Poem A Day for Days 27, 28 and 29

Charles Simic

This is quotation Thursday, so here is my quote for Pomposh Dhar.

"Poems are other people's snapshots in which we see our own lives."
Charles Simic

Somehow I've fallen behind in both blogging and in writing my poems. I think the temperature being so high the last couple of days, (It was in the 90's in April!) and my own procrastination did it.:) But here I am back again ready to finish this marathon of posting my poetry.:)

I'll be posting all three poems here for Days 27, 28 and 29. I'm not that happy with all of them, but posting them anyway. Please let me know what you think. I've been getting some great comments from new friends and it warms me all over to think that you like my poems.:)

Meanwhile, before I post them I want to let everyone know the winner of the drawing for John Wayne Cargile's, my last guest author, "From Mount Olive" the eBook he is giving away to the lucky winner. The winner is:

harvey chapman

Harvey we will be contacting you to let you know if you aren't already reading your name here.:) Your eBook will be sent to you by email by John Wayne Cargile. I am thrilled that someone won and I can assure you that it was a totally unbiased drawing. If we can't get in touch with you we will give your prize to someone else. So hope we can get to you soon.:)

I don't want to think about the news, especially about the "swine flu" which has been changed to another name. I have gone through a few flu epidemics and when I was a teacher in Buffalo during the last flu scare they vaccinated every child and made us get vaccinations also.

I remember the last bad flu our family went through was when we all went up to Glens Falls to keep my older daughter company when she had her nose done. We figured we would combine it with a vacation, since it was Christmas vacation and we loved the idea of spending it in the country together. We had a great time the night before and saw "Dumb and Dumber". This should give you an idea of the time period. My younger daughter kept coughing all night, but we didn't worry. We figured she was just dry or having an allergic reaction. Well the next day we had to meet the plastic surgeon and that didn't go well at all. My daughter, who was fifteen had mono that fall and when she was examined the doctor found she still had some swollen glands. He wouldn't do the operation and then on the way out I noticed that my younger daughter didn't look well at all. She felt feverish and so we took her to a pediatrician recommended by the plastic surgeon. He told us she had the flu. So that afternoon, my husband stayed with her in our room and my older daughter and I went shopping in the quaint mall they had there. We had a great time and thought we might have salvaged our vacation when I felt awful and had a fever the next day. So my younger daughter and I were pretty much out of commission. My husband stayed with my older daughter, but the next day she had it too. There we were in Glens Falls with three of us sick with the flu. I mean so sick I couldn't pick up my head. But my younger daughter was sicker. On Christmas Day we tried to have a little fun. We didn't have a tree, but I hung their stockings and gave each a gift. That is another story, but since we are Jewish we didn't have a tree. However, we had a tradition of the stockings and gift. But my younger daughter had a fever that spiked to 104.5 degrees and no matter that I was so sick she only wanted me to bathe her. Think the feeling of someone stepping on your head and you have what I felt then. But mothers forget how they feel when their children need them. I rose to the occasion and got her fever down. Then I collapsed. Fantastic Christmas!

It can't have been fun for my husband, but he was the only healthy one so he went out for stuff and occupied us with fun anecdotes about the area from his travels. When my younger daughter felt better we came home. I was still coughing and yes, my husband got it just as we got home. He wound up having it the worst of all of us with a fever and stayed in bed for a few days. You could say that this flu pillaged our family.

That's why I feel like I should stay in my house and not tempt the fates.:) We all got a little bottle of hand sanitizer and I am starting to use it whenever I go into a store. When I was teaching I used to sanitize my hands constantly. So I'm familiar with that. Anyway, you should do that too. It's the only way to be sure you can keep your hands clean even if you're not near water to wash them.:) Of course, this may all blow over. It's all from Cancoon where kids went for Spring Break and in New York anyway, it's from one school in Queens and it has spread to the school where the siblings of the kids who went are going. So they have closed these schools. This cautionary approach might stop the spread if they can contain it. Meanwhile, stay out of places where there are too many people. I'm not even sure I want to go to the movies.:)

Okay, I've gone on too long, so it's time to post my poems.:)

Here is the prompt for Day 27:

Write a poem about longing. (from Poetic Asides with Robert Brewer)

Longing for New Love

Bring me back to new love
enrobing me in a bouquet
of fresh wants
ordered by the mirrored
desires of my beloved
Two existing as one
in all ways
as if each body
opened and engulfed
the other. Love so greedy
it demanded emotions too
new to examine. Wearing
each need as an experiment
as the lovers sleep walk
between reality in
a cloud of fulfillment

It’s a giving time when neither
lover wishes the other to know
the real person who lies beneath
the robe of dreams
placed on the other.
It’s a magical time unlike anything
envisioned in previous thoughts

You crave your lover as
a rich piece of chocolate
Devouring each other as if
there were no tomorrow.
Relinquishing the other
for a second is devastating
to both. Magnetized you cling
for minutes. Lips and tongue explore
until you can barely breathe. Taking a
gulp of air and plunging back into the
cotton candy of this feeling.

Sensitized - even the touch of his finger
draws you to his body to devour each
new plane and crevice and your days
are spent with this tender exploration
of which the two of you never tire. No
bed is too rough for you have the
comfort of each other and that mad
passion that uncontrollable urge
to pounce each time he is near
propels you whether the blanket
be velvet green grass whose
new mown aroma intoxicates you
Or the gravel beneath the hedges
where you fall in passionate
embrace hidden from the world
In your own dimension unaware
of the rough surface as the
smooth skin of your lover takes
you to another plane.
copyright 2009 by Barbara Ehrentreu

The prompt for Day 28 was to write a sestina. A sestina is a poem that uses six words that end the first six lines of the poem. You then use the words in a set way to create your poem. Writing a sestina takes practice and I'm not sure this is quite right. I followed the form, but it might be a little too stiff.:) Here is the form of a sestina and how to write one. Look at my sestina:

Sestina

It’s not hard to pick a road
when you’re wide-eyed and young
The one that speaks to you the most
is the one you will choose
whether it is good for you or not
this is the path you want

Life is full of promise and you want
to savor it . So you pick a road
for the needs you have now and not
the ones you will have when you are no longer young
The path you choose
should give you happiness to the most.

What happens when happiness to the most
though the thing you want
you realize you didn’t choose
and the right path and this road
were fine for you when you were young
But now it is more of a not.

Traveling along this path has not
given you satisfaction to the most
though you reveled in its contours when young
you are halfway through and it is not what you want
Now you must find a road
that at this period you would choose.

You would like to choose
the straighter less jagged path you did not
desire when you had the choice to pick a road.
The one carved with the footsteps of most
who found the path they wanted
carving deep footsteps onto it when they were young

They knew when they were young
For them it was easy to choose
They thought ahead of what they would want
and found the way clear and not
blocked by obstacles as most
have found as they navigated their road.

When you choose the right road
the one you want and love the most
it will matter not if you chose when you were old or young.
copyright 2009 by Barbara Ehrentreu

The prompt for Day 29 is to write a poem with the word "never" in the title. "Never ______"
Mine is again, not what I wanted to write, but here it is:

Never have a baby in the winter

Don’t be lulled by the warm breezes
bringing easy-going nights
Flowers bloom, you wade through
dreaming of your lover’s caresses
Lay there at night wrapped in his arms

Then you know there is a new life
rising within you and you percolate
the bubbles of happiness rising to the
surface though your life is not empty
There is another young one waiting for
your attention, craving your affection
You sail along on heated waves
in summer’s warmth the new life buds
Moving into fall your bulk increases
And the cool days bring comfort for
Your burgeoning form

The unformed life inside you doesn’t
know the weather has turned cool
or that snow will fall and curtail travel
creating blizzard-like conditions
on the day its new life will come
into the world. The sidewalks covered
while most stayed inside away from the
ice and snow piling up on dirty streets
You look out your window to this disaster
for no visitors will navigate this terrain.

At last you carry the new baby home
covered like a mummy in blankets
Forced to spend too many days indoors
as the weather grows colder.
But along comes a sunny day and you
bundle the newborn in more covers
Trundle it out in its carriage only to have
the wind blow allowing only a moment outside.

And as the baby grows each birthday canceled
for snow or sickness
Becoming the norm to postpone

Never have a baby in January, for the snow
will ice their emotions as well.
Capricorns can be as cold as ice.
copyright 2009 by Barbara Ehrentreu

Until the next time I want to thank all of the people who have been dropping by to read this. I have enjoyed meeting all of you. Tomorrow is Thursday and I will be highlighting another blog. It is also the last day of Poem A Day. It will be my last posting of the poems for this experience, but I will be posting my writing after this. I might start posting some of my stories here.:)

Stay healthy. Remember to wash your hands and take your vitamins. You know how I am a big fan of those. When I got the flu as I described I had forgotten to take my vitamins on one day. I never forgot again.:)