.
It’s waiting –
blank notebook paper
on my clipboard,
the kind I’ve always used,
college ruled
with a red line down the margin.
My pen is made
from recycled plastic
with blue gel ink
and feels good between my fingers.
Remember those leaky fountain pens
we had in grade school
that we filled from a bottle?
My favorite ink was peacock blue.
One Christmas my mom
gave me a ball point “quill” pen
with a fluffy pink feather plume
and matching ink.
Holding it I felt like Emily Dickinson,
a fountain of words,
inspiration and opinion,
countless pink poems of love
and injustice
followed by a stunned poem
when Kennedy was shot
two days after my 17th birthday.
Then came poems of indignation
about the war in Vietnam
and what was wrong with long hair,
mini-skirts and bare feet?
Ah, but I digress.
.
Now my muse
puts a finger to his lips
and tells me hush,
this is just non-poetic prose
after all.
He came to me
in a dream one night
arms folded sternly across his chest.
I wanted to pull them open,
wrap them around me,
kiss his face,
but he turned away.
I woke to find my pen
filled with invisible ink.
Can he see this,
or are these words
just feathery plumes of dust?
.
© 2013, 2016 Betty Hayes Albright
.
(re-post)
Seasonings 
I like the imagination at work in these lines, Betty.
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Thank you, John!
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“arms folded sternly across His Chest” is very significant to Me.
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Joanna, I’d be interested in how that line is significant to you. Can imagine….
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After school I used to go to Smiles Stationary and look at all the pens, not the toys so much. I tried them all. Schaefer fountain pens, ballpoints …remember when the Bic Pen was first introduced. I suppose that may have been a clue? Thanks for these words of your and for the memories. We were just at the JFK library this past weekend…
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Hi Peter! Funny, I always loved the pen and paper section of the dime store… And loved getting a new binder and “Pee-chee”. Liked the Schaeffer pens myself – with the ink cartridges. High tech! 🙂 And also those first ball points. Remember the Lindy brand? My favorite. Interesting you were recently at the JFK center. Today marks 53 years… He was my hero president.
Good to hear from you! We’re in the middle of a move again. This time buying a house…. Putting down roots again, hopefully. Hope all’s going well with you!
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Saw a document at the Kennedy Library where the Capt. And surviving crew signed their names to say congratulations to him on his inauguration… I posted it on FB. I’ll send you a friend request. Got laid off recently, so on the search again. Good luck with the new home!
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Peter, sorry to hear about the lay-off. Hope something good turns up soon for you.
Haven’t been on FB for awhile but will try to check this week for your friend request before our move. After Friday I won’t have internet access for awhile except on my phone (which is limited).
Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving!
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A brilliant piece of writing, Betty
I created a Category on BN: “Prose With Pretensions”. (There was already “Not A Poem At All” but the layout on the page/screen was more like poetry than prose.) I find Calliope is quite accepting of this practice and indeed she suggests to me its use from time to time. Maybe you could suggest to your muse that he lighten up a bit. 🙂
And if you want to open a “Prose With Pretensions” Category for yourself please feel free; I haven’t copyrighted it. 😉
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I might just borrow that from you, Ben. Lots of poems in my unpublished archives that would fit that category. Thank you for your kind words, btw! 🙂
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Whenever I see one of your poems like this, Betty, my whole world lights up. What makes this work, I think, is the tension between the real of your childhood and your remembering of that real as it is present in a blank piece of paper wanting to be written upon and then the flight of pure imagination into the delight of a muse that presents himself with arms folded tightly across his chest. The imaginary wraps a string into what is real and the blank page and out comes a poem filled with invisible ink and a question,
Can he see this,
or are these words
just feathery plumes of dust?
that is answered by the delight in the poem. O Betty, poetess supreme!
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Thomas, thank you so much for your kind words. Your encouragement always means a lot to me. (Sorry for this belated reply – we’ve been in the middle of moving again, this time to a house we bought 150 miles south of Seattle. I’m just now finding some time to get back on WP again. Am also reeling in shock with the sad news of our mutual poet friend, Cynthia. What a loss!)
Will try to email you soon. Wishing you and Ethel all the best in the new year.
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