Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Always



Always
    By
Lisa A.Williams

There have been so many
 I could build
a castle of goodbyes
on this shore.

Always facing the wind
who scatters those sands
of a lifetime, some gladly
released, many held tightly
still she prevails in
the breath of living to
take what was given.

Those moments, seared
in memory of the family
who shared the love of
music and the lightness
of being, shared laughter
precious commodity in an
aging world of anger.

Friends, close to the spirit
drift away to far off places
to begin anew, always their leaving
takes a part of us with them.

Children grow
become what we were
and more, always there is a
grieving of their departure.

The familiar face in the mirror
becomes a stranger we don’t
know, too busy saying goodbye
to the one we remember, watching
her transform over and over again,
an ever changing self who finds and
then is lost with each farewell.




Monday, June 24, 2013

A Tree



A Tree
By
Lisa A.Williams


A tree
grows there
in that dry place
with nothing but skies
to water,
earth to nurture.

A tree grows there budding,
roots reaching for more
to steady its skyward gaze.


 A tree sleeps there
 in the dead winter barrenness
 rooted with questions
 only rebirth can answer.


It waits with eons of patience, knowing
only time can fill the void and strengthen.


Beneath its shade, I find solace.
in its silence, I hear my voice.
Where a tree grows, I rest
and reach for all I do not know.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

The Ladies



 The Ladies
By
Lisa A.Williams



They tell
of lifetimes spent
in small towns
when the world
was new to them
and grief and loss
were in their infancy,
as they raised families
still keeping their voices
in low whispers
.
Time moved on,
some were separated
from parents while still
in desperate need
of their guidance.

 Husbands lost
to dying.
Their voices grew louder,
stories I was eager to hear,
in a small shop
where others “junk”
became someone elses treasure.

In their company, me
at 50, still in their eyes,
a “young” woman,
listened-
to how cancer reared
its ugly head,
time and time again
sometimes beaten,
sometimes the victor.

How a man forgot
his wife’s name
and whether he was eating
cherries or grapes
as she wiped his mouth,
like he was her child.

Stories of loneliness,
 in an
empty house,
making winters 
colder than memory.

Most of all,
witnessing
the treasure of aging
with strength
and beauty
how nothing would
cause the laughter
To cease.

Joy was always
on the cusp,
 the ladies-
wise enough to swoop her up
at every chance.







Wednesday, June 19, 2013

In Your Eyes



In Your Eyes
By
Lisa A.Williams


I saw-
in the bluest eyes
my reflection
held in acceptance.


I saw a kindred spirit
who knew all too well
the frazzled threads of
all I wish to be, all I ever was
and the darkness I fought
to free myself from.


In your eyes, I saw
A bond of eternal, maternal
hunger to feed the child within
who never knew there was a place
such as this, where all sins are wiped away
ashes scattered at the mercy of a timeless wind
and I could be as I am, imperfect, wandering
often lost .

In your eyes, I saw eternity.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Another Father's Day



Another Father’s Day
By
Lisa A.Williams


Twenty-nine years
since we said goodbye

on that hot July
night when lightening
struck the sober sky

still holding the Father’s Day Card
last one, with the picture of  a dad
swooping up his little girl,

the inscription: “Remember when
you soothed all my little girl fears
with just a shoulder to lean on ….”

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Moving On



Moving On
By
Lisa A.Williams


It is said-
We must move on,
leave the ache
in its hollow place
darkened by memory,
worn away by years.


 We fed it with sorrow,
 re-sensitizing the fear born
 remembrances which made
 us who we are, yet held us prisoner
 in that familiar place as we fruitlessly
 reached for something we still hungered for.


 Only by starving the past
 Can we fill ourselves with
 the future which will nourish
 all those laid down dreams-

Awakened by the vacancy
moving on has opened our hearts to.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Mermaid



Mermaid’s Song
By
Lisa A.Williams


Echoes-
from sea to stone
ascend to kiss the sky,
ancient muse
earth cannot recall.
 Fins
of forever
sweep the tide
in a dance
 only the free remember.
 Her glistening rises
with the waves
as she breathes
 both sea and sky.
How the jealous land
                                                                       aches for her.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

I Remember



I Remember
By
Lisa A.Williams


I remember-
riding in the car,
wind
letting in summer,
Dad singing
old songs he remembered
as he grew up
in the place we were heading-
Home
where heartache
etched its scars
but love healed over.


I remember-
My grandmother
 in her bright flowered duster
running to greet us
 tears
 when we arrived,
tears
when we left.

I remember-
my cousin Debbie,
the smell of the river
and buying ice cold cokes
from the soda machine
on the anchored tugboat.

I remember-
Washing down
the salt tablets we “sailors”
had to have as the August sun
beat down, darkening our
Celtic skin.

I remember-
the warm nights
of playing tag and
listening to stories
our forefathers recited
in the oil scented
garage, their only escape
 from the sweltering fields.



I remember-
Waddington,
family who embraced me,
stranger that I was.
I saw in their eyes
my beginnings,
I saw in their eyes
love.



Monday, June 3, 2013

The Art of Leaving



The Art of Leaving
By
Lisa A. Williams


Mom-
Tangled soul of many voices
standing in front of the poor man’s grocery
waiting for a rescue which never came.

Dad and his promises
better tomorrows
free from her illness
destination unknown.


Child in the middle
playing with their promises
weighing each,
finding both were as thin as air.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Untitled



Untitled
By
Lisa A.Williams


The wise-
don’t build on sand.
but spirit does.
 At the mercy of whispers,
the wind utters
 her contempt
for stability-
she is a freedom
lover, enraptured by
the pull of lunar
and warm breezes.
Sister sun-
shines on the shadows
 of stone-
where secrets try to hide.