson
love is having the family over at your home for dinner
love is profound
A cold, summer rain crashes into my
cheeks turned up toward the pouring sky
It stings my flesh
Like tiny barbs
Painful and soothing all at once
My arms outstretch toward the sky
My clothes cling to me
As every drop comes to me
With purpose
Oh, the purpose of washing all my fears away
White noise fills my ears
Blocking out the sounds of the busy road
Ahead
I let myself
Dance and
Twirl
And frolic
Like I was in a field of wildflowers
Water splashes around my footfalls
Soaking through my socks and my pants
My hair absorbs the rain and pushes it down
Between my eyes
Like rivers returning to the ocean
Laughter fills me
And I am overwhelmed with awe
At the simplicity of this moment
And the magic it holds
It’s tiny
cramped in there
always worried
day after day
that the squirrels
will choose you
of the hundreds
It’s waiting through
seasons of cold and
snow and ice and thaw
until you find a way
to reach downward
into the earth
and then upward
toward the sun
That’s love in a nutshell
[Prompt Ten: what is love – as title]
There’s a timelessness in the sort of sorrow i’m feeling
Will it last forever, end abruptly in this brain or simply outlive my bones?
Does it exist at all?
I feel all of this; and now, silence.
Smile, exhale
Peace is here within the lights flickering and all
So long as I seek it, it will be found
I no longer want to walk in the webs
I stop in my tracks
Looking at the beautiful mess I’ve created
Smile, exhale
And it goes
What Is Love?
Is love calm, and safe,
Or butterflies and roller coasters,
Flushed faces and romantic whispers
Or talking all through the night?
Is love gentle and kind,
Or fierce and wild,
Uncontrolled fire or a soothing balm
To body, mind, and spirit?
Is love all we need, to lift us up?
Does it destroy us forever?
Once it snares you, are you lost,
Or finally found?
Is a team
Of two, forever,
In the calm and the storm,
Passionate kisses
And talking nonsense till the sun comes up?
Love is Black
it is freedom rides
marches on Washington
and Black Lives Matter protests
and I am a man picket signs
Love is Black
it is historical
it is music
it is books
it is lifelong learning
Love is Black
It’s Mamie and Emmett Till
Merlie and Medgar Evers
Malcolm X & Betty Shabazz
Martin & Coretta King
Barack & Michelle Obama
Love is Black
it’s Huey P Newton & Bobby Seale
Elaine Brown & Assata Shakur
Stokely Carmichael & Fred Hampton
Afeni & Tupac Shakur
Patrice Lumumba & Nelson Mandela
Love is Black
It’s Richard Wright & Ralph Ellison
James Baldwin & Langston Hughes
Zora Neale Hurston & Alice Walker
Toni Morrison & Maya Angelou
Love is Black
It’s bell hooks & Audre Lorde
June Jordan & Roxane Gaye
Jesmyn Ward & Angela Davis
Jacqueline Woodson & Amanda Gorman
Love is Black
It’s Betty Davis & Donna Summer
Luther Vandross & Wilson Pickett
Marvin Gaye & Tami Terrell
Billie Holiday & Marian Anderson
Love is Black
our blood is soaked in southern lands and city streets
our bodies lie in waterways and oceans
we were brought to this place, severed from our pasts, our people, our history
but we reinvented ourselves, creating a culture from dust
Love is Black
we fight for the freedoms of EVERYONE
we carry democracy on our backs
we are shunned, criticized, our culture worn like clothes
AND STILL we fight, for us, for you and for you too
Love is Black
with every protest we raise a mirror for America to see herself
we have been fighting the longest war, the war for true freedom
the war for a near perfect democracy
we are the SOUL of America, and the soul is love and love is black
There’s three sides to every story
My side, your side, and the truth.
No one person sees it all, but
Anyone can learn to sleuth.
Ask your questions, open-minded,
Really listen to replies
Find connections, check your sources,
Slowly sift out truth and lies
Truth might not be what we wanted
If so, what are we to do?
Truth cannot control our actions
We cannot control what’s true.
What is Love? (Poem 10)
love love love love
love is all you need
love is all you need (Beatles)
When I consider love, I think they were right.
I think the most important love is for ourselves
because we project how we feel onto others.
How we feel is how we act.
If we feel mad and angry, we treat others
that way. But the reverse is also true.
If we want to love someone else
we need to first love ourselves.
This goes beyond carnal love into loving our home, our garden
and our neighbors and their neighbors and the next town and country.
Which brings up a directive that seems obvious: If you’re angry don’t act.
If you feel love consider acting but not always…gotta be discriminate.
But love is also little things
like Colleen laughing when I pretended
to be a big awkward bird flapping his wings
when I snuck up near her at lunch today.
Or thanking me for compromising and changing the
way we pack things and the floor matt configuration
in our campervan.
And sending the email to a mutual friend that neither of us
wanted to do while I was busy writing poems.
Love is being able to be comfortable when you let down your
guard and are the person that very few outsiders get to see.
Love is also being able to be still with each other and being
comfortable in silence.
What is love?
An invitation
to share your insides out
to feed each other the marrow
warm inside your bones
to fall so deep
into a well
one you will struggle at times to get out
If you do, you will never be the same
But oh love
It’s worth it
like the whole day spent
Cutting out paper footprints
Three floors worth
To the attic
A path for you to follow
I was nowhere in sight
But you found me
In the candlelit fort
I made from all of our blankets
Dinner waiting
Dessert waiting
This is love, making something out of nothing
This is what I have been doing my whole life
Making love