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!
PLACES / Carol Freedman
Once upon a time
My body sang with delight
My youth uplifted
In worship to the concrete, steel, and glass
Towering high above
Busy alcoves below
Making beautiful noise,
Catching snow and shades of light.
My soul blushed, my spirit danced, my hope lived.
Now upon this time
All my cells drink in the majesty
Of open air, fertile earth
Mountains catch the light,
Green morphs to shimmering gold morphs to blue
Silver outlines in the sky
As sunset moves in to bid us a good night.
I was unaware of my hunger for these.
My breath comes easily
My soul expands
As my being is sated with all it didn’t know it needed,
And I feel it keenly, surely
In my body that knew the right time for change.
In awe of the molecules we share, Earth and I,
My life now in grateful relaxation
From relentless demands of old,
My ears in blessed quiet
Now able to hear the music of the new,
And so I dance.
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BEFORE I KNEW / Janet E. Aalfs