Welcome to my Poet Lady Chat Room. I would like to invite you to click on the chat box and type in a question, a suggestion, submit a poem, in other words – “chat with me.” I may, if you submit a poem, decide to feature it in my Poem of the Week section or, we may simply exchange ideas and suggestions about your poem.
This is a place to “talk” poetry with someone who has loved it all her life. I have a true passion for the possibilities of poetry and would love to hear your thoughts and/or read your poem. I will be happy to offer my reaction to your work and, based on over 40 years of teaching poetry, organizing, and conducting poetry workshops, working as a book review editor for an international poetry magazine, authoring five books of poetry and two textbooks on teaching poetry, send along my thoughts on ways to make your poem stronger and more impactful.
If you’re on my site, you have a connection to poetry. Feel free to connect with me – right here -right now, by typing your message into the “chat box” and clicking send. I’m waiting…
Your friend in poetry, Susan
FEATURED POEM
Cold were the nights as they crept out of the cemeteries
in broken words, in shattered promises, in soulless echoes.
With rings with no fingers, voices without throats, footsteps
with no feet, they arose in unison. Black capes, red eyes, for
the world to call them names where one's minds refused
to follow. Broken promises......
Fair was the moon when they first broke her heart. Out to the
harbors where no voices echoed, she screamed in blacks. To
the sinner and the sinned, whose pen decided her fate to
shatter? For once, the twilight never welcomed the changing
faces. For once, the veil never lifted beyond the mask of
many feathers....
Faint were the chimes that called her name in twelves. A shattered
mirrorball, a lonely cardigan and an empty fireplace. The rust on
the birthday knife shined darker in the quaintness of the night.
And out to the winds did the dandelions fly. Catching fireflies,
hoping to light the path to her lonely cascade....
A woman of many shades. A man of no wits. A house with no
heart. But the glistening from the leather belt caught her eyes
from miles apart. Tell me a story. Talk to me about your darkest
dreams. And the girl kept humming the old wives' tale.
The old mystical lighthouse. The one that felt like home to her.
The one whose railings knew her each birthday. For the day
that the twelfth chime echoed, was the day that she felt free.
For the day that her blood stained her bathroom tiles, was the
day she felt the steps to hell...
And out to the cemeteries, she walked. To every human face
that found her eyes saw her vacant gaze. The day she
shuddered at the thought of her "home", to the day she laid
in blossoms. "O Mother! My Mother! For now I am free and
you be bound to me forever". "For now you light my candles
and I watch your sins"..."O Mother! My Mother!......"