I recently found these poems written years ago as part of a Teacher Training Day.  I want to be able to find them in the future, so I'm saving them here in the blog.

 

I ALWAYS LIKE

 

I always like

the sight of the waves crashing against the rocks

spray flying high into the air;

gulls skim low

behind the wave.

 

I always like

to sit outside at the coffeehouse,

soy milk latte too hot to drink;

with a giant cookie

I feel pampered.

 

I always like

the sound of summer locusts.

like a heartbeat they throb

and sigh on the Kansas prairie

until they are so loud

I can’t hear them anymore.

 

 

I AM FROM

I am from melamine dishes and red corduroy accent pillows,

From furniture rearranged monthly  to make belongings seem fresh and new.

 

I am from ivy dripping off of red brick walls, spyria  bushes,

And shrubs covered with bag worms that we picked off and burned in the trash barrel.

 

I am from summer fairy tale productions in the cool musty garage,

Rapunzel on top of a stepladder, throwing down her coiled rope of hair.

 

I am from shadowy female relatives—Eva Mae, Hannah Jane, Clara Belle and Rosa—

Who canned green beans, piccalilli, tomato preserves and plum jelly.

 

I am from “be nice to your brother”, “dust the living room”, and "don’t poke your eye out.”

From spaghetti with green olives and raw onion sandwiches.

 

I am from the vibrating resonance of locusts, the dusty red road in summer shade,

From fireflies winking, and heat lightening viewed nightly from green metal lawn chairs.