Feelings 1,2&3:

 1:

Feelings are the cat-gut

stretched by all the terrors, all the successes –

taut, teachings whisper

into nightmare and dream

form a golden flower;

the unfurled heart grips

each and every petal –

when they fall a gut is plucked to celebrate

the transit;

a song internally heard,

a gasp.

Played at night

before the sunrise accompanies silent peace,

grants the task to hold pieces together;

another sojourn through the day.

 2:

Tears hold

my wife’s travelled face

the woven years

all that has been said

and has not

smiles shared

regretted times having not.

Tears hold

the smell of my son’s scalp

my daughter’s hand holding mine

their acrobat twirls through time and landscape

into their adult lives

the joy

and the yearning to hold them again

as the child each of them presented.

 3:

Feelings form a table inside

etched with blade and voice

all that is lost

all that has been found

and all the silent spaces between.