HastyWords's Blog, page 7

THE COMMENT POEMS BOOK by ROBERT WERTZLER

I have a friend I met years ago on WordPress who is consistently supportive and kind. He published a book that I just received in the mail. It’s so clever.

Over the years he would comment on a poem with his own poetry. Not just for me but for so many other poets.

So this is his book… of poetic comments. Each poem links back to the poem that inspired it. I love it.

For instance in 2021 I wrote this piece:

People you love will leave
It’ll hurt and you’ll cry
Your brain will have
A million things to say
You’ll blame yourself
Wish you could have done better
Wish you could have changed
Wonder what you could have done
But babe
If you loved them and you tried
If you were there for them
If you were honest with them
If you listened to them
Gave them what you said you could
Then it’s not your fault
When they want what you can’t give
When they change the rules
When they refuse to listen to you
You didn’t love wrong
Love isn’t a guarantee
Doesn’t make people stay
So let them go
And use that love
Where it’s needed
Because it is needed
Even if only for a season
And maybe when people leave
That’s love too
Maybe you deserve better
Maybe your love deserves better
And there are plenty of people
Who want, need, crave
Your kind of love

He commented:

Some will come into your life will be loved,
but time may tell,
or time May come —
that loves needs a distance
or a silence
in which it need not die.

Thank you Robert Wertzler for the many kindnesses you’ve shared with me.

His blog is here

SHADOWS

Shadows all around

Knocking on the door

Trying to find a way in

To gather all my sins

Crawling on the floor

Grabbing at my feet

Twisted and bleak

They slowly sneak

Hiding in the corners

I can see them shift

Sadistically surmising

Wet smiles devising

Living in eyes

Gray tinted envy

So ashen, so plain

Flashing disdain

Shadows all around

Jealous of the prisms

Refracting my light

Life so beautifully bright

FORGOTTEN

Cities built on forgotten feelings

Stand for a little while waiting

For the weight of emotion to come

For the scale to balance our past

For the foundation to give way

Just so we can say “I sure miss you”

And mean the words and know

That the version we once were

Will be gone but not undone

I WONDER

I wonder if the stars are certain

Or if the sun ever has a doubt

Does sugar cane wish it was sour

Does red velvet wish it was black

Do plans dream of spontaneity

Do words get tired of letters

Can numbers feel their value

Can believers ever be stayers

I wonder if lions ever lie

But I’ve never wondered more

Than wonder was ready for

SMOKED EARTH

The world fell like confetti

Through the black void of space

Just poof

A ball of dust and life gone

No explosions or eruptions

No trumpets or piano chords

No bye bye Miss American pie

Just melted skies drifting off

Like lazy smoke looking

For a new place to begin

IF MOURNING WE MUST DO

Grief has its own set of lungs

And tears that etch and burn

Lyrical scriptures engraved

Upon our very tongues

Sorrow is a bright flame

Slowly consumed by time

And when the fire dies

Love remains the same

If mourning we must do

Because life never lasts

Then I hope I do it well

To honor the light of you

TOO NOISY

I trashed more posts this month than ever. The older I get the more meaningless I feel words are. Mine specifically.

Everything feels noisy. My skin. The sky. Your hair.

The weight of failure is noisy. I keep failing. It keeps screaming. But the weight isn’t as heavy as I thought it would be. Maybe I’m stronger than I used to be.

I had a blogging friend stop talking to me after decades because of noisy words. I hurt his feelings or something. I’m not sure. Unresolved but still noisy.

I have other friends I can’t find words for. Time swallows more and more words. The silence has become noisy.

I started a website that hasn’t seen a sale. All I can do is walk away for a bit. It’ll be okay. I haven’t failed yet I just need some distance from that particular noise.

I got swallowed up over Thanksgiving break making more things that probably won’t sell. It made life a bit more quiet for a bit. Just the process of working with my hands. Of creating. Of speaking without words.

I want to be with my boyfriend but distance is harder to dissolve than we had hoped. Only time will allow the distance to melt away. In the meantime the distance is noisy.

I’m life tired. With every word I choose not to speak or write I’m sinking further into my weariness. I’m convinced there is a magic behind thoughtful words and I just don’t have any magic left in me.

It’s just too noisy.

DRIPPING PAIN

There is a collective pain

A bleary faucet that flows

Spiritual hand me downs

Into our hearts and souls

Born empty and open

Waiting to be filled

As the pain begins to drip

From one ancestor

To the next. To the next.

The unhealed wounds

Broken and bleeding

Into you and me

Into all of us

SKYWARD

The sky dropped to the ground

And nobody even noticed

I collected the stars at my feet

And put them in my pocket

Broken orbs of light

Caught up in string

Turning into stardust

Inside my fabric locket

And the world felt sad

Broken and confused

It was dark and cold

Just an empty socket

The day you were born

You painted a new sky

And all that stardust lept

Skyward

Like a thousand dozen rockets

RECONCILED

I reconciled an old wound

As I slept and dreamed

Old regrets never resolved

Played out and laid to rest