Tula [“Books are door-shaped”]

BY MARGARITA ENGLE
Submitted by Amber Reichwein

"We practiced together,

sweat and stained.

We pummeled each other

and laughed off pain.

Teams may disagree,

may tease,

may blame.

Teams may bicker and whine,

but get down for the game.

You had my back.

We fought the fight.

And though our score

was less last night,

we're walking tall.

Our team came through

and stuck together like Crazy Glue.

I'm proud to say

I lost with you.
(Yoonjeong Kim - Lucy)

Kim Chun-Soo                                                                                                       

Before speaking her name                                                                       

she had been nothing but a gesture.                                                                   

When I spoke her name,                                                                            

she came to me and became a flower.                                                          

Now who will speak my name,                                                                    

one fitting this colour and fragrance of mine,                                                       

as I had spoken hers                                                                                      

So that I may go to her and become her flower.                                         

We all yearn to become something.

I yearn to become an unforgettable meaning to you                                                                                                 

And you to me  

© Abimbola T. Alabi

Published: March 12, 2018

How I wish to trust
In life, no questions asked,
Hanging on God's words,
Confident and relaxed,
Just like a child.

How I long for conscience
As mild as the breeze,
Having goodwill with others
And always at peace,
Just like a child.

How I long for courage
That laughs at fear,
Knowing I'd surely be caught
When tossed in the air,
Just like a child.

How I wish to take
Life's journey with ease,
Jolly through thick and thin,
As cool as you please,
Just like a child.

How I need this grace,
So dear Lord, to you I come.
Help me to believe
And receive your kingdom,
Just like a child.

Source: https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/just-like-a-child

or happiness

like candles lighting the entire soft lace

of the air

around the full length of your hair/a shower

organized by God

in brown and auburn

undulations luminous like particles

of flame

 

But now I do

retrieve an afternoon of apricots

and water interspersed with cigarettes

and sand and rocks

we walked across:

                        How easily you held

my hand

beside the low tide

of the world

 

Now I do

relive an evening of retreat

a bridge I left behind

where all the solid heat

of lust and tender trembling

lay as cruel and as kind

as passion spins its infinite

tergiversations in between the bitter

and the sweet

 

Alone and longing for you

now I do

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54507/poem-for-haruko

Leave here the pages with long musing curled, 

And write me new my future's epigraph, 

New angel mine, unhoped for in the world!

-Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Sonnet Xlii: My Future”

Stacie Seifert 

Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,

Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)

Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,

Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,

Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,

The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

                                       Answer.

That you are here—that life exists and identity,

That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.
- Walt Whitman

Tamia Henry