Welcome to Four Lines! I have a goal I would like to write at least four lines of poetry or a haiku every day for the rest of my life. I'm excited about this challenge! Also, along with my daily poem, I will be reading at least four lines of another author's poetry. I'll try to include that here also. So I'm thinking - how difficult can it be to read and then write one poem a day? We will see! - Claudia
All poems on this blog, unless noted, are written by Claudia Callaghan.
© 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 Claudia Callaghan
Used only with permission. Please feel free to join Four Lines and request permission.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Holding my lap top on my lap,
it is shaking, because my knees
are shaking.  The F# on my piano
is out of tune, along with
another connected note,
whatever note.
Yes, I wrote whatever.
I'm leaving early for the conservatory
this morning to practice on a Steinway.
That's not it though.
Through the Poetry Foundation
poets receive gold...
$10 a line up to $300 -
an electrical bill
and a Beatrice payment (Beatrice
is a reliable friend, my red Hyundai).
Paid for poetry?
She hears it, the girl, the adolescent,
the 20, 30, 40 something... "You
think you can make money from
writing poetry?"
We see it in black ink, like ancient
yellow, clear citrine -
$10 a line up to $300.
So my knees are shaking.
They are shaking too, because...
I'm feel alone this week
and a cold attached itself to me -
clogging my veins and arteries.
I had unclogged them one by one
over these something years
with love and the present moment
and love of the present moment.
Parenting four, not three.
Creating one.
You cannot create another.
Remember Kahlil Gibran's poem...
"Your children are not your children."
My knees are shaking because
Sheri lives in Florida, Marlena died,
Sandy is busy, Fred is a half friend
and Lisa too. (This is an illusion.
They are friends.)
Michael is away for six weeks.
(He is a new friend.)
Peter is lives in Cleveland, not here,
Mom in Michigan, Jim and Mina in California.
Betsy is Orion's piano teacher and future friend.
Little Running Horse is a friend too,
but she is a canine family member.
Can Xesque be who he says he is?
(As of now, it is not for me to know.)
My knees shake because I cherish
the respect of my children
and my money is running out.
I have a cold and my money
is running down the street,
turning into the labyrinth.
I better shower -
water always cleans mental arteries, veins -
and sit myself in front of a piano
at the conservatory -
a piano imbues happiness.
No, I didn't think it...
"You think you can make
money from playing, practicing piano?"
Well...   it stops my knees
from shaking.


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