Richard Schnap- Three Poems

VOICES

When I was a child
I once read somewhere
That the ancients believed
All things hold a spirit

And sometimes it seems
In my darkest of hours
I can hear them speaking
Like a comforting friend

When the wind softly whispers
“Don’t be afraid”
And the rain sharply counsels
“You’re not alone”

And the sea slowly murmurs
“Try to forget”
And the earth sweetly urges
“This too will pass”


X-RAY

There’s a diamond in your heart
Its brilliance buried in shadows
From ten thousand lonely nights

And there’s a rose in your soul
Caught in a web of weeds
Nourished by a poisoned river

And there’s a star in your gut
Stuck in a black cage
For a gawking realm of mannequins

And there’s a child in your mind
Who has dreams that never end
Telling of the end of dreams


ASHES

A last goodbye, a final embrace.
A eulogised kiss at the funeral

Of love. A sanctified bed, a coffin,
A grave. Lined with white silk,

White lilies, white tears. A letter,
An obituary. A valentine, an epitaph.

A passion cremated and scattered
In the wind. A passage of time,

A slow forgetting. A weathered
Memory that haunts me no more.