Shadows

William Stephen Edwards

Description

Shadows is a varied collection of experiences and feelings wrung from 50 years of being engaged with the world by a farm-raised speech/language pathologist. The collection is both lyrical and hard-hitting, with poignant verse and unflinching honesty—all rich in imagery and imagination. The poems are reflections on love gained and lost, war, working with disabilities, being lost in nature, philosophical musings, introspection, and whimsy. Somewhere in the pages of this brilliant collection may be a shadow that matches one of your own…

Sujets

• Poetry

Informations

• Publié par: Outskirts Press
• Date de parution: 29 octobre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781977235817
• Langue: English

Extrait

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Shadows All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 2020 William Stephen Edwards v8.0
The opinions expressed in this manuscript are solely the opinions of the author and do not represent the opinions or thoughts of the publisher. The author has represented and warranted full ownership and/or legal right to publish all the materials in this book.
This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the express written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Outskirts Press, Inc. http://www.outskirtspress.com
ISBN: 978-1-9772-3581-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018915094
Cover Photo © 2020 www.gettyimages.com . All rights reserved - used with permission.
Outskirts Press and the “OP” logo are trademarks belonging to Outskirts Press, Inc.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Dedication
 
 
To my sister With whom I was blessed
When my soul becomes bruised and lame It seeks for the light from whence it came Always it leaves a shadow behind Sometimes that light is stark and harsh Sometimes sublime
 
But always the shape of the shadow’s the same
Table of Contents
God of My Childhood
Damaged Goods
Reprieve
Black Beauty
Dream Tendrils
Gypsy
For Travis
Windy West Texas
Words Are Not Arms
Rearview Mirror (passage on campus 1969)
Requiem
Autumn Again
Leaves of Grape
Red Light
Medicine Woman
Quasimodo (Speaks)
ARC
School Days
To Old Pup
Mechanical Man
Meet Me There
Spring
Urban Savage
Tectonic Plates
Spewing
Julie in the Nursing Home
Soul Rape
Prometheus
It Is Not
Jo
Wrong
Tear Ocean
Gymnastics Class for Eight-Year-Olds
Recollections
Grasping God
Pearl
Blasphemy
“Damaged Goods” Epilogue
Silver Rest
In the Woods
Brahmas
Simple
First Flying
Cradle
West Texas 4:00 a.m.
Beauty and Youth
Hesitation
Chances
Windsong
Touch Me Softly
Love and Reason
To the Poetess
Jesus Says
Medium Man
Evermore
Hide and Seek
A Plain Damsel, the Knight, He Saw
Good-byes
Hellos
Song
Stretching
Hangover
Acknowledgement
Rose Petals
You May Quite Understand
How the Hell
Ilium
No Gain
Winter Warm
Patient #2
One
God and Tsunami
Elixir
Hidden Clefts
Blank Paper
Too Full
He
58
We Were Soldiers
Various Cries at Various Times
Womb Song
That Day
Abhorrent Dawn
(Weary traveler song #1)
Seasons
Cold
Gibberish
Hail to the Dead
Danny, We Hardly Knew Ye
Blues Truth
DEATH
Walk
Diagnosis: CVA with Aphasia
He Dreamed
Beginnings (Old Style)
Stumbling Over Love
Around ’Nam’s Dreaming Ground
Christine
Suzanne at 18
After-rain
Enthralled
Pixie Friend
Seneca
Touching
Gentle Morning
My Lady
Empty Space
Morning’s Dream
Tepid Water
Dead Pup
Wicker Thoughts
Whence the Dead
Damn the Dream
When Summer Was
A Veteran’s Learning
Love Among the Stars
Completed
Whirlwind
Water Learning
Zen
Empathy
Carolyn
Broken String
Fire Eater
Urge
Spinner
Viet Verse #1
Cryptic
Poet’s Prayer
Letting Go
How Oft
Subtle Foxes
Heaven So Clear
Causeway
Playground Slide
Cool
Gulf Beach Morn
Hanna Blue
Inane
The Blow Severe
Memorial Day
Drew Back a Nub
The Ceremony
War Debris
Touch of Gin
David and Goliath
Question?
Safeerah Butterfly
All Along
Half So Sweet
Words
Irony
Forgotten Soldier
Prayer
Lemonade
Early Morn
to Mary
Lo, There Do I See
Misconception
Enthralled
Before
Xena* (told by Hercules)
Question
Claude’s Lines
A “J” in ’Nam
Splashing
Odd Void
Leukemia
Tender
Heaven’s Mistake
Piggies
Farewell
Watered Heaven
Little Shoes
Turn Wheel
(Crags)
Viet Verse #2 (1969)
Her Soul
Elegy (mine)
Fireplace Late
Odd
Live Voice
Two Stray Thoughts
Patient #1
Pegasus
Reunion
L S D
Silly Maid
Mentally Retarded
Old Wounds
To the Waning Poet
Heat
Scarlet on Rose
Hope
The Proposal
Fuck Autumn
Man Bunny Run
Black Holes
Silver Wolf
Blue You
Goodbye ’Nam
Shark
Empty Glass
I Knew a Girl
Viki in S.C.
Tumultuous Two
Swingboard
Joints
Baskin-Robbins
Char
Hand Over
Tree Twist
Lexicon
Te Absolvo
Fresco
Dawn
Beggar’s Love
River Memories
Emily
Bible (1st Corinthians 13)
Denise (Four Years Old)
Promise of a Leaf
Lord of Vision
Holes in the Heart
Cindy’s Eyes
Ten O’clock
Bent
Dear God
Penny
Apology
Measurement
The Glance
When She Speaks
One Hour
Fruitcake
Sneeze
Shadows
God of My Childhood
God of my childhood, Dear God, let there be—
if naught else of worth, verse in me.
I have a deep desire past all other goals
for simple, clear verse that can touch,
however lightly, another one’s soul.
 
Whisper, just hint, of a bond all men share,
if even unknowing
of the gift of life, divine beyond mortal reckoning.
 
Of life shared, whether close or oceans apart
author, great author, author divine
of feelings that come, not from the mind
but the unheeded heart.
For man’s ashamed, why is it?
To speak with his heart
And lets worse orators—gain, pride or fear
    keep us
 
so far apart—
Damaged Goods
In summer sun’s sagacious rays
A butterfly with ragged wings
Settled on the sidewalk
In search of food or rest or other things
Slow, strolling steps brought me to her side that day
 
Her wings were slowly yawning to and fro
I saw the ragged edges marred
A predator had tried to take her life
She got away but bore the scars
Now she flies erratically, and slow
 
But ah, her colors shimmered so!
Blue purer than the air
In the sun, sparkled like a million atom stars
Yellow so shy it was hardly there
Emerald splashed like strokes by Michelangelo
 
They froze my gait
And captured my eyes
’Til I was lost in a universe
Of delicate size
And majestic fate
 
I held my breath
My throat grew tight
I fell in love
With the spirit’s fight
To live beyond its brush with death
 
Feelings tumbled from my breast
If I could only paste a part of my soul
On her wing to repair its ragged loss
I gladly would, to make her whole
Who more than measure, she had blessed
 
But hope and want rarely comply
With harsh reality
Or the step of time
Nor can beauty cure insanity
Or heart enfold a butterfly
 
So I stood entranced by her beauty there
And caught the spirit of her bravery
Though torn and damaged goods
She was the loveliest butterfly I shall ever see
Her injury made her only all the more fair
 
She could not have known how much I cared
We both were bound by destiny
The moment passed as moments do
And then she flew away from me
Fluttering and stumbling through the air
Reprieve
Come, lady fair, let us embrace
Like lovers before the gallows..
Wring happiness from hope for a tiny space
Turn this instant divine. Make it hallowed.
 
Living is but a chain of nows becoming thens
Make your spirit mine for this brief while
And for me, in my heart, it will never end
not the glow in your eyes nor the cast of your sparkling smile.
 
And guess, lady, what if you look, you will find
More when you started than you ever conceived
That your heart fits a hollow place in mine
That we have found each in the other, from lonely endings
 
Eternal reprieve
Black Beauty
Was my gun in ’Nam
Black the hues, black night when it spoke
Black the screaming death it brought
And black, oh black the load so light and
Quick in my hands
 
Black was the mountain, lit by bombs
Curling past the light, black smoke
In a black haze with red rage I fought
Alone and black on a foreign strand
 
Black beauty was my gun in ’Nam
Black the gun—black the man
And black, now black are the thoughts its
Memory commands
Dream Tendrils
Morn’s early light—
seeps gray into room
ending unvigil’d night’s
return to the womb.
 
    (a) dream flees, reluctant flight
 
 
crying “too soon, too soon”
 
Weak-webbed will struggles with memory, and wins
grasping a gossamer image.
A faint vision whispers “adieu, adieu”
thence fades into light and I am bereft,
 
who was blessed with you.
 
Morning, cruel morning, unfurls, veiling the night
the dream and you are gone
leaving me awake, empty…
    and cursing the dawn.
Gypsy
Twilight melts on a hillside in Romani
the gypsies gather ’round the great fire that centers the camp
music starts, wine and coarse beer flow and revelry grows
laughter and great hoots abound
later, after raucous comradery and furious vigor
the camp settles
the musicians grow tired, the fire burns down, the gypsies stare at the fire as though it was a pyre of burning dreams
at last there are only low murmurs and the crackle of the fire
the fiddler looks to the tent higher than all others, spits and begins a melody
from the tent apart on the highest of the hill appears a figure
clothed in gypsy raiment
their queen
besotted with the night, they settle and watch as the queen begins to dance,
slow, fluid circles ’round the fire at first
growing quickly into wild, frantic steps and skips
curves and silhouettes, ghosts are torn from the fire
their shadows dance on the faces ’round the circle
the moon has long since hidden away
still the violin plays, her tambourine pops and shivers
silver stars glint in her flying earrings
curves and silhouettes, shadows of the fire
faster and faster in a frenzy she twirls
sweat glistens in the fire,
her bare feet wear anklets of silver chain
they kick up dust with each step
her raven hair is streaked with silver gray
strands stick to her sweat-streaked face
she does not brush them away
she tosses the tambourine into the fire
she feels nothing but her racing heels
whirl, pop, flash, spin, hop, stomp, clap, sway, glide, bend, shake
until the fiddler and the fire fade away
still she dances, frantic and wild in the