You stood for so long, buffeted by a Wyoming wind, no desire to be put out to pasture, yet wounded in a way that would wear down any soul.
Hearts and hands extended by those who care went unanswered, independence your mantra and your wounds now ours.
I’ve been away for the past week attending to family matters, but I should be back home by the end of the month. Meanwhile, I get to experience a Wyoming winter.
Rain falls, steady, and I say so what. Wipers try in vain to keep the beat, but this combo is too tight. The bass just layin’ it down, horn and sax sparring.
There’s a fog rolling through the hills, tellin’ the rain hold the ice, this is just too cool.
Bare branches, with pines the only green in a landscape of white on brown.
Wait! A lone birch like a ghost that knows. As blue as this feels, there will be no blue sky.
And that so what refrain slips in and out.
Narrow roads now, winding through wet grass lined with granite and marble. A memorial among memorials, some barely legible. Everything here is blue,
except the pines, white now with big, heavy flakes. Country roads skirt the mountains, Snow, now powder, hangs in the air like a fog. Roads slicker than the music.
Hands tense on the wheel. Piano eases through me, slowly levels out, brings me back to the lake, out there somewhere, blue asleep within the white.
This is from a reading at Spine Bookstore & Café, St Louis, MO (12 Mar 2023).
Driving with Miles is included in my poetry collection, Glass Awash, published by Spartan Press.
My poem, “Potential,” which is included in my collection Glass Awash is featured today at MasticadoresUSA. Many thanks to Editor Barbara Leonhard for her continued support. Ken G.
I roll down these dark roads beneath a moon that gives no quarter. Even its half-light provides a beacon that offers comfort to one who is headed home. Given time, it will shine even brighter. But I will be home by then, my heart content, and I’ll be able to share its brilliance.
I recently had a conversation with Rebecca Budd about various forms of poetry and inspiration. “Season 5 Episode 6: Ken Gierke on A Poet’s Voice” can be found here, where you can listen to the interview, along with some of my poetry.
My poems, On the Cusp and In Stillness, are live today at Literary Revelations Journal. Many thanks go to Editor Gabriela Marie Milton for this feature.
No more, yet no less, sensitive than those around her. In tune with her emotions. A siren calls from an interstellar cloud, her song familiar notes. Then and now. Her voice imploring, know this truth. This star my heart is meant only for you.
This is my response to Quadrille #169: A Star (Poem) is Born, the prompt from De Jackson at dVerse ~ Poets Pub, which is to use a form of the word star in a Quadrille – a 44-word poem (excluding title), with no required meter or rhyme.
My poem, “Ageless,” which is included in my collection Glass Awash is featured today at MasticadoresUSA. Many thanks to Editor Barbara Leonhard for her continued support. Ken G.