HEAT WAVE (photomorph) & IT'S NOT YOU I MISS (non-dream free verse poem) by Roswila

IT’S NOT YOU I MISS

it’s not you I miss:

not your smile supported by parenthetic lines of age;

not the sight of your lanky build that never failed
to lace my blood with a lingering high;

not your awkward sense of humor, the only way I ever
knew you to reach toward me: to connect
with some labored pun or still smile-
worthy, hoary old joke

no, it’s not you I miss
but how I felt about you:
heated and hungry, hopeful and deliciously despairing;
a pining away for you, that nevertheless warmed
and softly lit my life, like the flames in an old
flagstone fireplace, not realizing then how I
reveled in rocking and ruminating sadly beside
that anchoring center in which a cauldron of
homemade stew bubbled on a hook (but
was never doled out)

a fanciful center that’s long since collapsed in on
itself and turned to ashes: brushed away by time’s
steady passage, even as memory pipes up
(now and again), like a cricket still chirping
though the hearth’s caved in:
I miss you
miss you
miss
you


[non-dream free verse poem written 2-13-19. I’ve tried to address this same issue before in poems. This one may come closest to expressing the experience. BTW, when I was scribbling the notes for this -- late in the evening of the 13th -- it did not occur to me that it’s an odd sort of Valentine’s Day poem. And it’s as such that I offer it belatedly. Photomorph “Heat Wave” (5-2-14 d&p, 9-5-13 005v5 adobe) by Roswila]

PLEASE NOTE: in most browsers you can click on the above image for a larger version. Also, the photo accompanying a post is not necessarily meant to illustrate it, but to reflect some small, even slant aspect of the verse, similar to Japanese haiga (illustrated haiku).

There are many other sorts of posts on this blog. I indicate which are about or influenced by dreams. Some non dream focused posts are book reviews, "regular" poems (some by other writers), scifaiku, writing exercises, Tarot haiku, photos, haiga, and so on. However, most of those are in much older posts. There's a listing by month going back to early 2006, at the end of the sidebar.

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until next time, keep dreaming,





[a/k/a Patricia Kelly]
**** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”). Roswila's other blog (dedicated to her photos only, i.e. no poetry or other writing; daily post); TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.