When no poem arrives,
It feels like waking in the night
and reaching for a sip of water—-
You know exactly where you left it,
the glass with a slice of lemon
and an etched decoration of trees
at the edge of a forest,
a forest you were dreaming of
just before you woke,
thirsty for a drink your hand can’t find
though you believe it’s there
just out of reach
breathing quietly in the dark.
Author Archives: Puff Of Smoke Poems
Poem In The Forest
If You Give A Boy A Car
Yes, oh yes,
I want to do enormous favors for you,
the kind involving cash, and inconvenience,
and driving long hours, all over the state,
preferably in the rainy dark, on deer-crowded
back roads, in complicated maneuvers
involving your car, your sister’s car,
a mechanic whose garage we can’t find
in the dark, and some guy named Lloyd
who we don’t even know,
but this day wasn’t a big enough mess
so we threw him in,
because you know for certain that
when everyone else says No,
You can ask for help from one person who
may well grumble or write a poem about it,
but will eventually pick up the keys and say
Yes.
This Star
Silver glitter and cardboard
tacked to the window frame
suspended from a pale green ribbon
this one star is for the two of you.
For you, I place it forever
in the window, a light
so small you can ignore it
for a long time
but always shining, always,
so you can find it in the dark
and see the path home.
At Sea
These days, all my dreams
are of being at sea,
far out in water so deep
distance has a different language
fathomless
mysteries swim below me
while I watch the stars
from my small boat.
Six Words: November 30
From a visitor, I just discovered Six Word Saturdays. based on the book Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Word Memoirs By Writers Famous And Obscure. Fun. Want to try? Visit Six Word Saturdays at Show My Face.
Here’s mine–
Trees Choose Trimmings: Snow or Lights?
Holiday Couture
Thanksgiving morning is sewn with crystals
draped on every branch.
Sky wears bright blue
with three puffy pink clouds
tossed casually over the barn roof.
Deer accent the wide field beyond.
The two cardinals are almost gaudy,
their splash of color nearly too much
for such a pilgrim holiday.
Diamond Of Possibility
Gathering things into piles
we’ll sort tomorrow
is how our lives
grow dusty,
how all the facets
in the diamond of possibility
lose their luster, dim,
and wink out.
Gather Is A Verb
An action word
can fool us—
Spinning in circles
is not the same as
climbing the mountain.
This Same Boat
Hospitals feel like high school—
waiting rooms filled with people
who have only this in common—
the anxious, the overtired,
the giddy, the lonely, the tattooed,
groomed, tattered, athletic,
and those who only move in herds,
all of them, all of them,
with too much to carry
and their eyes fixed on the door.
Puff Of Smoke Poems 