The power of words, and Doors

THE POWER OF WORDS

Words cannot imprint
The world on me.
Only life can register
A blackbird in a tree.

Yet when the blackbird’s gone,
Words can make me see
His red wing flash in summer
Just as it used to be.

Words are not the same,
But they will have to do.
Life keeps disappearing.
Words bring it back to view.

B.P. Daniel (1929 - )

I had promised a March Madness of my mom’s poetry, and here we are with just a day remaining of her birthday month! So, I’m squeezing a few more in today and tomorrow, and I hope you enjoy these.

DOORS

When I am tired of opening and closing doors,
Of doing all life’s endless little chores,
I steal away to the fastness of my mind,
And manufacture doors of another kind.

I pile up words, hinge them with a phrase,
Then swing away, into my choice of days.
It is I who decide what weather there shall be,
And who shall sit with me beneath the tree.

It is an empire fit for a king and queen,
This land of words, that lies behind, between,
Just out of sight, in the forest of the mind.
Forever through its pathways would I wind:

Seeking to capture in its branches, taut and
still,
Songs that would haunt the lonely whip-poor-
will.

B.P. Daniel (1929 - )

Photo credits: Emily Blaylock (one of our wonderful nannies who took these photos on our last vacation to Victoria, B.C.)