For twenty-two years
I have nurtured you
inside  my body
like a child in a womb.
I have
protected you
like a well-kept secret.
and now
I send you out
to the world
I hope
you will do great
things,
save broken souls.
I hope someone
finds solace in you
like I did.
that is all I can
ask of you.

I sent a Valentine’s Day card to a friend
Filled with get well wishes…
Hoping she was on the mend
I sealed it with heart stickers
On the envelope flap

Got my mail today
And what did I see?
Familiar hearts stickers
On the envelope flap

I thought it was from her
But it was not to be

DECEASED?
I cried
No not her

RETURN TO SENDER?
I didn’t know
How could that be?

UNABLE TO FORWARD?
What do you mean?
Don’t angels get mail?

No need for dark cemeteries
In that hardened mind of yours
For I’ll meet you on the estuary
Very soon, bright and blue

So be still, like the river ahead
But run deep from troubles
When they call your name
With fervent enthusiasm
Like the burning sunset
Which we all yearn to meet
Subconsciously

So be free, like a bee to be
And fly high from sorrow
When they curse your name
Until we meet on the estuary
Very soon, bright and blue

0 followers?

Dear New Poet:

Then I'm your man,
your very own
Northern star,
one leg up of a
3 legged stool,
upon which all,
we, enthroned poets,
the world-over,
do rule

the honor you
bequeath me  
to be,
a first follower,
your very own
first responder,

it, cannot be
disdained
nor
diminished
this instance,
this birth,
a novice revival,
heart transplant,
makes it
the sweetest blessing
to be the first—

let us be
the quencher
of a desert thirst so long
in the parching,
the throat burning,
by a desert sojourning,
of a now ending
forty times
four hundred years

so come to me!
message me a message,
find me a find,
your poem fine,
so now we vow,
our embrace will
ne’er be broken

give me this
honorific!
let us together
be terrific,
raise our glasses,
with arms entwined
toasting you and
all that mind and 
breasted chest of yours,
full bursting from
its future~contains,
of which,
its full release,
brings a fuller life
for us both

I am a father.
I am a grandfather.
I am a First Follower.
and a First Responder,
for all who need a leg up,
so step upon my heart,
it be but a first step upon a
ladder with no top, no end ensighted

my legs are as old as time, but,
measure me not by the rings and 
the metered scales of gray hair aging,
shock of white, a cain mark, wizard-wizened
but
by the muscles
of my deep affection,
the solemnity of this,
my irrevocable promise
this,
the blessing
we both make and earn, 
when you write,
and while we wait,
in quiet attendance -
for all of your good works,
your kept promises

Blessed
are You Lord our God, 
Ruler of the Universe
who has given us life, 
sustained us until now,
allowing anf alloying
treader and the writer, 
to reach,  meet, embrace
and greet this day,
this new born poem,
with hallelujahs
whispering and shoutings
together, one

a work of fine, seamless edges
comes from the hands
the tips
the strands of delicacy
wait and weight and wake
round the world
we greeks row and learn from
what we see and experience
when time ticks too on
we look far to the clock
an off sort of look with
a book filled with words
in hand and
wonder what we'll learn from it
talent, it seems to say
is not a learned trait
yet as we walk on towards
a more distant and brighter sun
time shines back at us and gives
and gives and gives
greater sustenance
succulence
and an eye that seems to glimmer now
wiser than it did
ever show us before

.
The ether shimmers.
Time slips.
Your words float,
and dance for my eyes.
But we belong apart,
destined never to meet.

Yet...

There is a connection
as images assault me,
directly from your pen,
wrenching my soul,
drawing the pain,
painting the pleasure.

And...

Your words found out
emotion is not dead,
its just a sleeping child,
waiting to be loved.
But we belong apart,
destined forever to be...

… perfect strangers.



© Pagan Paul (2017)