Sarah Flanigan - Poetry Simply Put

Well as many of you may know already, the last poem of the series has been posted. From Vision to Hero. I just wanted to say thanks very much to all of those who read and commented.

It was a special pleasure for me to share these poems with you, written so long ago and a piece out of my past. In fact, I wanted to say what joy I have derived from having this blog and being able to share my stories with you.

It was an experiment for me. I have been writing a long time and have accumulated a relatively large body of work. A body of work I had convinced myself no one would be interested in reading. How happy I am to have been wrong on that point. You have no idea how much it means to me that people actually come here to read my stories and poems.

So, I just wanted to say I am thankful for the gift of your readership. I am thankful for a forum to place my fiction. I am thankful that reading is still a pleasure alive and well.

Have a lovely Thanksgiving. And I hope I will see you afterwards.

sarah

As two soldiers
we have fought
shoulder to shoulder
the bond between us
too strong
to be broken
by word or weapon.

Together we have won
battles of this life
and other lives…
With each new victory
we have celebrated.

Toward each new battle
we have marched.
Whistling down the road
dressed in tatters
fresh with scars
confience never dimmed.

Certain we are, in one another.
You are my shield
as I am yours.
My life you have
for the asking.

For what is life
if not to be given
to one who knows the
secrets of your soul?
What is ship
without sail?
What is earth without
sun?
What is life
without purpose?

It is what I am
without you…
It is empty and dark.
It is a game lost
before begun.

And if there is a God
I pray
that He might
give blessing
to our pact
of eternal devotion and trust.
I pray that we might
always be there
for one another.

To face
each new battle
each new barrier
that crosses the path
and throws shadow on
our purpose.

Together
Life is a Game
we can face
with a smile
and a laugh.

Copyright 2006

Once we were brothers
and it mattered not
in what shell we were held.
Matter not, did our faiths,
our colours
of the homes in which we
lived.

Our children shared
their voices in song
and lent their hands
in toil and in chore.
Once we held dear
one another
and fought side
by side.
For our common purpose
mutural priveledge and right.

We did not care
from when we came
and to where we would go.
Our hands joined
and made circle around the world.

Brought together our
hands we did
and made music heard.

Together we had journeyed
together, sentenced to
this outland.
It was by the joining
of hands and hearts
that we survived.

We landed safe and strong.
To the hills
some took
to the sea, to the sand
to the prairies and plains
went others.
All agreeing to
smile warm
when next we met.

But the wars came
and made us bitter.
Our children died
and suffered they did
by the hands of a neighbor.
Hatred was bred
and passed down
as a valuable is
to the generations.
And as it was their duty
they carried the seed
casting it far and wide across the land
so that it would grow and flourish.

Grow it did.
Flourish it did.
Until the world was
but a thick jungle of it.
Only the strong survived it.
Until
it was every man for himself
and his.

Sharing was a fond memory
a secret whispered on the wind
and heard only by small children.
The world that once shone
with common purpose
and mutual strength
began its decline and decay.

Shaken with thunder
blistered with drought
drowned in water
it was.
And on the islands
that emerged from the murky depth
we stayed.
Making smaller groups
forming separate purpose.

In the night
I have heard the cries
of all men.
And in a child’s eyes
I have seen the wonder
we once knew.
I have seen the light
of hope in those eyes.
And it is for that
child’s eyes
I have seen the answers.
I have seen the salvation
of us all.

Lacking luster and light.
Stoop-shouldered and furrowed brow
has been the sight of us.
But for that child’s eyes.
For it is the future
that shone there.
The promise of tomorrow.
Of a second chance…

I beckon you out of the flame
and fire
up to the earth.
Where the air is but
fresh and sweet.
The breeze is a cool comfort.

Join we must again
all hands
all colors
of all trade and walks
and make circle around the world.
Bring back to our eyes
the light that shines bright
in the eyes of our children.

To send them off
in their mission
their journey
to the making of the future.

Copyright 2006

My last sight of them will come soon. A tangle of copper colored hair flying in the wind as she pulls away in the big white truck. A goofy four-year-smile pressed up against the window. A giggle I won’t hear. The taste of McDonald’s still on my lips (from our last fine meal together). The world will be bigger then, as the distance puts us farther apart. The days will be longer and less mirthful. When we’ll see each other again, I don’t know. There’ll be phone calls, perhaps letters and emails…but it won’t be the same. Good bye Jen, see you in the funny papers. Arthur, take good care of your mommy.