for vicki who loves this poem for the best reason ever: just does...
<•>
read a thousand love stories,
pause, rest awhile,
read ten thousand more,
and then deny equality.

If you ask for no more than you can give,
you ask for not enough

love is imbalance not an equation,
with a single solution

love has both constants and variable factors

so you write of tribulations and tributes
so you write of lamentations and liftings

you think you are on the same page
perhaps
but do we not all read at different paces?

one of you is solid, one is dotted and dashed
one of you is straight, one is bent, forever curving

when you think you are
in balance
in the same place
in syncopation

perhaps you are for a moment
a calculus of one point on a trajectory

and you say I can only ask for what I give
and am given
and no more,
you have miscalculated

this flux
flummoxed
when the old terrain is flayed flat
but thru the windshield you see the
plateau ends, the geography unknown,

when you see unknown
when you seek the unknown
when you give from places you did not know
you had to give from
when you kiss a hand
for  twenty minutes more than than the one minute you intended
when you give more than is asked
when you ask for more than you can you think you can give
the imbalance that  is the only concert
the imbalance that is the the only constant

how do I know this?

what are my credentials?

you are not a teenage girl,
what matters of what you know, recall of these matters?

I am who I am
a diversity of man and manner;
I am past prime and in decline
but this I know
for having failed ten thousand poem times
you must ask for more than one can give

but that's not fair!

silly one, still wretched confused,
even after one hundred thousand poem times

you must ask of
yourself
more than you can give
and ask no less
demand no less

a body in emotion is not a body in rest
when the imbalance is too great or insufficient

then you write a poem
look in the mirror that cannot lie
and move
on
or
move off

  begin to ask
yourself
to whom may I give myself
more than is asked.
then you have finally asked
the correct solution to the
unsolvable equation
---

You and I have been friends for many moons
You and I have played together countless afternoons
Not to mention many mornings and many nights.

Since today is your birthday, I want to send you: kaleidoscopic lights
Multiple dancing rainbows of heaven, exotic flowers
And warm hugs and I’ll blow fresh new kisses from afar to your ears.

I called you my special darling for numerous reasons
I hoped our friendship would flourish through all seasons
Even though I am now disappointed, down and sad
And though we’re no longer committed to each other; I’m not mad.

No matter what, today is a special and beautiful day
For you and me. I’m very happy for you
In my heart, you will always have a niche, a stay
You will forever remain deep in my spleen and my soul.

Copyright © May 2025 Hébert Logerie, All rights reserved
Hébert Logerie is the author of several books of poetry.

DEAR PENPAL PEOPLE, an old draft from last week:>


is there really a future for this misery
a new page that heroes the plot as a decent start over apology

craves distance and knows that would be known
angel like plastic sensations to the dawn

kept on stove to be loathed into a tomorrow
for the heart to yearn for the mind to dwell for the feels to borrow

midnight skies not even there not been predicted
lulled on the moons they say so I stay anonymously protected


                                                                                    ------ravenfeels

DEAR PENPAL PEOPLE, waste before you taste cries:\


holding me this way      

     never thought id never wanna leave

                                                                               -------ravenfeels

DEAR PENPAL PEOPLE, life is a bliss in hell:}


your letters

spits I never want to breathe forever

knuckles you shoved into my back again never

but things may trail things may leave may dust

aiming for the swoons in my appeals an everlasting lust

skies upon the blues and the purples they stain

dances on seven hells of moons to remain

notes on ears on papers in the awake

heart and soul bared no more here at a paling so called stake

brushes braided in the befores

on this night

on this day


                                                                                       -------ravenfeels

DEAR PENPAL PEOPLE, colors are the reason we're alive---at least for me;>


purple purple

in my mind forced hurdled

been scraped on my timeline

been worn on my curves fine

yes the archer in the water associated

stupid but for the imagination to retake it

on those eyes that looked into my defenses

affection in the caresses

of my defined tenses

rather than that of the skies illuminated on beach

or hairs on backs so hard to bleach

now I see clearly

nothing but the signs that come freely

butterflies that I hate secret narrows

walls already painted threatening arrows

already loving for them hollows




                                                     ­                                 -------ravenfeels