Posts

The Fire – A Poem by Linda Jessup

In going through my wife’s old (unpublished) poems, I came across another I really like:

THE FIRE

Opening the restaurant door
I saw them huddled low
Over the single flame.
My arrival stirred the embers of conversation
And pushed another log into the glow.

Faces reddened in the warmth as tongues
Of eager talk leaped and danced.
Laughter shook the fire of friendship
Into a lively blaze
And we held the palms of our souls outstretched
To catch the comforting heat.

Stick by stick, the stacks of fuel were consumed
The smoke of mingled satisfaction rising like a prayer
And the fire settled into a heap of heartwarming embers
That each would carefully carry away—to rekindle
And draw close in colder times.

Linda Jessup, October, 1996

Letting Go – a poem

My talented daughter, Yohanna Jessup, artist, meditation instructor, wandering rose, has surprised me by becoming a website designer.  Who knew my right-brained child could master computer code?  While designing my own website and blog, she has instructed me to post something here to test one of her widgets, whatever those are.  So I’ve chosen to post a poem, Letting Go, written by my wife, Linda, on the occasion of our daughter’s moving away from us, lo these many years ago.

 

Letting Go, By Linda Jessup

So
I watch you swiftly go
Slipping through your youth
A leaf sailing down
A forest stream –

Past
A matted mass of grass
And snags – to catch –
Now struggling with the snare
Now twirling on –

On
Through distant, misty dawns
Too far for these fond eyes
To watch you
Sleekly slide.  You’re gone –

Gone
But in mind’s eye abides
The visions of your budding
Bursting pride – now caught forever
On the branches of my love.