Here…
©2006 Sue Norwood & Jim O'Neil
Between adolescence and womanhood
lies a bridge, a crossing over
an opaque, murky, slow moving river
cutting through tall rocks with striped
layers of dark rust and pale blush light
Whose banks are filled with [...]
You seduce with the body of a man
who’d ask a woman to lunch in Paris
Someday…
when he could afford the first class fare
Denny’s around the corner will have to do for now
And though I’ve known passion with men of experience
More than once…
Talented older and wiser men
Surely, they were incapable of lighting my heart
Not as [...]
Exotic photographs of images
Of landscapes
Taken by alternates shock me awake
Yet, again…
My brain ceases to comprehend
The meanings of their creative forces
Until…
Appearing as visual jolts of images
That trigger words in patterns
Of fabric, of caramel signs in earth
Of blue sounds in air thru Aspen leaves
Turning gold, then red on arms of
Black striped white bark
Reaching for the sky with [...]
You asked for someone
To make base camp with
So we could climb mountains
And I had never
Climbed to the third floor
Of the building where I lived
Let alone Kilimanjaro with a man
You offered courage, strength
Songs as slow as molasses sap
Running from a tree in a cup
Joy, rich as dark chocolate melting
Melting in a pan
Heating with cinnamon and milk
I heard saxophone music playing
Wafting [...]
I paint in hues of wedgwood dust
On a canvas of sandy beaches
Freshly packed by gentle waves
Under sunlit skies of gold and tangerine.
I paint in shades of ochre dim
Of turned earth, wet with polka-dotted rain
And ivory gray striped [...]
Redondo Beach, California
We made love by the ocean
Late one summer night in June
On a lifeguard shack floor
We’d climbed up upon
And hidden inside of
Till those silly teenagers came by
Giggling, yelling, playing rap music
On their boom box;
So loud you couldn’t hear the waves
Wondering, “what the hell?”
What are those “old” people doing
At midnight on [...]
Disappear fear
Of unconscious feelings
Carried so long
So far, so deep
Toss them aside
In blue recycling containers
Like plastic bottles
I pick up hiking the glorious desert
So worshiped and adored.
For who would wish
To leave it messy
Messy outside
Like me inside?
Permit him joyous entry
Knowing I’ve been
Waiting for him too long
And I will share the real me
Open me, all of me
Then maybe
Maybe…
He won’t [...]
The car engulfed
with waves of mulled citrus mist
warmed by your face watching mine
in the mirror from the hallway
as I lacquer on deep burgundy
candy apple lipstick
before the sun awakes early
April morning.
Memories of orange blossoms
permeating the night sky
on Route 66…
the beige top down on
the old black convertible with red leather seats
When I was eighteen and Steven French [...]
*A beautiful poem from Guest Author Jon Hynes. Photo by the Australia Post.
I can see the sunlight
over the brow
of the western mountains
as it holds me in its thoughts.
I imagine a vermillion flycatcher
flying like a true word from the
heart, Beating its wings in the fading
day. And so I must let my thoughts
fly, and become [...]
The last moments of a sunset and the passing of an early September storm create a rare double rainbow over Balanced Rock in Arches National Park, Sept. 4, 2005
My wisdom comes in short bursts
Of learning out loud
And in silent contemplation.
A sprinter I am
A marathon runner not so much.
Learned to hear with my heart
To feel [...]
There are days, I’m a bird
Capable of flight
Have my wings extended
So far the stretch tingles
The feathers of red and brown
For I am a three inch Roma tomato
Who flies with brown feathers
Attached, growing
On round fat sides
Flittering through the cottonwoods
Turning yellow, gold and orange
With the cold of the autumn nights
Approaching quickly along the banks
Of dry [...]