Over the weekend, I found a collection of my poems from 29 years ago, along with a manuscript of an autobiography I was working on in 1992 and 1993. It wasn’t lost, but I hadn’t had any interest in reading it until last night. Now I need to decide what to do with it.

It reminded me of details I had almost forgotten, and prompted me to reach out to a few significant people from an earlier time… more than 40 years ago.

I was so lost.

So unhappy.

It really feels like the story of a different person. If I ever publish this, it will need an edit.

Here are a couple random poems, unedited. The spacing, punctuation and capitalization are as they were originally written:

FREE FALL DROP

Clinging to the glass on a rainy day,
No mud puddle for you.
You were like an acrobat
Plummeting from a dizzy height
and just happened to land
on my window pane.
Was it your plan to evaporate
so you could have a second jump?

CURTAIN

Night falls like a silent
black curtain
shrouding the stage of day
A velvet shadow
of cool peace and
echoing spaces
The porch light burns my
own giant shadow into
the sleeping grass

Nature
so close
so unspoiled
rich smells of moist earth
the sound of the wind in the leaves
I hear a woodpecker
see the lake
I’m walking on granite and moss

A granite floor
speckled with pink, gray,
white and black
like the soil rich with
decaying wood, crumbling rock,
leaves and needles
Tree trunks surrounding me
like columns, church walls,
tapestries of greens and browns.
This woodland chamber lit
from above. Clouds glowing
with the light of heaven
glowing blue forever. Filling me
with eternity. Something bigger
than myself.

THE VIEW

The light of morning touches my pane
illuminating what is within
Though my eyes are covered
With a haze of dust and grime
a soft glow fills me like
a ghost town in the desert afternoon
The colors are gray and still
but something scurries somewhere
afraid to be seen. I set a trap
Hoping to capture a bit of
myself without killing it
but even then, I could get a good
look at it. Or a cloth and
soapy water could clear the view