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Judith Hensley Poem
We came from Kibworth
Settled in Coventry
All of this being after the Black Death
The War of the Roses
figured strongly in family tales
King Richard was wondrous
So we were told
I still long for the Hall there in Coventry
When I kneel in remembrance
Never will I forget
What my family worked for
Lived for
And died for
There’s a glade here in Coventry, where we’ll unite
Copyright © Judith Hensley | Year Posted 2012
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Judith Hensley Poem
The snow is capable
of taking on infinite patterns
Individually, each flake
assumes a separate identity
Collectively, however,
a true stratum of conformity takes place
It may manifest itself as the light powder,
innocent, just its appearance
makes you want to throw yourself into it
Spin with delight
But under the powder, there is, too,
the danger of grey snow--
the trap above the grave
Dirty and streaked with debris
This is not the snow which retains
a beautiful and exquisite uniqueness
The Greenlanders knew each stage
of such snow strata
Knew just how much pressure was safe
Where every foot placement must come down
And if one is uninitiated to every criteria
for staying alive
Arrival is no longer a question.
Copyright © Judith Hensley | Year Posted 2011
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Judith Hensley Poem
She's enigmatic jazz
Duke's "Sophisticated Lady"
An original, unrepeatable moment
Ella's scat
spontaneous, extemporaneous
Melodic variation
Rhythm like a pulse
Miles' s dissonant resolution
Ornette's free-form come to life
A nuanced persona
informed by her own harmonic base
Billie's smoky ode to Miss Otis sans regrets
Like Bird when he drenched his sax with sweat
as he set the air aflame
Like aural combustion between us
too hot to be ever put out
Copyright © Judith Hensley | Year Posted 2011
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Judith Hensley Poem
She gives me some inner syncopation
Never thought I'd drop my disguise
No longer fearing liberation
Just flowing, not fighting this explosion
I give in to this psychic implosion
Feel it, feel it, laying like I've been baptized
I want to sleep beneath your buried gold
I want to make agreements with the gods
Everlasting commitment to pure belief
Savoring surprise is its own reward
Love happens of its own accord
Time is now, god, what relief
Don't breathe
Don't move
Until you breathe with me
Until you move with me
And we can never be sure this adoration
Will come again, in life, in time's configuration
So just let me sleep beneath your buried gold
Let this love happen of its own accord
Everlasting commitment to pure belief
Time is now, god, what sweet relief
So...don't breathe
Don't move
Until you breathe with me
Until you move with me
Copyright © Judith Hensley | Year Posted 2011
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Judith Hensley Poem
I don’t wanna see the light
I just wanna walk through the night
Through the shadows
Feeling no fright
That’s how I feel
Since you left me
That’s how I deal
Since you left me
I close my eyes, not to sleep
Just to contain the tears I weep
In between time
The live and die time
It’s how I survive
Since you left me
It’s stayin’ alive
Since you left me
And I hold no hope for our tomorrow
You made your choice
If I reach out, it’ll just bring sorrow
Yeah, I heard all that in your voice
Wayward souls, passing by
That’s all we were, hello/goodbye
And we can’t build a future on illusion
This nightmare love, has
Already caused too much confusion
So, I don’t wanna see the light
I just wanna walk through the night
Through the shadows
Feeling no fright
That’s how I feel
Since you left me
That’s how I deal
Since you left me
Copyright © Judith Hensley | Year Posted 2012
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Judith Hensley Poem
Shadows seem to surround us
But it's really the light we're more afraid of
Strangers come and I let them know me
But you are still held at arm's length
I've got the reach, I know I do
I'll close the space to just hold you
I'm gonna show you how great I am
A force too fierce to be denied
I'm gonna show you how great I am
Because I know I once moved thunder
And held the lightening in place
just to make your eyes shine
It's not my fear of failure before you
It's my fear of the wonder of just
letting go and letting you in
These pathetic terrors are nothing
but walls I'm gonna climb
'Cuz I'm gonna show you how great I am
I'm gonna show you how great I am
Because I know I once moved thunder
And held the lightening in place
just to make your eyes shine
Copyright © Judith Hensley | Year Posted 2011
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Judith Hensley Poem
I had lived on the ice-floe for about a year
My world had become absolutely geometric---
everything within my vision was linear.
And the whiteness had taken me past the point of madness.
Learning the language of the wetness of the wind,
of a smell in the air,
(there are no shadows on the floe),
and, beneath my feet, the ride of this frozen crust on the sea.
Nights come when the wind rages, roars, and screams in my face.
I sit, solid as I can, and face it, best I can,
trying to keep a hold on myself to the ground
Knowing if I think about it, my mind will tether its hooks to the thought
and that one little jerk in my synapse will be like my body
as the wind jerks me up and (blows) (blasts) me into the sea.
Thoughts on the floe become spare.
Feeling is frozen and Truth has become solid,
the mass of it being the very essence of the ice beneath my feet.
Copyright © Judith Hensley | Year Posted 2011
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Judith Hensley Poem
Taking a long look back
There’s been no safe harbor in my life
Reasons I seem to lack
That explain an open heart from all this strife
I see a light that shines
Within the darkest souls I have known
And old souls like fine wines
I have welcomed them and I have grown
So when the night comes
There is no fear, I won’t steer off course
When the night comes
A port of refuge is all I’m searching for
A port of refuge, all I’m searching for
This road has been so long
But quicker than a blink it passed by
I did some good, some wrong
Regrets are wasted, like tears I cry
Taking a long look back
There’s been no safe harbor in my life
Reasons I seem to lack
That explain an open heart from all this strife
So when the night comes
There is no fear, I won’t steer off course
When the night comes
A port of refuge is all I’m searching for
A port of refuge, all I’m searching for
Copyright © Judith Hensley | Year Posted 2012
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Judith Hensley Poem
A little smile flickers across your lips
Then the fantasy fades
But she's made your day
again today
And behind the shade you now wear over your face
is a world where currents of sensual air
move light and shadow together
where just the cast of her delicate eyes
can send a roll like thunder right through you
The caution of your everyday life
leaves you so bewildered
Shattered by this fulfillment (wherever it comes from)
maybe from a wave of warm-blue
saltiness you can almost taste
And the tears you're not sure are joyful or sad
rush like rivers into your life from her delicate eyes
Copyright © Judith Hensley | Year Posted 2011
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Judith Hensley Poem
(River of Sorrow) Take Me At Last
What did I tell you, love of mine
I said I was jaded but trying to find
Cracks in this wall, a small ray of light
Feeling the pain of my feet on this path
Watching the world as it has a good laugh
Lines of the scars you read on my wrist
Don't make a big deal now, think nothing of this
They're just maps of pain, roads that I've passed
Being a fool in the cogs of belief
Just like Barrabas, caught like a thief
And so I bring not a thing to the table
I thought you should know I've emptied my glass
I hold neither hope for nor fear of tomorrow
River of sorrow, take me at last
Take me at last
Whatever fuels you is draining me
A master of puppets you turned out to be
Standing beside you, it's like I'm alone
I know that there's darkness getting too thick
The cage door is closing, I've got to move quick
And so I bring not a thing to the table
I thought you should know I've emptied my glass
I hold neither hope for nor fear of tomorrow
River of sorrow, take me at last
River of sorrow, take me at last
Copyright © Judith Hensley | Year Posted 2011
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