For the Love of a Poem

 This cupboard houses my poetry-book collection; 

each book compiled ' for the love of the poem' (and poet and reader:)

 and all of these just a drop in the ocean of heart-pieces on paper.

We hold up heart-bits like tatters of paper

Hoping that someone might find in its fling

Half-way around the world neighbor-to-neighbor-

Hugs from the kinship a poem can bring

We bleed from want and need, ink-stuttered stanzas

Who knows who, as time goes by, will be warmed

By spunk of metrical extravaganzas

Twisted to poem from heartbeats unarmed

We set aside pride and fear’s bold usurp-al

Darling, the tempo of time’s ebb and flow

Runs through us like summer-rivers, soft-purple

Stuns us with fall’s abysmal letting go

We hang up leaflets of laughter and longing

Limping through pages of crumpled disgrace

Trying to touch with the love of a poem

Just the right person in just the right place

We war with whispers of heartache and hunger

Wading through worlds still unfurled, in a pen

We, with the will of a lover, will conquer

Then, when it’s over, we will do it again

© Janet Martin