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30 Poems in November! Blog – Fall 2022 (Nov. 7)

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

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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