Welcome to our Poetry Platform. We are sharing some of our writers’ new poems every Monday. Thank you for reading and thank you for supporting them in their creative endeavor and Center for New Americans in our welcoming endeavor!
Gifts
Gifts I’ve given lie fallen to the floor, crumpled.
Unopened. Or, opened and examined,
then discarded in puzzlement (never scorn).
Gifts I’ve given skip across a dark lake
and sink to the bottom, never to be seen again.
The lake gives back no echo of a splash.
Gifts I’ve given sit in plain sight,
nevertheless invisible to their recipient.
He’s selectively blind. I’m too polite to mention it.
Gifts I’ve given get lost on the way,
are returned undeliverable by demons,
wander into the wood and forget breadcrumbs.
The way I keep trying gives me away.
—Carole Anzovin
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I Hear You
I hear you
as you walk with your friend
my window cracked open and my muffler
muting other sounds.
And I know it,
your twinkly voice, the kindness,
behind everything you offer
comes through and sits in memory.
—Julie Cavacco
We Live Here Now
This is what we have in common, this place
where we have all been spit out
like pebbles on the beach, polished to a gleam
when the ocean is done with us
These are the hands that tended
from cities, from farms
we are made of iron and lace
we are nourished on gratitude
Navigating the corners with hard-earned grace
wearing our crowns and badges hidden
where only those who look can see
this is the new fabric we have woven together
This is our voice, this is our time
these are our moments.
—Carol Freedman