Sunday, June 10, 2018

This is How We Look for Poems


A Letter to Daphne Blue Leitner
born August 7, 2017


Your time was different. 

I had written of the great anticipation we all experienced with the arrival of your sisters, and of course we shared the same excitement about you as well, but something was telling me I needed to wait until you were here before I could write about you. The miracle of you was bringing a different set of questions.


For you...

...it was not your arrival, but the development of your temperament that had everyone curious. How would you be? If the first one was imaginative, caring, sensitive, and the second one fearless, head strong, independent, what did that leave for the third one? Would you become a combination of both? Where would you go, and how would you get there? Speculation had everyone guessing at how you would embrace the world.


For me...

...your magic started with your first visit. You were only a few months old and restless, so I held you and took you to the window to show you the world. Your eyes grew wide, your body became still, and I whispered, “This is how we look for poems.” You starred and took it all in: trees, flowers, grass and sky, and I wondered what your first poem would be...


and then...

...our next visit showed me what I needed to see. In all your daily moments, you were happy: to play, to laugh, to talk and shout with your own words when all about you were making a great noise, you were happy to be here and part of the conversation of life. Everything I showed you was cause for fascination, but it was you, shining with joy when your parents or sisters came into the room, that showed me love was already a part of your nature.


Now you...

...less than a year old, and you gaze at your sisters with wide-eyed wonder and affection. I have no doubt that over the course of your life there will be periods when they will be your closest allies and most stubborn combatants, until the day comes when you all realize the importance of the special bond that binds you forever, and you vow to hold it dear from that day foreword.


Within me...

...I have a vision: three sisters as grown women with children of their own, and in a rare moment of quiet before sleep, they dust off a book written by an old man they called Popi, who wrote poems of love and heart break, of his dogs and his women and his world, of what he saw and how it touched him, and they’ll remember how he taught himself to look for poems in all things, how he taught them to do the same, and gave them his lesson to teach.


I have seen...

...the joy of life in your eyes and the love of family in your heart. Like your sisters before you, you are the poem I knew you would be.


You and I...

...will always be great friends as we look for poems together.


With much love,


Popi



Ken Owen    
Van Niddy Press   June 2018

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Getting to Know You

(or How to Ensure There is No Second Date)

We had a lovely night
Dinner, drinks
And long talks on every subject
Until midnight surprised us
And we said our good-nights
And kissed our good-byes

When I woke the next morning
I found that I had left my mind 
Running in Full Chatter Mode
And it was having 
A conversation with you

On how I’ve always wondered 
about those store-bought 
Chocolate chip cookies
That stay suspiciously soft and chewy 
Much longer than they probably should
But I still love them

It would seem that
Hours later
Asleep and alone
My subconscious wasn’t finished 
Letting you know about all the things 
That I find curious

For the record
I had no idea my subconscious 
Was still quietly processing 
The mystery of those cookies
But it appears to think
I should tell you everything

So, I wanted you to know
I really enjoyed our evening 
And if you woke up thinking
Of chocolate chip cookies
That’s probably why.

So, 
dinner next Tuesday?



Ken Owen   
Van Niddy Press   June 2018