Shawn L. Bird

Original poetry, commentary, and fiction. All copyrights reserved.

poem-before your death September 3, 2022

Filed under: poem,Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 9:17 am
Tags: , , , , ,

Lasting smile
lingering
memory.

You and I
lakeside walks
sunset dreams.

What once was:
happiness.
Now a void.

.

A tricube: 3 stanzas of 3 lines with 3 syllables each.

 

poem- Daddy’s sweater December 17, 2021

Filed under: poem,Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 2:29 pm
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

I am zipped up in Daddy’s green sweater.
Mom knitted, purled, cabled together
some semblance of love.
He wore it with joy almost every day,
telling all admirers how it was made with love.
It’s wrapped around me,
but it’s not his firm arms,
not his smell (which wasn’t peppermint
or aftershave, but just him),
not his whisper in my ears,
Love you so much.
How can another year have past
without him? How can a sweater
be both so full
and so bereft of him?

 

poem-releasing June 10, 2021

Filed under: poem,Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:48 pm
Tags: , , , , , ,

I heard your name
calling to me from long ago.
I heard your name,
(Oh, that melancholy refrain!)
whispering words so soft and low,
memories I need to let go.
I heard your name.

This poetry form is called a ‘rondelet’ and plays with an A/B rhyme, lines of 4/8 syllables, and a repeated refrain (as you can see!).

 

poem-spring? March 28, 2021

Filed under: poem,Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 2:15 pm
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Geese call
mournful fly past.
The year is reborn
Why does my heart
hear autumn’s sorrow?

 

poem-forgotten day November 6, 2020

Filed under: poem,Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 10:20 am
Tags: , ,

To write a poem each day

requires a better memory than I have

A hole in the calendar.

An attempt at restitution.

Something

is not always better

than nothing.

 

poem-rainy reminders October 11, 2020

Filed under: poem,Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 8:00 pm
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Something is missing from my life:

the crack of the ax

winter’s firewood piled high

wood smoke rising from a chimney

the snapping from the grate

heat sinking into the bones

live fire, primordial comfort,

on a cold night, its golden, spitting light

shadow painting a picture of all we

require.

 

poem-siren call September 3, 2020

Filed under: poem,Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 3:21 pm
Tags: , , , , ,

It used to be

a howling ambulance

made me hold my breath

waiting to hear if it flew to you.

Now you’re past their aid,

so I send a blessing

to the stranger in need

and into the sky in memory

of you

 

poem- Father’s Day June 21, 2020

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 9:56 am
Tags: , , , ,

My father’s ashes are beside me. Once
Every day was Father’s Day,
Now every day he’s absent,
But every day he’s here.
Love never dies.
Devotion binds fond memories;
so long as we remember him,
it’s always Father’s Day.

 

poem- around the world April 6, 2020

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 9:06 pm
Tags: , , , , ,

I’m on a site celebrating my adopted culture

when someone asks which of us were exchange students.

Suddenly there are 50 comments:

their years, their homes, their hosts.

Someone writes to me from Australia,

“We were there at the same time. I wonder if we met?”

Imagine that.

A virtual rendez-vous decades later.

A tiny marble, this globe; we can

almost hold it in our hands.

 

 

poem-living September 20, 2019

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 8:38 pm
Tags: , , , , , , ,

You drive away after a visit.

“He got his licence back!”

“That’s great for 101!”

“No! He’s 105 now!”

“and blind!”

Oh, dad.

Thanks for stopping by

to make me laugh

in dreams.

 

 
%d bloggers like this: