I’ve entered two of my poems from the late 1960s into online contests. I tweaked them a little from the originals I found in Nov 2019 in a storage box.
LET’S NOT DEMAND SO MUCH OF EVERY SINGLE MOMENT
Let’s not demand so much of every
single moment;
in each fragment we’re
alive, a different herald trumpets in
a newer, fresher life for us
Don’t expect that every heartbeat holds
its promise all fulfilled,
each breath
an intake filled with laughter, carried
in on waves of something deeper than we see.
Look out from life, not in at living;
The things we share,
so filled with giving
Are handed over freshly carved from the
Chisels of our joy.
If we stop smiling, we’ll never know we’re happy.
TO S…., ON HER NINETEENTH BIRTHDAY
All green and full and dark from night,
Our day’s first light now strokes our sight
And rising, grey and blue above our eyes;
We vow our lives
Together.
A special time, a special year is here and
Gone and yet to come; we mark one
off from all the rest
and pause, quite blest and
Tender smiling.
Your special day, our special life.
We are but one
who lives in ever-present rolling love.
So I present my present for your day –
I’m simply present, a hopeful presence, for this day,
All days and every day
And night
Which slips up into dawn
As dark to blue lights up
The green, and you
And me.
As we walk, wraped tightly
in my arms.
As close we walk,
As close we talk
As close we are -forever.