The Occasional Poem

Having escaped February in Michigan, the first writing accomplished was to rewrite and combine these short poems into a suite.

PERPSECTIVES: a suite

i.
Two children in kindergarten 
professed their love for me 
at the school where I work 
but they are five years old 
and won't remember me 
in a few short months, 
while I am now past seventy  
and will smile at the memory 
for as long as I live. 
 
ii.
The hawk’s thin screech as sweet 
as the cardinal’s varied songs
when the sun at last returns
after days of dreary grey.

Bare cottonwoods become
beautiful dogwood of May,
and hissing swans the embodiment
of gentility and peace.

Yea, even the deer herd is welcome
on those days the sun returns,
provided it stays far from hydrangeas
which first flowered last spring.

iii.
On sunny days 
we forget and forgive,
but on gloomy days remember 
those who have wronged us
and how much we detest 
the call of the crow.

iv.
Waves break rock into sand
over eight or nine million years
while we return to dust
in a handful of decades
and foolishly think it forever.

I am appalled by the state of our nation and feel compelled to use my art (may I call my poetry art?) to call attention to our rapidly disappearing democracy. But where to do so? My recently-arrived-at solution is to use Instagram for things political, reserving this blog for poetry and Facebook for meatloaf recipes and other things at which Facebook excels. On Instagram you’ll find me as joeneely55 and will often see posts similar to that which is set forth below.

My book, SLOW RIVERS, can be ordered through your local bookstore or online via bookshop.org. (ISBN 979-8-218-43822-7)

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