Linda M. Crate- Three Poems

autumn's bittersweet kiss

autumn
is always so bittersweet for me
so many memories of
people forged
here
that have danced around me
before blowing
forever away and i hate losing people
it hurts deeper than any
scar or bruise
i've ever received in the past,
and i don't know
how it is so easy for them to keep wandering
down the road without me
pretending
as if we were always strangers;
i am a raven in a flock
of swans,
i've always stood alone
and while i've always enjoyed my own company
no one wants to forever stand alone—
i have always tried too hard
to fit in,
but now i've recognized my need to be me
standing out
in a world of carbon copies
they all want me to conform as i try to persist they
resist everything they've learned;
perhaps, it's too painful
for them to change but if autumn leaves
why can't they?
perhaps, they would rather know the truth of their beauty
hiding in their beautiful scars they make excuses
of why they're like everyone else,
and i just dance like a leaf
in the wind
spinning my own circles in a world that would have
you walk squares.


longing to hear the whispers of the trees

i remember
being young and standing staring at the
trees wondering how old they
grew to be and how
tall they were,
and i wondered if at one time
they didn't dance;
sometimes i still wonder as i gaze
upon tree roots
lifted from
the ground, and if they did dance
i wonder what
made
them stop?
i want to hear their whispers of all their
stories good and bad,
of all their wisdom
and of all the
times they danced;
but perhaps that is only something i'll come to
know by the whistling of the wind
and birdsong
that nests in my ears in spring—
i'd rather hear from the trees themselves
because second hand information
is rarely reliable.


the immensity of my dreams

the dragonfly
danced
so close to me i thought
his wings would
touch my
nose,
but he did not touch me
merely came close
and he feared
me;
but i caught his photograph
loving the gleam of
the sun bent on his beautiful wings
he was so serene and
peaceful
i wanted always to fly with him
a breath in time
dancing in the sky
just didn't want to let that moment go—
i find myself in nature
when i'm lost to all concept of man
and what i should be,
thinking only of all the things that are yet to
be achieved in my dreams because
nature always reminds me
anything is possible;
the only limitations lay within in the mind
and so i look into the tapestry of sky and land and sea
promising myself that i will have likewise
vibrancy
allow my dreams to be immense
so i can catch them
like falling stars from the skies into my palms
burning away all illusion of reality.