SPARKS OF GENIUS

What magic spark invests the minds

Of the weaver, who with common thread

Weaves an uncommonly beautiful cloth?

How does that spark enter the mind of men

Like Socrates, Mozart or Edison?

Would the clay from which these came

Be different from John Smith, farmer—

Joe Joseph—laborer, or Jake the tailor?

Why does some very obscure couple

Produce an Elizabeth Barrett Browning

And no one else that can compare?

How did Edgar Allan Poe know which words

Would make The Raven so eternal?

How do Paderewski’s fingers produce

Such glorious sounds on his piano

When mine sound like hail on a roof of tin?

Is there a single spark coursing

Through eternal time that skips

About from place to place to touch

Whomever it may strike by chance, or

Is it somehow programmed to appear

At designated times and places

To remind us of the fragility of “class”?

 

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ST. VALENTINE

St. Valentine has this special day

So men and women can open up their hearts

To special people, to all the love inside.

Do you see that flutter in the inner most corner?

That is just the nervousness I feel

When I try to tell you how deeply I feel

My love, what you mean to me.

I can only hold on to you when my heart

Tries to show how deeply my love of you goes.

I would have you by my side all my life

If you will only let me stay and hold on to you.

 

 

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HER SMILE

Her smile was glorious and bright

Like the first light of dawn on a mountain top.

Light sparkling in her eyes always reminded me

Of starlight reflecting in a clear mountain lake.

The bloom in her cheeks was matched only

By the soft blush of a rose covered with dew.

 

When she touched my hand, even lightly,

My heart would quiver in sheer ecstasy.

Walking in fields of clover and violets

Was always my favorite way to spend a day

As long as she was with me all the way,

My heart will always be hers until I leave.

 

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WIFE, MOTHER, LOVER, NURSE

 

Looking down at her tired face one more time

Memories came flooding through his tired, aching mind.

How completely naïve and innocent she looked

That first time he ever saw her, on that long porch.

The complete trust in her “so innocent eyes,” so wide apart.

How often she clung to him for strength and comfort.

The luckiest days of his life, she had been by his side

All these years…wife, mother, lover, nurse.

 

 

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MY LADY WITH THE JOYFUL LAUGH

 

She had such joyful laughter.

It had the lilt of love.

You could hear a love song in it.

Beauty seemed to peal out its bells.

How could love seem so alive?

My heart thumped in tune

As my body kept marking time.

Was I in love with her laugh?

Maybe I was in love with laughter,

Especially such a lilting laugh.

Did I hear a soul having fun?

Only a soul in love is so merry.

Give a laugh like that to love

That I might not know depressed love!

What beauty she had, and so easily

Expressed and so merry—

My lady with the joyous laugh.

 

 

 

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THE VALLEY

Sitting here on the old bald-top hill,

The quietness of the summit is so intense

I can hear a lone cricket sounding near,

Chirping birds and rustling leaves.

The steel mill below is a muffled roar.

Far off is the clickety-clack of a railroad train,

The whistle from the steamboat

Seems to blend with a child’s vibrant squeal.

The sounds from trucks, cars and people below

Create a strangely beautiful symphonic melange.

 

Our river flowing gently and endlessly

Runs between two long continuous ridges

Dressed with trees interspersed with homes

And the sculpted frieze on our inner city:

Office buildings, church steeples and tenements.

Lace-like bridges connect our city to the other one

Across that long breadth of river.

A string of factories and steel mill mills

Confronts an army of dirty faced homes

Running east, then south beside the river.

The older, yet still stately, homes are to the north.

 

A brisk wind shuts out the view

With low flying clouds and raindrops,

Leaving me with the wind’s whistling

And memories of an unforgettable tapestry—

The most beautiful home I ever will know.

 

 

 

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CHERISH

How can words be used to

Describe how much I cherish you?!

No words I put together seem right

Because my feelings run so deeply and,

Cross such broad fields of love that

No sentence seems able to catch it all.

Perhaps the vaulted ceiling of the sky

May be able to convey how deep and wide

I feel about the friendship we share.

O, muse of poetry, help me to sing.

Fill my mind with words to say how much.

It is as though my life has changed so

I am not sure who I am anymore.

You have filled a void I did not know I had.

 

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ENDLESSLY

Road with no visible end

Random wandering where

Time of living, time giving

No regrets for any time lost

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CHRISTMAS JOYS

Christmas is a time of joyous cheer

A time of wonderment in all our peers

The joy of giving loving gifts

Giving a lift to those near and dear—

If only a hug for Grandma here

Kisses to all of the ladies and one

To keep you all from being undone

Most precious of all sharing love

With all those whom I do love

Kisses for the ladies all and one

To help keep everything undone

A kiss for my own dear wife

One more to make you feel alive

Of all the gifts we give away

None is more precious than love

If I can count all those I love

There would be you and just you.

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POETS

If there had been no poets

The world would be a dreary place.

God knew we needed poets, so

He invented the rainbow

That would condense after each rain

Into poets for all occasions.

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