list poem
I got lost
I got lost
that time we met
and I fresh
from parents splitting;
lost
in that heady taste
of flesh consuming, the
newness overshadowing
compatibility of spirit;
lost
upon driving
to your home
to meet the parents,
your directions
- misleading;
lost
on that bridge
when you asked for my hand
("some day" inferred yet I
grasping "soon-now-security").
lost
in my nurturing spirit,
your needs and pursuits place
well ahead of mine;
and lost
in "I am married now,
this is the life I lead, decisions
I must answer to;
Yet finally found in thoughts
and strengths that lead to growth
and the learning to breathe.
association poem
Yggdrasil
In the spring, my youth, affinity for need held fast
for the leaves and roots, the tree symbolic.
Even as harsh my mother's voice decried
her pet name for me – Raintree, Tree –
of which I shied and flinched, my heart fair parched
took seed in the mire of strength.
And on the brink of spring to summer set some
ubiquitous thing as yet implored
so turned I to it, face to the breeze, explored;
There along the trail somewhere in Belize
two young lovers stopped to touch the trees.
This one, the bark medicinal and
this one the chicle' to make gum,
and this one with tiny peppers the guide
grasped as fast we passed.
Yes, you recall, that one when you, the man,
followed his lead and I, laughing full
as the guide replied, "habinero?"
So long I thought I found some strength in you,
the firming of roots, attempt at fruits.
Yet they were visions lost in rings of years'
commitments to roots of rot.
Even so, in my late summer lost, chi too wet
with no direction, I turned to climb
nine levels of Norse hell to heaven
Yggdrasil to my back, inked and sore
the tree steadfast onward I conquer.
