Poetry of Issue #7        Featured Poet Sherman: Page 2

A FARE/WELL PRESENT

Well  good-bye
and all that means
if in fact it means
anything
                words sometimes
taking the place
of meaning
                  like last night
twisted in my own
syllables   trying
to explain

Or that summer
seven years old
first time away from home
A feeling of the heart
but literally that
                          The camp director
calling it "homesick"
or "missing"
Not only that something
was missing
                   that I was missing
someplace or someone
but that somehow
I was also missing
from something   somewhere
I wanted to be

A seven-year-old pride
denied it   denies it still
but now with how much more vehemence
command of language
skill with words
                          no longer only
(shoulders out   chest squared)
"homesick   not me"
but paragraphs of explanation
reams of words
                          to say only
somewhere something
has been left out
is out of place

And so   as a farewell present
I give you this poem
This  feeling of the heart
That when I think of you
leaving
             And when I think of you here
and can't be with you
Even when we are together
when I feel you growing distant
I experience that
                             "missing"
that something 
left out
as if I am discovering the word again
for the first time
What it really means

As with all things that move us
deeply
             the feeling comes
                                           first
the experience
As we perceive the meaning
The word
                  follows later
"missing"

that space which is not empty
but fills all space

  Susan Sherman