I think in haiku
Not that I’m intending to
Just how my thoughts form
A poem descending
Fully formed and intact
For all to read
Without a pen near
My mind is my haiku scribe
Till one is found
Poetry
In motion
In my mind
I linger with grief
Constant companion, of late
We’re well acquainted
Grief is a rip tide
A tenacious undertow
Then the tide goes out
I miss being one
Half of a couple in love
With being in love
I miss having a
Live-in partner for Scrabble
Or heart-to-heart talks
I miss being part
Of a family under
One roof not two
Christmas memories
Unpacked with each ornament
Hung upon the tree
I have no stocking
To hang by the fireplace
Nor a fireplace
I cannot bear to
Watch one more Hallmark movie
About Christmas joy
More than fifty years
Since this idyllic-summer-
wind-swept day
Time is suspended
I can feel the sandy beach
And hear the seagulls
I have your hands with
Their twisted pointer-fingers
I see you in them
Your taste on my lips
Salty yet sweet with memory
Tears of mourning
I have lost you a
Thousand times over again
Yet you return
Love is favorite jeans
Time worn, mended in places
Easy second skin
Falling asleep to
The sound of company from
The other room
Lavender scented
Bar of soap by the bedside
Gentle nighttime waft
There aren’t enough bells
From here to eternity
To toll for your life
As you lay purring
Loudly, fervently to me
I feel your love-song
Jennifer Gurney lives in Colorado where she teaches, paints, writes and hikes. She is a newly published poet. Her first sixteen poems have just been published in late 2022 / early 2023, at age 59. During the pandemic she joined the online poetry community of The Daily Haiku. Poetry has been a lifeline.