Losing Tad is a grief. You write it in love, yet without varnish. What Tad did for Markus, and for so many more, is a lift to the heart. Again, your simple, elegant telling makes a huge impact.
Thanks very much for reading this one. It was a wonderful, convivial evening, the kind when there were so many stories and discussions that one can’t remember them all.
I'm very grateful for your encouraging words. I think free verse scares me a little - like a mathematics problem that has no right answer. Structured forms can let me hang on to something, like a syllable count or a rhyme scheme, but free verse requires me to be a better observer and a more effective writer. That's why I admire your own poetry. You could say this means I need to practice free verse more, and you'd be right. My sketchbook has lots of blank pages left... Thank you again for taking time with this.
Grill smoke eddies and curls,
its column contorting in the faint breeze
while the evening commute hums nearby;
late afternoon sun glints
on golden Chardonnay as sparkling as our conversation,
a give-and-take as meaty
as anything roasting over the glowing coals,
and well-aged like the stories we remember best about ourselves.
Twilight and moonrise flavor our discussion;
books and politics make potent digestives
to be enjoyed li
@AC Benus I think you have a good point about this. This possible change might improve things. What do you think?
The final sorry thread must now unspool,
for he who hoped in peace to bide
neglected in his cell soon died,
by rank injustice played the fool.
You have an excellent point. I will have to reconsider that as I knead bread... thanks very much for your comments and thoughts. I’m enormously grateful you took time with this one.
This a very dark time in our history, I think. I was encouraged to see that a jury refused to convict a Samaritan last month. Others haven’t been as lucky.
Thank you very much for reading this. The recent story of a jury refusing to convict a Good Samaritan recently was heartening in an otherwise bleak tide of news.
This comes as an amalgam of stories from the border. And yes, Good Samaritans are being threatened and being made into examples to keep everyone else in line. Thank you for taking to time to read this very difficult poem.
Thanks for reading this, Gary. This is a distillation of current stories from the border, as you can guess. Good Samaritans are getting prosecuted and threatened with jail. They're made examples of to keep the rest of us quiet. In the meantime, the poor people fleeing violence and crime perish. My heart hurts over it.
He crossed a valley hot and wide
and staggered underneath the sun
along those paths that northward run
ignoring pain etched in his side,
for he, escaping knife and gun
had made his way by jungle trail
through tropic rain and stinging hail
o’er mountains steep and deserts dun.
Yet ever towards Polaris, pale,
he steered his gaunt and stumbling frame
until to traveled roads he came
unmindful of the risk o
I continue to enjoy reading this story. Kent and Stanley are engaging characters, with whom I can identify. You write in such a way that I am totally in sync with Stanley’s insecurities. You also deal deftly with Christophers lingering unease surrounding Nate, Tad and himself. Thank you for this chapter.
This is a great chapter; Kent and Stanley learning tenderness; Tad, Nate and Chris learning to be three and one; and then poor Markus. I know how he feels. You bring us into each of these orbits, and show us their developing lives. Excellent.