Poetry to Share on a Hot Day in June

Oh, it is still hot. Ninety-five degrees outside my windows,  but with the shades drawn, and a single fan moving the air, the house is still in the seventies and bearable - as long as I sit here. Getting up to move around is risking more heat, and going through the cool kitchen into the back room to move laundry through the washer and out to dry in the sun is inviting an increase in fatigue, blurred vision and tilted walking due to multiple sclerosis, complicated by my need to wear a hat, sunscreen and long sleeves and pant legs because of the new diagnosis of melanoma.

I would much rather stay here in the cool north-facing living room, checking the emails, visiting Facebook, and writing here at the blog. I have begun writing a new volume of poetry, one that will deal with the diagnoses and changes that Rick and I have experienced in my first year of retirement. Our 'happily ever after' years have begun, and we are enjoying the time we have, the spontaneity our new  lack of schedule provides, and the good weather we have had through this winter and spring. The summer heat will be a challenge for  us, but we can move slowly, drink lots of water, and stop and rest when we must.

Reading poetry is something that slows my breathing down, and cools me off. I've been offering volume one of Poetry to Share all this week at CreateSpace with a fifty percent discount, and a few people have ordered it there already. But you can also order it through my website, Beyond Old Windows, and receive the same discount and an autographed copy. Please take advantage of that; I can send it to you faster than Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or the publisher. Only my readers of this blog have that offer, but I don't mind it you share it with friends. Just drop me an email at needlesandpens@comcast.net to let me know who you might want the personal autograph addressed to.

I'm going to give you a sample here that is different than the one Amazon offers. This is a free verse I wrote about the special time I spent with my mother in her last months: 

Rain Sketches

  

We sat together, Mum and I

On the home’s piano bench

She played her favorite tune for me

  

The bright room hid the storm beyond

Until we moved to face head on

And sat to watch the rain come down

  

We sat together, Mum and I

Before the rain soaked window pane

Our faces altered by the water’s path 

Through sheets of water, dark of night

We sat and watched the sky turn bright

As lightning changed our reflections 

In her face I thought I saw mine

In my face I knew I saw hers

But water streaming changed us both

We sat together, Mum and I

Her mother’s face was next in view

Her aunts’ and older sisters', too

  

The rain continued changing us

Reminding us of those we’d loved

Rewarding us with memories 

We sat together, Mum and I

With common features I knew then

That though she too would leave us soon 

I’d find her in a well lit room

When next the rain darkened the night

And falling rain would show her face in mine

 

Related articles

• Poetry to Share Vol. I at Amazon

•   and at Beyond Old Windows Webstore
• Poetry to Share Vol. II at Amazon
•    and at Beyond Old Windows Webstore
• On memorizing poetry (professionsforpeace.com)