Thursday, July 28, 2016

Postcard From the Edge of Summer

WWI postcard

Just a line to tell you so,
for I am sadder than you know,
that off to war you had to go,
beautiful beau.

The summer heat
is not discreet.
I can feel the pulsing beat
of tribal rhythms
in my feet,
much too happy
for a heart
so full of woe.

And after ten a.m.
it's just too hot.
Limply languid on the couch,
all-I-am-not
totes up the gains and losses,
dot by dot.
I am forsaken, all bereft.
My poor heart has
a leaden heft.
I was a happy girl
but then you left.

Watch the farthest distant shore,
where I am waving, ("Je t'adore!"),
hoping we will meet once more,
after the war.

for Kerry's postcard challenge at Real Toads.

12 comments:

  1. This is lovely, Sherry!
    Such great rhythm and a fine balance between love, loss and indiscreet weather!

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  2. ah, you captured a whole story here sherry. i think you could almost get by with the first and last stanza on the postcard and still catch all the emotion.

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    1. You are actually right, Brian....would be a perfect postcard poem.

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  3. I love the little dash of French, and the whole feel of this, Sherry.

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  4. Nice, Sherry. Got to tell the news when there isn't any. I like the weather report, GI's eat those up??
    It really is easy to put your feelings on the paper, just don't get them too intense.
    The only letters like that I got in basic training except for a short spell when she,the ex, went home to be with her parents.
    ..

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  5. what an inspiration Sherry - agree with Brian but would have missed these lovely lines:
    "tribal rhythms
    in my feet,"

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  6. Amazing how much a postcard can reveal! Lovely and sad, like love itself can be, Sherry.

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  7. I love the style and feeling of this, Sherry. Lovely images.

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  8. For the lovers, the world is only I and Thou, it has its own sky & weather ... departure really is like death, and War is, well ... the absolute antithesis of the bower. How many million hearts of two were blasted into nothing in Ypres salient? Great stuff here.

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  9. You have captured the sad feeling of WW1 in this poem. Like the rhyme and the pic as well.

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  10. WW1 ~ tragic loss of life, love, futures. I enjoyed your sweet take on separating, waiting.

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  11. I love the way you closed your poem, Sherry...the french bit is an excellent touch! :)

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