Poetry of Issue #7        Featured Poet Sherman: Page 1

THERE WAS A WOMAN ONCE

who was more to me than words   
any blending of alphabet   and sound   
We met at the corners of day
in the space where night crosses light
where shadows fold into darkness
The moments between our meetings 
were air   Forty years lie between her
and this poem   a length of time 
impossible to render  

There was a woman once who was more 
to me than imagination   wonder
the chimeras that embrace the night  
More than the chill kiss of wind that tortured
her secret into patterns of light and
breeze   A woman who was more to me than
forever   the bending of syllable and time  

We met on a hilltop in Vermont   made love 
in the sweetgrass of our desire 
These are moments that defy forgetting 
These are moments time cannot cure with 
detail noise distraction    Mornings that bound us 
sticky and tight   with dew  

There was a woman once who was more to 
me than flesh   We touched to open 
and then once again to close  
the way a negative is held over wary eyes
to keep the sun from blinding in the madness
of its fire   What lay between us was that
strong   What joined us was that fierce
Lying in each others  arms  

Married   she had never meant for us to happen   
had seen me as diversion   a momentary lapse
Now she called me treasure   promised 
to keep me always  cherished
hidden   in her private place
but forever is a length of time like any other
 
One afternoon   precisely at the stroke of one
she lapsed into a silence without boundary    
The air lay like a tomb around us   
She could not look at me   touch me   say my name
She had never meant it to go so far   
It had become too much for her to bear  
This woman who meant more to me
than words

Should I be grateful   thank whatever gods 
or goddesses   gifted me this passion   this legacy 
I cannot relinquish   cast aside
Forever is a length of time without forgiveness
After thirty years   I search for her no longer   
but for that moment  between opening 
and distance   when I held her close  
Not yet knowing enough to turn away

  Susan Sherman