You can feel the changes

As the people begin to move

From Earth’s every corner

Bringing with them hope and strength

Knowing their dreams can soon take flight

In the new world they will create

 

You can see the changes

As the people begin to rise

Loosed from the shackles of fear

Breaking the bonds of ignorance

Rejecting the power of separation

In the new world they will create

 

You can hear the changes

As the people begin to sing

Songs of courage and strength

New as a baby’s cry

Old as the language of life

In the new world they will create

 

You can be the changes

As the people begin to build

Bridges from one to all

Forged from peace and justice

Raised on love and truth

In the new world we will create

 

 

© Gayle Force Press 2008

 

 

 

Barbed wire paraphernalia

Wraps tightly across my heart

A thousand-thousand tiny pricks of pain

Soaking my whole world red

With the fresh heat of oxygen

fired flame portending

the sudden relief

of cool still emptiness

and rusting wires

 

 © Gayle Force Press 2012

 

 

 

 

The once sturdy oak

Now exists in trio

Oddly mangled logs on the ground

It has yielded its form

To become a different kind of conduit

No longer a respite for birds

It shelters a thin, shedding snake

Some small colony of ants

Leaf chewing grubs

All while wearing a brand new crown

Of white, spreading flower

Perfectly fit to the majesty

Of a still sturdy oak

 

 

 

© Gayle Force Press 2006

 

 

 

I started writing down the waves

Because of the first girl I knew I loved

She had mentioned sonnets to me

just an hour before

 

My parents always took the coast route

instead of the interstate bypass

Which annoyed me every day before this one

But that day Shelley saw Petrarch’s Cleaners’

On a fading cursive painted sign

 

She began to tell me about the Petrarchan sonnets

she’d learned about in school

Since Shelley was a year older

and two grades above mine

It happened pretty often that she became

the way I tumbled

Into some new mystery

secret piece of information

 

This time seemed different though

As she began singing out the lines that she remembered

from the poem sharing my new discovery

like she hoped the wind would carry her voice

From Maryland’s craggy coast to Petrarch’s grave

 

I sat amazed and open hearted

Stunned that this lovely girl could exult

so much in this poem

Never noticing the grinding seat belt

across her ribs

 

When an hour later

Dad finally stopped to get snacks for us

Shelley and I huddled under the blanket

uncomfortably

Both trying to pretend

That we weren’t dying to kiss one another

So to break the silence

I asked her

To sing the poem again

 

 

© Gayle Force Press 2002

 

 

 

 

 

Relegating another spring

To the caves of memory

This new summer has begun to settle

With its calm, stilling heat

Past my mind and into my flesh

I darken steadily so as to glow

Imperceptibly richer being filled with light

and warmth transmuted and sanctified

By my only temple

 

 

This ground beneath me

Beginning to bake then break

Its well hidden secrets

Long for their sacred moment of revelation

 

 

And today this glorious summer’s sky

Reminds me of picnics and parades,

Baseball games and the blessing

Of times gone by

When lying in grass and losing

Myself in the sky was a habit

Not a vice

 

 

© Gayle Force Press 2004

 

 

 

I want new constellations tonight

since dippers and belts and crowns and crabs 

are far too antiquated

to make me point with wonder

at the night sky’s lights

 

 

I think I need dollar signs

Logos and ampersands to fill me

with the open eyed interest 

of ancient Greece

and childhood 

 

 

© Gayle Force Press 2012

 

 

 

 

There’s one more candle

To blow out today

Growing older

That’s fine

Adding wrinkles, pounds

And pressure

For it means little

To age another year

As long as you can pretend

You’ll always be granted another

 

 

© Gayle Force Press 2003

 

 

Walking out in the snow

I notice prints that make me wonder

If you’re warm

Or deeply chilled somewhere

In a not too distant place

Waiting like me

For the sky to clear

And sun to reclaim its throne

Reigning over the world

And all in it

Even you

Though you hate that in every moment

Of the day

 

 

 © Gayle Force Press 2002