New reply from Susan Katz
<p>Touching – moving – a heartbeat of emotion and truth and loss. You do a fine job with rhyme and slant rhyme but perhaps, you might want to tone it down a bit as it, in a couple of places in the poem, became more prominent than the words (the feelings) themself.</p>
<p>You have a poetic "voice" – a style of writing that, I think, is recognizable. I believe that is what a poet strives to accomplish – his/her own voice – a "sound" that resonates off the page.</p>
<p>It is a pleasure reading your poetry – and was a wonderful way to start my frigid Sunday morning. I thank you for trusting me to read and comment on your work. – Susan</p>
https://poetladykatz.com/poetry-talk/the-photograph
Original Post by Comfort
The photograph
<p>I miss you there <br />Where your smile was frozen <br />Before I had to taste your absence<br />Before each substance… <br />I miss you here <br />I miss you before pupils had to learn to accept you were past tense</p>
<p>I stare at your picture hoping you'd jump out saying it was all a prank<br />I stare till my mind goes blank</p>
<p>I miss you there <br />I miss you bare, though you tried to cloth your anger <br />I miss your care, though times it was never fair<br />I miss you rare, when work took you far and I waited till stars fully shined just to hear your car <br />You're finally here</p>
<p>I envy how the picture gets to hold you <br />How it gets to know you with every frame<br />With every pixel <br />Through every lens. <br />You truly were, picture perfect</p>
<p>I miss you where? <br />I miss you here, right here!<br />Right here, not there with the Angels! <br />They don't know you here! They don't know you till prayers pulled them close <br />They don't know you mad, they don't know you glad<br />They don't know you embarrassed, they don't know you!!! <br />So why, why do they get to have you there?</p>
<p>I miss you here,<br />Right here, where your photograph stays silent,<br />Frozen in a frame that knows you only in stillness.<br />But I knew you in motion,<br />In every breath, every glance, every heartbeat.</p>
<p>And yet, this picture holds you now—<br />More than my arms ever could.<br />But it’s still just a shadow,<br />A whisper of you.</p>
<p>I miss you here.</p>