A Perfect Read(er)

Click on the orange link below to read a review of Perfect Reader, the debut novel from Maggie Pouncey.

http://josephsreviews.wordpress.com/2010/09/09/farther-on/

Grief

Grief
By Joseph

Grief...
I don't understand...

I don't understand
How we can love
someone
How we can know
someone
And then they
can suddenly be
gone...

Is it a cosmic joke
Is it a lesson to be
learned...
Is it meant to humble
us, to hurt us
To make us feel
like fools?

But then we remember...
Who they were
What they taught us
What they said...

How they loved us
How they needed us
How they live inside
us...

How they are as
real as anything
that has ever been...

How they were as
much as we will
ever be...

We live, incomplete,
but yet fuller
because of them.


Photo: flickr (Andrea in grief, NCBrian)

This Poem

This Poem
by Joseph

This poem is about
your life, not mine,
or hers or his...

In which you
discover what you
need to do
which is not about
me or him or her...

It goes back to you,
returns to you
Because life is about risk
Without risk, you're already...

dead

Find out what you want,
Find what you need,
Start living now, today,
Make this poem a success.


Photo of Jenny Dalton: flickr (Clark Patrick), used with the permission of Jenny Dalton.

I'm getting to understand

I'm getting to understand
by Joseph

I'm getting to understand
Why people die
Because the bones hurt
the back hurts
The cat is in pain
And there's no longer
anyone you wish to meet

They say hope springs
eternal
But what's the point
when you're no longer
young

The past is done
The future can't be
seen
Time moves without mercy
Tomorrow looms mean

Photo: flickr (slack12)

My mother's chance

My mother's chance
by Joseph

My mother was always waiting
for her chance to take
the stage
But she played the role
of an understudy
in her life...

Back-up to her husband
her child, her career
Always in the background
her time was never
right...

Until she died and all eyes
were upon her
The speakers, the music,
the family...

It was a glorious production
All flowers to the leading
lady
Never to re-appear.