April Poem A Day Is Here Again!!!

Once again I must apologize for not keeping up this blog. These months have been filled with illness for my husband and I couldn't think of anything else. As I'm writing this he is in the hospital again with pneumonia. He has had it five times and we are hoping this time he will be cured of it. The doctors are going to try something new. Meanwhile, he has lost a great deal of motor skills since he has been bedridden most of the time. When he was not in the hospital he was in a rehab center, but in both of these he got sick. So you can see my time has been going back and forth from hospitals and rehabs to home. 

However, since this is April, I am participating in April Poem A Day with Poetic Asides and I am posting my poems for this here as well as in the comments there. In addition to my husband's illness, my sister-in-law has had a horrible accident. She fell down the stairs and hit her head causing severe bleeding. She is still in a coma. If you would pray for her that would be great. Her name is Cheryl. 

So you will see these are the themes of most of my poetry. As always, I appreciate your comments. Thank you to all who have continued to come here. I will try to post a little bit more.:)

One piece of news you may of may not know. My second novel, When My Life Changed will be published this fall by MuseItUp Publishing!! I will be posting things from this novel as it is edited.:)

April 1, 2014

Prompt: Write a beginning and an ending poem

My day begins

The day begins with a phone call
From the other resident of this room
Whose voice sounds scratchy and sick
As he calls from his hospital bed
And I remember other mornings when his voice
Warm and soft awakened me while I slid onto his body
And we connected like the two puzzle
Pieces we were

He calls now and I visit this version of him
The hospital bound one
Never knowing how he will be and
Hoping we will once again be together
Home with our life
I had thought so mundane with its sameness
Wishing we can spend aimless days sitting together
Watching old movies on TCM or
In nice weather on the balcony feeling the sweet
Air on our faces

Wishing he will be free of the yoke of this pneumonia
Canceling his strength and keeping him in hospitals
Leaching all from him and we play this game
Of hospital rehab ping pong hoping finally this time
He will be cured.

copyright 2014 by Barbara Ehrentreu

Ending

For Cheryl

In one instant Fate chose your end

Not the end of the physical you

for that is still here

Not the end of the history of you

for that will never change

The instant your foot touched the step

and the unbalancing became

a careening down the sharp steps

down, down to the bottom

The instant your well coifed head

touched the floor you had chosen

so many years ago with glee

Those steps where you moved

freely doing chores and greeting guests

down to the bottom where the 

red blossom surrounded your head

it erased you and you slipped into

sleep.

copyright 2014 by Barbara Ehrentreu

April 2, 2014

Prompt: Write about a journey

California Here We Come

The Mommas and the Pappas planted
in my snow-numbed soul the joy of
California dreaming and I seeker of
rainbows in my naive youth gathered
our few things and we traveled in a
1967 Fiat on unexplored roads
the scent of orange blossoms in my head
leading us onward through Arizona’s
pine scented forests into the great desert
whose sun soaked afternoons lulled us
and there was the promised land
freeways and shingled homes
lives lived in transition
rented furnished apartment with
a pool shrouded in smog most of the time
and a population changing day to day
and realizing the dream was not the reality
we traveled back to the snow and cold
back to where your neighbor lasted more
than a month and we left California to dream alone.

copyright 2014 by Barbara Ehrentreu

Until the next time, I hope some of you will decide to come over to Poetic Asides and post your poem there. It's a lot of fun and very supportive!