Strive & struggle

I am a poet, — though
I’ve yet to write a poem —

when my soul blossoms
and my mind goes free
when I finally let go of
the suffocating shroud
o’er the wildness of me

my beauty will spill out
the ink will overflow and

finally I’ll be able to see
through a sapphire lens
into the heart of infinity

         ✻    ✻    ✻

I know I am a poet —
someday — I will be

but the earth hasn’t yet
shattered inside me

         ✻    ✻    ✻

I have still only yet got
the seeds of the words
within me; I am learning
and yearning and earning
and living my way toward
being born into harvest

         ✻    ✻    ✻

There’s a meteor shower
inside my brain —

stars shooting down
every bright idea
words burning out
before inking the page —

broken-hearted dementia
sleepless engulfing fog —
search and rescue crews
report every line gone

Terri Guillemets

2024

I know a guy.
Angry. Festering
in disappointment
of the world
and of himself.
A little depressed.
Sick of doing
the same. freaking.
thing. every day.
Wondering where
his lost youth went.
Hungering to replace
the comfort and
all the good things
in his life that
have gone away.
But resolutely
continuing on
doing his duty.
Living with the pain.
Loving while he can.
Taking any little
laugh he can find.
Then doing it all
over again. Perhaps
you know him too.
Perhaps we all do
— inside.

Terri Guillemets

no Physics

dancing under midnight stars
on damp grass in the dark —
a good friend by my side
youth’s music in our ears
wildcats watching hereaway
in the cool fall desert night —
zero credit hours for school
but dozens of them for life

Terri Guillemets