I Wish I'd Written This

I Want to Hold Your Hands: 

A poem for the people of Syria

by Barbara Ehrentreu

I want to hold your hands
Parents of children lined up
in burlap bags
whose joy and laughter have
been snuffed forever by
a ruthless dictator who
cares more for power than
for the lives of his people

And I want to hold the hands of you
who escaped over the borders
holding your children's hands
Wanting only to find a safe haven
and finding instead a city of people
who like you want to have
a normal life for themselves
Instead milling around in a refugee camp
where a tent is your home and you
must depend on the goodness of others
to feed and clothe you and your family

I want to hold your hands and not shove
bombs onto your war torn country

I want to virtually hold you and say

it's okay for the moment

You would be safe with me

For weapons have no place in

my world

Yet people hurt by bullets or bombs or gas

Innocent of the crime
of being alive and on the wrong side

must live in fear that soon

my country will sear your souls

with senseless weapons and soon you

will be witnessing more death

Only this time the death will come from

the outside and you will lay your hope

n the street and bury it with the bodies

of your children.

Barbara Ehrentreu posted this poem on her facebook page on September 5th, in response to the terrible news from Syria about the gassing of civilians including children. I wanted to feature it immediately, but there were other posts which needed to take precedence. 

Barbara, originally from Brooklyn, New York, now lives in Stamford, Connecticut. I first came across her work during the annual April Poem A Day challenges at Poetic Asides, hosted by Robert Lee Brewer. Now we are in a poets' group on facebook together. Her interview with Robert on her blog, Barbara's Meanderings, begins with her reminiscences about being shy and overawed when she began participating at Poetic Asides ... until she felt that sense of a poetic community which we here at Poets United also know.

As well as a poet, she is a retired teacher, a Children's Author and a Young Adult Author. Her YA novel, If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor, is available in both paperback and Kindle editions. You can read about it on Goodreads. As a blogger, she uses the name lionmother, and she is indeed the mother of a grown daughter. Her passionate concern for the young is obvious, and although many were appalled and distressed by the situation in Syria, it doesn't surprise me that she was the one who wrote the poem I'd like to have written about it. The compassion in it touched me deeply.

Any poem or photo used in ‘I Wish I’d Written This’ remains the property of the copyright holder (usually its author).

I Wish I'd Written This

Chances

By Jane Shlensky

Some days my memories with you fog,
and I cannot imagine your voice
or mine, as we were when you were
most yourself.  Still, my hands are yours,
worn and busy, stained with foliage,
and my hair, white long before its time,
traces a gene back to your mother.

I carry you in me, as I concentrate
on opening earth to seedlings,
trying to sense seasons’ change,
smelling soil and new buds,
spring rains and twilight,
checking old growth bark for new life—
all learned from you.

I gather words together, arranging them
like posies, pruning and shaping
just as you taught me,
a poem helping us share a moment
of observance, a recognition
of overlooked wonders in need
of second chances: the first crocus,

a jay’s feather, a gnarled twig like a cross,
a stone laced with red veins pulsing
the heart of the earth,
a dead hummingbird
curled like a small fist,
lying still and iridescent
among wild flowers.

I know when you became uprooted
from yourself, you longed for death,
but I could not wish you gone,
even knowing all I’d learned
of pain and loss, that death is not
the worst thing, still I could not imagine
a world depleted of you.

I cannot now say “never” in a line
that has you in it.  You are ever.
As long as I can remember,
I will feel you living in me
and take every spring’s resurrection
as a chance to hold you again.

(First published in Beyond the Dark Room: An International Collection of Transformative Poetry)

Jane is another of the many wonderful poets I've come across online. In fact, we are both in Beyond the Dark Room. I'm sure she's as proud as I am to be included in that project, the brain child of its editor, Dr Pearl Ketover Prilik.

Another collection Jane can be proud of is her own chapbook, Old Mules and Plowed Ground: A Poetic Memoir, recently featured at the site Poetic Bloomings. Her poem above is now part of that memoir. 

I could tell you that, as the title suggests, this chapbook consists of very earthy poetry, real and satisfying. I could mention its range and variety. But best you go and have a read yourself.

The beautiful memorial above is my favourite of them all — but it was hard to choose! This piece is also quoted in an interview with Jane at Poetic Bloomings. (And incidentally, if you're not yet familiar with that excellent site for poets, perhaps you should take a good look around it.)

If you Google 'Jane Shlensky poems', you'll find more of her work, all well worth reading. For instance she is a consistent contributor to Poetic Asides; frequently short-listed and several times a winner of the poetry awards offered there. She's very good at prose poems, too.

I look forward to more from this exciting poet.

Poems and photos used in ‘I Wish I’d Written This’ remain the property of the copyright holders (usually their authors).

I Wish I'd Written This

Tir na Blog

By RJ Clarken

The computer world
has its own tiny wee folk:
they're called the Pixels.

The Pixels' powers
are determined by magic
and pantone colors.

You can find Pixels
if a Vector Inspector
gives you a bitmap.

But please be careful.
Pixels are shy, and hide if
closely monitored.

                                 

Like me, RJ Clarken is participating in this year's April Poem A Day Challenge at Poetic Asides (which is part of Writer's Digest). I fell in love with this recent piece, written for the Challenge, and couldn't wait to share it with you. It appeals to both my sense of humour and my love of the magickal. (And oh yes, I do believe Pixels are real!)

A writer, photographer and graphic artist — as a poet she specialises in light verse. In fact she has a blog of that name; and a book of 'odd, off-beat and really quirky poetry' called Mugging for the Camera, which is available through Amazon. She has also been published in a number of journals. 

Penny Wishes, her children's book published by a small press a few years ago, is now out of print; but as she owns the rights, she says she might re-publish it herself — if she ever finds the time. In addition to all her artistic activities, she is a busy wife and mother.

A couple of years ago she was interviewed at Poetic Bloomings. Some of her poems are included, and she talks about the process of seeking — and finding — publication, which she went about in a very business-like way. You can also find her on facebook and twitter.

I have known her as an online friend and colleague for several years now, and can tell you that she is very supportive of other poets.

Poems and photos used in ‘I Wish I’d Written This’ remain the property of the copyright holders (usually their authors).