I do not sing of you

Frequently, when I’m falling asleep or when words wake me in the middle of the night (and it’s really good stuff, sometimes), I think I’ll remember this really good stuff, because it’s reallygood. Ha.  Never happens.

I’ve learned that I have to get up and write this stuff down. The first stanza of “I do not sing of you” is about this lack of sleep process:

my pillow and I are stuck in sleep

when words begin to gather

they yearn to be you, so I write them down

else forevermore they’ll be gone

© 30 July 2018

Cindy B. Stevens

#Sleep #Pillow #Night#Asleep #BeWriting #AmWriting #BookLove #Bookworm #BookwormForLife #Dream #IloveWriting #LoveWriting #Inspiration #IGpoet #IGpoetry #Poet #Poetry #PoetryBlog #PoetLife #PoetryLover #WriterLife #WritersOfInstagram #WritersOfIG #WritersCommunity #WritersCorner #Wordsmith #WritersNetwork #Write #Writing

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fix my car

I’m working on my next poetry book, which will be a full length one.  My first chapbook, Naked, was published in April of 2018 and is available at Main Street Rag Publishing Company, Purple Crow Books in Hillsborough, NC, and The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, NC.

Here are a few lines from “fix my car”, which will appear in my full length poetry book:

I want to fix my car

I try to start

my alternator grinds

I can’t fix my car

my skin

cushions seat springs

so my upholstery doesn’t rip

my memories are a screechy old car door with rusty hinges

they hang on for dear life

© 4 March 2019

Cindy B. Stevens

#Memories #Alternator #Scars#Rust #BeWriting #AmWriting #BookLove #Bookworm #BookwormForLife #Dream #IloveWriting #LoveWriting #Inspiration #IGpoet #IGpoetry #Poet #Poetry #PoetryBlog #PoetLife #PoetryLover #WriterLife #WritersOfInstagram #WritersOfIG #WritersCommunity #WritersCorner #Wordsmith #WritersNetwork #Write #Writing

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the prize

Here’s a portion of my poem, “the prize”:

I hang by a tab on the collar

of my red corduroy jacket

my hat is a layer of dust

I’m crowded with my stuffed friends

the hawker pulls my woolly sheep friend

places him in the arms of a black haired little girl with cotton candy stuck

in her hair

the carnival rides on music

and chicken on a stick

the contestants hit their marks

my eyes search for an eager face, but

© 3 November 2018

Cindy B. Stevens

#Prize #Carnival #Home #CottonCandy#BeWriting #AmWriting #BookLove #Bookworm #BookwormForLife #Dream #IloveWriting #LoveWriting #Inspiration #IGpoet #IGpoetry #Poet #Poetry #PoetryBlog #PoetLife #PoetryLover #PoetsLife #WritersLife #WritersOfInstagram #WritersOfIG #WritersCommunity #WritersCorner #Wordsmith #WritersNetwork #Write #Writing

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posterity

I’m guilty of actions or thoughts that cause me to realize I sometimes don’t recognize myself.  No other details here; I’ll just share the first stanza from “posterity”:

I don’t know me

or recognize where I walk

a face watches beside me

I turn to smile

she has turned away

© 11 November 2018

Cindy B. Stevens

#Posterity #Forget #Guilty #Recognize #BeWriting #AmWriting #BookLove #Bookworm #BookwormForLife #Dream #IloveWriting #LoveWriting #Inspiration #IGpoet #IGpoetry #Poet #Poetry #PoetryBlog #PoetLife #PoetryLover #WriterLife #WritersOfInstagram #WritersOfIG #WritersCommunity #WritersCorner #Wordsmith #WritersNetwork #Write #Writing

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infant casket

Here are a few lines from “infant casket” where I try to convey feelings as my husband and I rode through the cemetery gates for our infant daughter’s graveside service:

two men carry a princess through the crowd

she wears her only pink dress

my groundskeeper carries a ladder

I gaze over my manicured hedge

covet

a wild rose that doesn’t belong to me

© 11 November 2018

Cindy B. Stevens

#Daughter #Princess #Covet#WildRose #BeWriting #AmWriting #BookLove #Bookworm #BookwormForLife #Dream #IloveWriting #LoveWriting #Inspiration #IGpoet #IGpoetry #Poet #Poetry #PoetryBlog #PoetLife #PoetryLover #WriterLife #WritersOfInstagram #WritersOfIG #WritersCommunity #WritersCorner #Wordsmith #WritersNetwork #Write #Writing

Photo credit:  Cindy B. Stevens

forgive me

I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know when I say it’s hard to watch a loved one die.  I wrote a poem about some of my thoughts after my father’s death.  It’s different from what I usually write.  Here are some snippets from “forgive me”:

you asked was there anything I needed to talk about

before you left

when I was a kid

I waited for you to come home

one time you were gone so long

I forgot what you looked like

I felt alone in that hospital room and you were asleep

I couldn’t ask you to forgive me when I pushed

your morphine button

twenty-one guns sing in your garden

Taps sound

red blood blossoms stain the ground

scattered like lonely regrets

© 17 July 2018

Cindy B. Stevens

#Forgive #Taps #Regret #Morphine#BeWriting #AmWriting #AmEditing #BookLove #Bookworm #BookwormForLife #Dream #IloveWriting #LoveWriting #Inspiration #IGpoet #IGpoetry #Poet #Poetry #PoetryBlog #PoetLife #PoetryLover #WriterLife #WritersOfInstagram #WritersOfIG #WritersCommunity #WritersCorner #Wordsmith #WritersNetwork #Write #Writing #HillsboroughNC

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