Life continues to be full of bumps in the road, creating an uncertain journey. Piles of paperwork sit in different rooms, waiting for me to add to the accomplished box. Beautiful sympathy cards with sentiments from family and friends lay in another box. I look through them often. They are reminders that support comes from family and friends. It is quiet in my home now. Loneliness floats through the rooms of our beautiful house, designed together.
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Puffy grey clouds circulating through the morning sky wash away streams of sorrow. Sunshine opens a new day, but the big IF haunts my thoughts. I look for ways to open my heart to the whispers of my soul. I remember the peace found at the beach so with pen in hand, I write a poem for my husband, Richard, centering on the word if.
This month, the Poetry Sisters, Liz Garton Scanlon, Tanita at {fiction, instead of lies}, Laura Purdie Salas, Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect, Sara at Read Write Believe, and Mary Lee Hahn, challenged poets to "write in conversation with a vintage photograph". Since I was preoccupied by the sudden, silent, cancerous disease that aggressively attacked my husband and led to his passing, I did not have enough time to plan out a poem that applies to one of my vintage photos. Instead, I kept thinking of my husband and our love of the Long Island beaches near our house. We made memories with family and friends at the South Shore beaches. The above photo shares our days of walking and sitting at the boardwalk. The poem is dedicated to Richard since our last conversation before his passing was short but memorable.
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Thank you to our poet-teacher, Heidi Mordhorst, who is hosting Poetry Friday today. She is honoring the last Friday of National Poetry Month, our community's Kidlit Progressive Poem, and all the poetic goodness that follows at the end of Heidi's blog. Please click here to relax while reading.
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