Words of a Poet

I Am Offering This Poem by Jimmy Santiago Baca

I am offering this poem to you,
since I have nothing else to give.
Keep it like a warm coat,
when winter comes to cover you,
or like a pair of thick socks
the cold cannot bite through,

I love you,

I have nothing else to give you,
so it is a pot full of yellow corn
to warm your belly in the winter,
it is a scarf for your head, to wear
over your hair, to tie up around your face,

I love you,

Keep it, treasure it as you would
if you were lost, needing direction,
in the wilderness life becomes when mature;
and in the corner of your drawer,
tucked away like a cabin or a hogan
in dense trees, come knocking,
and I will answer, give you directions,
and let you warm yourself by this fire,
rest by this fire, and make you feel safe,

I love you,

It’s all I have to give,
and it’s all anyone needs to live,
and to go on living inside,
when the world outside
no longer cares if you live or die;
remember,

I love you.

I strongly recommend reading No Place to Stand. I just finished reading it for the second time, it made me love Jimmy all over again. I’ve posted another great poem from him titled Who Understands Me But Me.

I’ll Dream Of You

I’ll dream of you… I must.
I kneel and pray, for time that we can never share
Still, I feel I must.

I love you for reasons… I cannot understand,
you were once mine… all mine.
You brought much happiness to my life, it meant so much…
you mean so much.

For all the days of your life, when you’re lonely,
think of me.
I will remember you always…
With love.

by Antwone Fisher from Who Will Cry for the Little Boy?

Before You

Before you, I felt no reason minute after minute…
hour after hour…

Before you, I seemed no purpose day after day…
night after night…

I knew not the joy a true love could bring
week after week…
and month after month…

Now year after year, you bring happiness a bliss I never knew…

before you.

by Antwone Fisher from Who Will Cry for the Little Boy?

A Dream Within a Dream

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

By Edgar Allan Poe

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

by Robert Frost

With all the beautiful words, I’ve not yet learned to say how I love you…”I do love you, with all my heart, I adore you truly.”

These perfect days we spend in love have me spellbound. What more is there to life? There is only you. I wish only that we never part… and that I die; before you.

by Antwone Fisher

In The Event of My Demise

In the event of my demise
When my heart can beat no more
I hope I die for a principle
Or a belief that I had live for.

I will die before my time,
Because I feel the shadow’s depth
So much I wanted to accomplish
Before I reached my death.

I have come to grips with the possibility
And wiped the last tear from my eyes
I loved all who were positive
In the event of my demise!

by Tupac Shakur

I recently checked out Tupac Shakur’s book of poetry, The Rose That Grew from Concrete. All in all the poems were good, but I had a few favorites.

The Tears in Cupid’s Eyes

The day you chose to leave me
It rained constantlly outside
In truth I swore the rain to be
The tears in Cupid’s eyes.

Cupid’s Smile II

I ran outside to feel the rain
and I stayed outside awhile
When the rain was done, along came the sun
and that was Cupid’s smile!

The two poems are short, but catchy and have to go together.

It’s been a tough year for me, Emma and especially her family. I’ve done my best to support everyone, I know how I felt going through loss. On January 6th we put Nana to rest. This poem was dedicated to her and it is really beautiful.

God saw you getting tired
And a cure was not to be,
So He put His arms around you
And whispered “Come with Me.”
With tearful eyes we watched you suffer
And saw you fade away.
Although we loved you dearly,
We could not make you stay.
A golden heart stopped beating,
Laying loving hands at rest,
God broke our hearts to prove to us
He only takes the best.

She will be definitely missed, a hard worker and the biggest heart for those who she cared about. So giving and took so very little.

In loving memory of Julia “Nana” Terrazas 

Antwone Fisher is a great poet, and one of my favorites. I’ve read his book and own his poetry book. If you haven’t read them I strongly recommend you do.

Who will cry for the little boy?
By Antwone Fisher

who will cry for the little boy?
Lost and all alone.
Who will cry for the little boy?
Abandoned without his own?

Who will cry for the little boy?
He cried himself to sleep.
Who will cry for the little boy?
He never had for keeps.

Who will cry for the little boy?
He walked the burning sand
Who will cry for the little boy?
The boy inside the man.

Who will cry for the little boy?
Who knows well hurt and pain
Who will cry for the little boy?
He died again and again.

Who will cry for the little boy?
A good boy he tried to be
Who will cry for the little boy?
Who cries inside of me