Elegy for Linda Tomas
You knew me before the shadow fell,
before dark curtains stained in gold
brought their worried limbs to my mind.
You knew me in days of exuberance.
And now here in the interior of this nation,
where I converse in courtrooms to press my case,
and I have not spoken with you in years.
I feel in forgetting you like the son
who had his own plans and so
marched on in ruthless pursuit of the words
and the world that I coveted for myself.
With each letter I write to a friend
forgotten for some time
I beg some small portion of forgiveness
from you. Each letter to a friend
is some working out of a spell,
some slight petition for grace
for the forgetting of the first mentor.
There were 10 years that I would hardly write a poem.
Still some words crept up from buried consciousness
to birth themselves in song and sound.
I have ridden on shadows that served as steeds
to mark the mourning of early adorations.
I have charted through invisible paths
to make my way back to the harbor of words.
Then I returned to make a full gathering.
It was ubiquity of words, coursing verbs
that found themselves wrapped around me.
You were the first one to see my words and know
that unseen spirits danced on the edge of a nail.
You saw the passion that tormented me.
until I accomplished these poems.
Poet: John W L Toivonen