POP #5: For Valentine's Day

I know this anonymous face rather too well,
the thickening neck, the frown line between
pale eyebrows, pale eyes behind glasses,
now pale hair gone to gray.
I’ve been invisible since the 3rd grade.
About the only aspect of this face I like
is the smile that lifts the corners of my mouth
when you call my name.

This week's Poets on the Page prompt is to write a love poem -- the twist comes when the challenge is to write a love poem about yourself. I'm not all that daring, but it was fun as the poem turned to something unexpected.

Maybe all the chocolate is gone, maybe orchids have a sympathetic aura we know nothing about, maybe birds flock together solely to survive the wind, maybe yesterday was Valentine's Day. 

Orchids at Botannical Garden,
Corpus Christi (Feb 2016)

Poem: "Winter Texans"

I don’t belong in this place so far from snow,
the palm trees and calm waters outside
an absolute lie about winter or spring, for that matter.
The gulls, loons, and an occasional pelican 

wheel overhead. A few flap down 

to the waters of this canal.
I shiver, caught up in some bone memory of cold.
The days of this respite pass too quickly;
I remain caught by half-remembered routine.
And when we return north, it will be
as if we had never lived by the Gulf
in the warm February sun,
as if we never saw the mermaid 
nor swam in the sea.

This week's poem is a rather melancholy entry for Valentine's Day. 

Don't you prefer e. e. cummings? 

love is more thicker than forget
more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fail

Read the rest of his poem at Poetry Foundation HERE.  

Happy Valentine's Day!

A few White Pelicans in courting plummage
taking in the sun
Corpus Christi, February 2016

IWSG February check-in: Beginnings and endings

We've moved far from snow, down the Gulf coast to Corpus Christi, trading freezing slush for balmy skies and palm trees. So begins February. Beginnings in a new home for the month. And an ending of winter.

What does it mean when all I have with me that's connected to my writing is a small laptop with limited memory? And a rough draft awaiting those hopefully final much-labored-over edits? Nothing has really changed. Each day I will find those precious hours before others awake to keep working.

Maybe I will start something new this month.

Maybe I will finish a chunk of those final edits.

I only hold this constant: each day I will set aside some time to write.

Tomorrow we'll go out on some kind of a skimmer boat to see the birds. Egrets, great blue herons, osprey, brown pelicans, a few spoonbills. Maybe I'll bring home a new story idea. For now, I will cherish each day. Watch the wind buffet the palms and the black-headed gulls fly low over the canal on Padre Island.

This first Wednesday of the month, for the Insecure Writer's Support Group, we're supposed to check in, to report what challenges we're facing and to encourage others in the group.

Check out what other IWSG writers are doing HERE.  Persevere. Write those good words that make up your unique stories. Make it a good month!