I have been writing poetry since I was a child. In fact, I won $5.00 for best poem in a Boston Herald contest when I was 10 years old. They would publish a picture each week and whoever sent in the best poem about it won.

Here are just three examples of poems I wrote in response to a specific concept. I’d be happy to write one for you on the subject – or for the person – of your choice.

One of Many

Cherries are too simple–
a bit of luxury but not quite worth the bother.

There are often seeds in grapes
and apples bore me.

A plum in winter just might make me smile.

Written for Ray Kurzweil to add to his collection of plum poems.

Gone

Where are you all going?
You who don’t see love from
the “right” angle.

You dance and sing and write and act and
take pictures no one wants to see.
Or so they say.

Blinders keep some on the road
but lines can’t become circles.
And the whirl of dervishes
is where we find
the spirit of our souls.

You dared to go beyond the straight and narrow.

I am glad, but I still cry.

Written in the early 1990s for a poetry reading in response to so many friends dying of AIDS.

Cat Tales

I want to curl up on the couch.
Smug, safe, a haughty purr.
A cat who knows her limits.

Tail flickers lightly. Refined.
Consuming grace restrained.
Sashay down the corridor.

Stop. Stretch. Extending
dreams of the lioness
nestled in silky muff.

I see the red mouse winking
from the corner of my eye –
so it must be real.

Written because I had just read The Fur Person by May Sarton and was thus inspired to write a poem about my cat.