Extra! Extra!

courtesy of Carolyn Meyer

from the ephemeral collection of

Robert Janz

sea water (Irish?)and igneous rock

arrow of unknown origin
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxoooooooo
...."LOVE IS NOT LOVE WHICH ALTERS WHEN IT ALTERATION FINDS.".. ....

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sondra Ball wrote to say she will publish my poem, After the End of the World, tomorrow in her online poetry zine. I'm not going to declare my poem as fine as Sonnet 116 quoted above of Will Shakespeare's but there is something similar between the two. Will's is more complicated but mine is just as deep. Sorry, Will. Some of us do lay claim to also "owning" the topic of love. I like the open-endedness of my poem. The reader has to decide for himself/ herself what the poem is. Is it a love poem? Or a prayer? Maybe it's a poem about the scattering of families by geography. It could be an unrequited situation with overtones of melancholy or an affirmation that the soul survives the worst catastrophes. It could be a sibling poem or a memorial to a friend. There's a good chance it's a mother/child poem. I know what I thought it was as I was writing it but I'll let you choose. Of course, I welcome your guesses but, shucks, I bet you already have guessed what Moi would write. To conclude my Valentine special edition, I will quote a letter from my dad who would have probably described love as the supreme human grace which comes from the capacity to live joyously. "Charley brought me three cucumbers, which I did not dare eat raw. So I boiled them hard, chilled them, and put lemon juice on them. Try it some time. It’s awful." Robert Janz, Senior Advisor on Visa and Immigration, Liberia 1953
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
........today's blessing is a tip o' the hat to Emily Dickinson, Some Enchanted Evening, and Will....

...may Love surprise you, springing up from hidden coves to dance through meadows

and over hilltops and may it never let you go.....

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxooooooooooooooooooooooooooo