A poem begins with a lump in your throat. Robert Frost
Enjoy a few of my poems on this website:
EXCERPT FROM MEMORY & COMPLICITY
April 2002, Paris
I stand in a line of mostly silent people
on the sidewalk beside the Memorial de la Shoah.
I am sixty years old; this is my first visit
to a Holocaust museum
I loved this dressy-dress
as I spun round and round
in the dressing-room mirror
of Rich’s Department Store –
swirling the skirt, checking it out,
front, back, side-to-side,
yellow chiffon
Turnip greens, green beans, green tomatoes
in the garden just outside Miss Lizzie’s screen door,
Mason jars of yellow-orange peaches,
dense purple-red beets, bread and butter pickles
When did this happen?
My hands have become my mother’s hands.
I see her when I pass storefront windows,
pause to look at size zero mannequins
with flawless hands wearing clothes
I can neither fit in nor likely afford.
Reflections in the plate glass are surely not me –
Rain Every Day For Two Weeks
and the Chattahoochee River
runs wide and fast
covering the shoals
the river runs red
He came to the church for solace
the church of his parents, three brothers, and a sister
the church of Bach solos he sang as a boy
the choir loft always his sanctuary
I’ll add more along the way…
Visit Amazon.com to purchase Memory & Complicity, SHE, Celebration of Healing and Red Clay.