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
I’m close enough for your breath to rethink itself,
my fingers already drawing territories you didn’t give permission for
"don’t, stop" ,
and that’s why I keep going.
I’m not touching you to know you,
I’m touching you to see how fast you forget yourself.
Your skin warms first,
then your judgement,
and I follow that heat like instinct,
like I was born knowing exactly where you soften.
I don’t need your heart for this
only the places you defend the least,
the ones only I can feast.
He gives you his heart like a sacrifice to a goddess,
yet you kneel before me like I’m your truer altar.
You hold his love with careful hands,
Though you lick love off my sweat like it's all you'll ever have.
He offers you devotion,
promises carved from sincerity so clean they shine,
and still you fold into my shadow
like you’ve been waiting for darkness to touch you.
you breathe like a sinner when I’m near.
And you call this confusion,
but you know better—
you’re just choosing the fire that burns sweeter.
So why the tears now?
Why spill devotion at my feet, I'm not your husband.
I never told you to trade your heart for heat.
You
chose the way I choke you
over the way he hold you.
Don’t rewrite the story now.
Don’t dress your sins with hunger, I will feed on your weakness.
So, if, my desire floods you again,
if your body starts begging louder than your conscience,
you know where to find me.
I’ll take you to the deepest parts of yourself
and leave you empty again,
exactly why you keep coming back to me.