Poems for Spring

Good Afternoon Substack. While writing poetry used to be a part of my daily routine, it has slipped away from me recently. I am working to get that particular muscle flexed again, as I love it and it feeds me creatively and spiritually.

As I reminisce on poems of the past, I thought I would share some for the spring and summer seasons:

I’ll throw on a pair of tennis shoes and race you to the ocean. You promise me you’ll swim and I jump in without looking back. I’ll pull a one dollar paperback out of my bag and read until the pages and my hair are dry and then I’ll race you back to the water again. I’ll spend the rest of the day praying that I can make it as a writer, and you’ll be praying for rain for your tomatoes.

XX

The way our memories feel when I dare to remember them is like the way my flowers wilt when they’ve been in the sun for too long – beautiful but less so, soft and fading, falling away day by day. But even then, even then, the sweetness brings me to my knees and I know they'll always be there, lingering, just a little bit, enough that I’ll keep them forever.

XX

It’s spring and my heart is breaking

Or, rather–

It’s spring and for the first time I don’t wonder what life would be like without you

My heart is breaking is a roundabout way to say

I know myself now and wreckage has to occur to be filled up with something beautiful

Which means that maybe I’m cracked wide open

So that the light can pierce my heart and rearrange my head

XX

Last summer I broke my wrist

You broke your car

We met in the middle

Breaking each other’s hearts–

I had coffee on my front porch today

Looked at the spring flowers blooming

Ached to call you and ask

If what we planted survived the winter–

I ran into your sister a month ago

In the fluorescent lighting of the supermarket

She told me you were doing better

I told I her I was, too

I think we were both lying

And telling a bit of the truth

She asked me if my wrist ever hurt

I wanted to tell her

Not worse than losing you

XX

The grocery list of the week is as follows:

Kindness, for breakfast

Flowers, for dinner

Chocolate cake, to drop at the neighbors

Red wine, to drink on the beach

One box of pens, to write you love letters forever

XX