Life Lessons for a Poet

 

Read one good poem a day.

Look up.

For every negative thought, think three positives. Because this life hurts too much already.

Duct tape your ugly mouth.  You are amazing and stop saying otherwise.

When all else fails, pray.

Everything will fail.  Pray.

Think of the children.

Talk a walk in nature.  Breathe it in.  Don’t forget what you learned there.

Remember: someone needs you.

Remember: you need, too.

Write, damn it.  That’s how you know what you need to know.  It’s your gift.  To yourself.

 

© 2023 Jennifer Wagner

 

Missing, 1979

 

Window.  A little rain splatter

on such a large space.

 

Wide eyes straining

to catch a glimpse of brown,

tiny, quick-dashing paws.

 

Any sight from any side of the road?

Darkness darker. 

 

Sinking deeper into the depths

of the well-worn olive green

jacquard couch,

 

a little rain splatter

on such a large space.

 

 

© 2023 Jennifer Wagner

 

 For dVerse Poetics: Window Gazing

Old Age

 

Piano Lesson by AquaSixio on DeviantArt

I’d forgotten how to play, they said—

my hair like feathers, hands like talons.

But, notes fall out of the very air I breathe.

 

Listen—you can hear plumes, chases in moonlight,

blood on snow, forgotten prairies,

untouched fields, the glorious soaring.

 

By the end, they were pulling Kleenex from the box.

Yes, I’d forgotten.  More than they’ll ever learn.

 

Gray is a color, too.

 

 

© 2023 Jennifer Wagner

 

For this very cool picture prompt at The Sunday Muse.

 

Dedicated to my 93-year-old neighbor, Mary.