Author’s Note
I was eleven
when I began my mysterious and deepening
relationship with poetry.
It was like my first crush, my first love –
well, next to the boy down the street
who kissed me for the first time,
but that boy's kiss
came and went to the next girl
and poetry has never left me,
even though there were times, even years,
when I left it.
Even then it was always there,
the voice inside the voice,
the intimate one,
the beloved who knows you completely
and still thinks your every move is beautiful.
It has watched me sleep,
witnessed my rage,
fed me when I was starving again and again,
helped me learn the words to pray by
and then let me question
God's every move.
I have never had such a forgiving friend,
such a constant warrior
for my protection,
the guard who never sleeps,
gratefully giving it's life
to keep my truth
safe.
© 1997 Vicky J. Edmonds