Poets and Writers

Welcome to the POET'S PAGE. This month's poet is Wisconsin Poet Prudence Tippins. Check out more of her poems, links to her website and some writing prompts to arouse the poet in you.

My next featured poet is Cindy Anderson.

Send me several poems, your biography and contact information to have me feature you on this page for a couple months. I read all submissions and will respond to each one.  

I Want You to Remember
 
The cobalt vase
Gerbera daisies
Baked bread
Mozart cribside

Bed-slide funtime
Sponged clouds above
Rough wrestles, stories
Wrapped in chenille
 
Bunny dinners
Lettuce lunch
Munching carrots
No-handed
 
Rocking, rocking
                Rocking, rocking
Singing you to sleep
Watching you dream
 
The seven ant farms
Foursquare in the living room
Castles in the yard
Overcrowded sleepovers
 
First girlfriend
Halting conversations
Trying to understand what it means
To “go with” someone
 
I tried.
 
Forget the cold Vs of my face
Yelling
And you, crying,
Your purple sweatshirt
Already on
 
Forget my slip
The truth about Santa
All those hopeful letters
Asking for owl eggs and a flying machine;
Found in a drawer
 
I broke your heart and you were ten.
 
Forget the slammed doors
Forget the red-faced lectures
Forget the hurled car keys
The “natural consequences”
The sighs
 
See?
Even now, see how many photos
            Of you?
See your first grade fingerpainting,
Your clay pencil holder,
Your carved rabbit
Your knitted finger puppet
 
And how lonely
things
are now…

You’re home today
I look around the house for your happiness
Wanting to get my hands in it
So I bake banana muffins
 
“Wake up, sleepyhead”
Just like old times
 
Remember
the smell of the muffins.
 
Remember
the beat of my heart
Was constant, always,
Just above you.
                   Prudence Tippins