Tenkey Very Much by Gary W. Bowers and Happy Birthday in Heaven by Anjum Wasim Dar

“Poetry is a life-cherishing force. For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry.” Mary Oliver, A Poetry Handbook

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♥ Much appreciation to Gary and Anjum Ji for their poems in response to The Echo of Her Sighs. ♥

tenkey very much

the book of numbers is immense
and hints of debt and recompense
in arab calligraphic code
throughout the warp and weft and node
of former mom in current mom-hearse
who turned her fingers into commerce.

how nice how much of mom is left
in poet-daughter’s warp and weft
and words of numbers servicing
a mother’s life, her nerves to sing.

© 2019, Gary W. Bowers (One with Clay, Image and Text)

As some of you know, Gary is multi-talented, combing visual art with poetry or prose narrative.  He is also a potter. A sample of his work is pictured here. Gary’s pottery is available for purchase.  Further details HERE. Note the business card. We appreciate Gary’s wry humor.

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Happy Birthday in Heaven

while I read the loving words tears roll down
though I am a mother too in time, but still like a child
look for my own…
Respected Jamie Ji though late but wish to share some lines here..

I see the vision the presence the grace
Mother, its you I see, I feel in her, she
touched cleaned cut and stitched
came again and again and again
when I was stiff n senseless in pain
I felt a hand ,and heard a voice
twenty minutes more
a voice…calm, a look angel like…
fear left me, then there was peace,
I felt a hand on my forehead
Yes, yes, Mother was there…
All the time,with love and prayer.
Mother I need you …
I wish I could be that special book
in which I could place my treasure
like the scented rose close forever
never to wither or be dry but
All I am able to do is cry
You were The Angel-You are…
who checked me with care when
I was in pain you checked me again
and again, with a calm serene smile
in you I found peace never felt for quite
a while-I wish I could be the book
and place the angel rose and each day
say for you a prayer return your smile
and look at My Angel on the page and
Up in the sky I pray…Dear Mother
I need you, I need you all the time

© 2019, Anjum Wasim Dar (Poetic Oceans)

A homebound writer, poet, and former columnist and associate editor of a regional employment newspaper, my work has been featured widely in print and digital publications including: Ramingo’s Porch, Vita Brevis Literature, Connotation Press, The Bar None Group, Salamander Cove, I Am Not a Silent Poet, The Compass Rose and California Woman. I run The Poet by Day, an info hub for poets and writers and am the founding/managing editor of The BeZine.

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“Every pair of eyes facing you has probably experienced something you could not endure.”  Lucille Clifton

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