What a tribute, Gar!
Ter
----- Original Message -----
From: "garydawg" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2001 5:14 PM
Subject: The Women who Gave Me Poetry


> The Women Who Gave Me Poetry
>
> Sally, the first, was not a poet.
> She called herself misanthrope,
> others would argue gadfly.
> Heads turned when she entered
> if only with keystrokes.
> Her style was games,
> words and sentences
> flung with great abandon.
> For her, I would have written
> a thousand poems about moonshine
> if moon poems were allowed.
>
> Mary, number two, is so full of cheer,
> her mail is as though I'm wrapped
> in Grandma's best quilt,
> extra marshmallows in the cocoa.
> She is also plays,
> lines, count and words
> given to find a poem.
> In the search she taught me
> to find the inside of myself.
> For her, poems of starshine,
> fairies and teddy bears in spring.
>
> Ryfkah, last on the list
> but far from the least,
> is bagels and tangerines
> on a smoky August night.
> She showed me how to pilfer
> fruit from the Garden and helped
> this descendent of Hard-shell Baptists
> savor the taste of other words.
> My poems to her travel on desert winds
> to wrap the scent of oranges
> and honey around olive trees.
>
> There were many other friendships made,
> poems shared, care freely given;
> but like Eve, Sarah,
> and Noah's unnamed wife,
> these first three deserve special mention
> among the words
> I launch into this world.
>
> November with Janet from Oz at:
http://gardawg.homestead.com/homestead.html,
>
> Submissions: http://www.writershood.com/index.html
>
> Poets for Peace.  ¡Poemas sí, balas no!