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Best Poems Written by Jo Ann Starker

Below are the all-time best Jo Ann Starker poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Jo Ann Starker Poem

Summer Harvest

Boys baked brown 
By a midday sun
Beating down 
On Indiana hay fields—
Taut stomachs, tight buttocks in sweaty jeans,
Unbuttoned shirts catching wind and showing skin
In the back of a pickup truck . . . 
You laugh 
When I tell you
My libido 
Can still be stirred
By the scent 
Of new mown hay.
Girl, you should have been with me in the sixties,
Before the fields were stripped
And that summer harvest
Was
Shipped
Out
To
Vietnam.

Details | Jo Ann Starker Poem

The In-Between

At the edge of sleep,
Neither here nor there,
Rests the in-between
Of Shadow dreams 
More real than those
Of slumbering.
In twilight time
A voice cries out 
A warning shout
Or message rare
From thoughts caught there.
Perhaps the soul
A spirit free
Goes wandering
So near to sleep.
Released from day,
Untied to night,
Drifting, shifting
In mid-flight
Ghosts await
There in-between,
Where my regrets
Or sweetest things,
Find life again.

Details | Jo Ann Starker Poem

Delete

An intricate design cross-wired
To gather knowledge
And tuck away what was learned.
We talked once
Of how we stored information.
Interpretation must be the key
To remembering anything.
When you said, "I don't remember,"
I envisioned a
Massive file of trash
Where you filed
Such moments
And at the last
All waited there
For your delete.

Details | Jo Ann Starker Poem

In Paradise

We nestle at the edge of a Florida swamp
Where a misty morning
Settles uneasily on the twisted canal
Behind this house.

A blue heron sails by
Caught in a gust of summer wind, 
While an alligator’s bark breaks
The eerie light of dawn.

The scents of jasmine,
Magnolia, and gardenia,
Mingle with the colors of pink azaleas
And Tangerine hibiscus.

A hawk with a damaged wing 
Sinks talons into a rotting stump
That was once a towering oak
Draped in Spanish moss.

The chimes I hung
Clang out warnings
To those who live 
In this world of sun and sand.

Then the thunder of the hurricane
Charges like a rhinoceros 
Through the tumbling trees 
And tangled growth.

We crouch together
On this flimsy back porch
As my sibling grins at me
In primitive anticipation.

I mutter ancient prayers 
That we will dodge the beast 
When it finds us in paradise
And hears my sister’s laughter.

Details | Jo Ann Starker Poem

Rough Times

Through the rough times
When my ship buckles
In a troubled sea, 
Or my feet stumble
Across the desert sand,
When my mind floats free
Of solid land,
You come forth 
To comfort me.

I hold the peace
Of loving you
When all else
Fails to reach.
The world in chaos
Cannot intrude
On lessons
Love does teach.

Details | Jo Ann Starker Poem

Amazon

You stand before me as once I stood,
An Amazon of womanhood.
I cradle memory of all that means,
But only now within my dreams.
I stand before you stooped and slow
Wondering here which path to go.
Gone the courage to choose a way
Without a thought of price to pay.
Cautious now, no weapons drawn,
I step aside as you march on.

Details | Jo Ann Starker Poem

Goodbyes

Leaving behind buckling barns leaning in weeds grown high,
Tin roofs toned by flaking rust and balanced precariously
On scaly lumber of storm-washed gray,
Endless rows of tan tasseled corn and browning soybeans—
A darkened clump of distant trees,
A froth of dust billowing up behind a dented truck
Held togehter by fading patchwork seams—

When the mind sketches impressions
With farewell glances,
And creates masterpieces from
Emotions thick with vanishing color,

Goodbyes become brutal paintings.

Details | Jo Ann Starker Poem

With a Kiss

We held fast through the darkness,
Emotions trembling on the abyss.
You whispered secrets
On the journey,
And I answered
With a kiss.

When first we met we knew so little,
We were strangers in the mist.
I whispered secrets
As we traveled,
And you answered
With a kiss.

We shared our lives with one another,
Two single beings held one in this.
Our whispered secrets
Bound us together,
And love answered
With a kiss.

You went before me out of darkness.
Your whispers I do truly miss.
Have you gathered 
Heaven's secrets, 
And wait to share them
With a kiss?

Details | Jo Ann Starker Poem

The More I Know

The more I know of nothing,
The less I understand.
The hourglass has flipped over,
We fall like grains of sand.

The gift of life is fleeting,
Knowledge a strange brew.
Our grain of sand oblivious
Of when it will fall through.

I feel the need to question
When taking such a view,
Will someone flip the hourglass
And start it all anew?.

Details | Jo Ann Starker Poem

Let Me In

Aloneness catches unaware
The slender threads of laughter.
Emotions bare in solitude,
Naked in the after.
The pain of grief
Cries out again, 
"Let me in, 
Let me in."