Snapshots

Snapshots

I once thought “I have not suffered enough,
enough to write like this,
to get inside these other minds
to see what they saw.
What right do I have to speak for them.?”

I do not think that any longer. 

Knowing them,
traveling with them
for even a short while,
they have left a part of themselves
and I hope I have offered something in return.

A picture is not the same as the event,
but if it brings back the emotions of the event,
isn’t that something?

These poems are my photo albums,
memories, dedications, mementos
of people, of characters in books,
of trees struck by lightning
still reaching for the heavens,
these things of my world that tug at my soul,
that open my eyes to truth,
that teach me something. 

These are my snapshots,
and this, my scrapbook,
my geneaology, my epitaph,
my map and compass,
my microscope, my binoculars,
my imagination, my hurts, my laughter,
and with these poems,
I have sought to honor those
who have become a part of  me,
and so I will never forget
the lessons they have taught me
along the way.

And now, may I share them with you,
for perhaps you have met these people too,
somewhere in your journey
and where two are gathered in precious memory, 
someone up there is smiling.
knowing they have not been forgotten. 


SWPoet