Two Poems by Shari Jo LeKane-Yentumi
Stone Cold Winter Blues
Stone cold winter blues like frozen grass weeps in the snow.
Dead to January sun and icy wind chill blows.
Saturated footprints crystallize in open angles
near the bird feeder, the holly tree and wind chimes in a tangle.
Dormant to the world are many wondrous things that grow.
Shadowed by the solstice in the darkness nothing shows:
blanket white and mean, green is unseen from long ago.
Remnants of things left appear at best bereft and mangled.
Stone cold winter blues.
Grated grind of broken glass in major joints and bones;
state of mind unspoken, passive pain from points unknown.
Manacled in bondage by a strong, arthritic bangle;
wrestling new-fangled therapeutic measures wrangled.
Left alone and in the zone to meditate and moan.
Stone cold winter blues.
Dream Scape
Have you ever been lost in a dream?
The wilderness beckons my name.
Shadows play games in the back of my mind.
I pray for the day’s gentle kiss.
An ivory unicorn runs through the woods
in pursuit of the wind to the sea.
He flies from the cliffs on the wings of a dove.
Have you ever been lost in a dream?
The whistling pines sigh melodiously
as a wolf pack acclaims the full moon,
and mysterious mist rises up from the bog.
The wilderness beckons my name.
Trembles of thunder and flashes of light
as salty sea air splashes down.
Descent to the cave with its twists and turns,
shadows play games in the back of my mind.
Deep in the womb, a return to the source
where beginning and end are united.
Search for security, sense of well-being.
I pray for the day’s gentle kiss.
Copyright © Shari Jo LeKane-Yentumi, 2015
Shari Jo LeKane-Yentumi lives in St. Louis, Missouri, where she writes poetry, prose and articles, and specializes in literary criticism and non-profit matters. She has a B.A. in English, Spanish, and an M.A. in Spanish from Saint Louis University in Madrid and St. Louis. Since brain surgery, she teaches creative writing in a maximum security jail and to people with special needs, and works for civil rights attorneys. She completed a novel in verse, Poem to Follow, a book of poetry, Fall Tenderly, and is featured in several poetry anthologies, including the Missouri VSA 2013 Anthology, Turning the Clocks Forward Again; Poetica Victorian; Think Pink; Red Dashboard Disorder Anthology: Mental Illness and Its Effects; The Muse India/Createspace Anthology Of Present Day Best Poems; Bordertown Press Poetry of People on the Move; and Literature Today International Journal of Contemporary Literature.