Here’s the last in my week of Love Poems!
Our Marriage
“How do you fold this omelette?”
You grab a kitchen towel.
“First, one third, then the other flaps over, comme ca.”
“Oh, so it’s an engineering project?”
“That’s what cooking is. Science and engineering.”
“I thought it was love, and magic.”
But that’s what I say.
From “Seeking Center” Two Bridges Press, 2006
Technorati Tags: love poems, poetry, valentines day
Wedding Poem
In the shadow of the Mayacamas
In a field somewhere in time
The dirt beneath us pliant and yielding
Like a child, I stroke your brow, your neck.
Rough moss hangs from gnarly branches,
Like the veins and hairs on my grandmother’s body.
What was the beginning of this ancient tree, roots deep enough
To survive even a severe lack of water?
Beneath an invisible maypole our fates are woven.
We are nearly ready for our vows.
Our roots intertwine and
Our souls are lit.
“I know you. I’ve known you before. In Russia, in Poland, in Germany,
In Brooklyn. We were the peasants with the strong love of God,
We were the children who prayed
By our parents sides, recited the S’hma, glowed
In the light of Channukah, Shabbas and Yahzreit candles.”
We are blown about by a gentle breeze, nurtured by the soil of each other.
Celebrate the love that is about rain, and the lack of it.
Acknowledgements: This poem has previously appeared:
“Seeking Center,” Two Bridges Press, 2006, Richmond, CA
“A Dreamer’s Guide to Cities and Streams,” Virginia, 2009
“Kerem”
“Poetica”
“Riversedge: Vol. 2″
And, has been read at many beautiful weddings! Enjoy!
# 5 in a Week of Love poems – #6 tonight – and #7 – tomorrow!
Also – check out “Touching: Poems of Love, Longing and Desire,” by Fearless Books – a great Valentine’s gift.
Valentine’s Day
Cupid’s army woke up
On the wrong side of the bed.
Shot a shower of arrows helter skelter.
Hearts were slashed, lives were razed.
All the wrong people were falling in love.
Call it global warming, climate change
The darts flew willy-nilly.
Married fell in love with married
Single with married, old with young.
Mothers tied yellow ribbons around baby carriages
Brides-to-be pulled the wedding veil close
To protect from Cupid’s mayhem.
Still, souls collided and worlds divided
When Cupid struck us broadside.
We felt an ache as the small bones,
The ones that protect heart from hurt,
Front and back, cracked.
Pierced arrows fell limp, angled
When Cupid turned his face askew,
And Love, his mercurial agent, ran amok.
Technorati Tags: love poems, poetry, valentines day
“A Dreamer’s Guide to Cities” San Francisco Bay Press, Virginia/San Francisco: 2009
In her second full-length poetry collection, Joan Gelfand explores the poignancy of living in a world that is war-torn and environmentally damaged. With a nod to the humorous paradox of modern life, Gelfand writes from the vantage point of a mother, an artist, and a Zen meditator. “A Dreamer’s Guide…” looks beyond the surface of our lives at the connections that make live worth living, and the sensual details that color it. Read More
Seeking Center: A Collection of Poems by Joan Gelfand, Two Bridges Press, Richmond CA: 2006
In Seeking Center, Joan Gelfand joins the reader in a free-wheeling discussion, beyond the poems themselves, regarding what is poetry today, here at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Read More