Poems for Days 2 and 3

April marches along and here are my poems for the next two days. They were written to the prompts on Poetic Asides by Robert Brewer. I forgot to post the prompt for the first one. One of them was not for the prompt: The world is in turmoil. The prompt for April 1st was to write about how you got here. You might want to go back and reread the poem on my last blog, April is Here and It's Poem a Day Again!! with that in mind.

April 2, 2011

Prompt: Write a postcard about where you are now.

My Home Now

A few steps from my door
I see the abandoned pool
Covered now, but soon it will
be filled with the sound of
raucous voices and the water
will lap at its sides
Beckoning me to lay on the
chaise lounge and sun myself
until the sun warms me forcing
my heated body into the cool of the
Water.

Behind the iron gate, is the path
following the shore and the sand
beach reserved for the egrets and
water birds who flock there each spring
and summer and the ducks and swans
who raise their young among the tall reeds
growing there too.

Last year I wandered over the boardwalk and
beheld a mother swan giving lessons to her
brood and the surprise blew away the feelings
for which I had walked to the shore
bringing peace to my mind and erasing the
source of distress for a few moments

This place is now my home with its twin
four story apartment buildings and small patios
where some go to smoke.
I love the freedom to walk outside any time
I wish, and at last the spring has arrived
Soon I will walk the paths to observe maybe
a rabbit or perhaps another mother swan.
The serendipity of such a moment leaves me
Breathless.
copyright 2011 by Barbara Ehrentreu

April 3, 2011

Write a poem in which you imagine the world without you.

Would you miss me?

If when you went to Joanne’s house I hadn’t been there
would you have found another
whose lips fit perfectly with yours?
Whose mind twisted in the same patterns?
Whose soul intertwined with yours and
who considered you home no matter where we landed?

Would you have found another dreaming wanderer
a thin skinned crazy person who continued to
feel you were the one way past the time another
might have left to find a more sedate conformist?
What would have become of the unborn children?
Maybe they would have been happy born to another
success laying across their 2 piece suited lives.
Happiness etched across their faces.

What would the countless children have done
without me?
How many would have trudged through school without
my help?
What about the ones who hovered on the edges of passing?
Would they have found the teacher who really cared like I did?
Or would they have lost out and fallen to the wayside?

How would your life have been without me?
Perhaps you would have found the woman who
took care of your needs and then walked away leaving
you to enjoy your own company.
Maybe you would have stayed unmarried for the lack of a
kindred soul – forty-six years nonexistent
For you would not have stayed with someone like that.

And what of the joy we shared? Would you have found this
With another? Or would you have gone through your life
constantly searching and wondering why you hadn’t found
the one?

copyright 2011 by Barbara Ehrentreu

Thank you to all my new followers. Also thank you to the people who enjoyed and commented on my poetry. I hope that some of you will share your own poetry and join us on Poetic Asides. Writing a poem a day in April is similar to NaNoWriMo, except when you are done you have 30 poems.:) If you were thinking of trying poetry this is the time. Writing poetry is very different from writing prose. You are basically putting your heart into your words and feelings are all.

Until the next time, happy poeming to all!!!