Tag Archives: Marriage

A greedy heart dives into a dream

Life, love, poem, Poetry, , , , ,

love
is a wild thing caught in a trap

trust
a glass bridge between us

Title from Alicia Ostriker

Copyright © 2019 Kim Whysall-Hammond

This week’s Meeting the Bar at the dVerse Poets Pub is all about marraige and couplets. The form I have chosen is the côte, a poem of uneven couplets attributed to John Schroeder, in which line 1 is a single imperative verb and line 2 is a glossing or expansion of line 1.

This is not an engagement ring

Life, poem, Poetry, , , , ,

It is a series of fond stories and memories
starting with its absence and the mothers who
would not countenance our engagement without a ring.
Then the jewellers assistant who pointed out the best of the cheap
“The poverty stricken student line of engagement rings”.
And the single small diamond that I grew to love
to know the way it shed light through its carbon heart
that I lost playing in the park one day with our little sons.
You were happy we still had the setting while
I mourned my sparkling companion.
A new stone has lived resplendent in the ring for long enough
that I treasure its own foibles, although it was a stranger at first.
But the cheap gold setting last year faltered, twisted, opened
now lives out its own lockdown in the box
waiting for the Jewellers to re-open.

Copyright © 2021 Kim Whysall-Hammond

My response to dVerse Poets Pub Poetics: Object Poems

The idea is to take an object and focus on the abstract and also give our poems the title ‘THIS IS NOT A…’ 

We should choose an object from inside the home or outdoors, look past its obvious characteristics and uses, and spare the details. Instead, we should write about the connection it has to us or what it represents: what it means, the memories it holds; the emotions it evokes, etc.

What time is Love?

love, poem, Poetry, , , ,

The time you grew into love
silver evenings, golden days
each one a voyage of happy discovery

The time when you knew
shared the joy
began to live
together

The time of your wedding
promises made and love avowed
the future grasped firmly
by the hands

 Copyright © 2020 Kim Whysall-Hammond

(with apologies to KLF for borrowing the title)

This poem is for Ingunn Johannesen and Erling Mork, married today in Oslo

I so wish to be there……

Friday Poem: Atlas

Friday Poem, love, poem, Poetry, , , , , ,

There is a kind of love called maintenance
Which stores the WD40 and knows when to use it;

Which checks the insurance, and doesn’t forget
The milkman; which remembers to plant bulbs;

Which answers letters; which knows the way
The money goes; which deals with dentists

And Road Fund Tax and meeting trains,
And postcards to the lonely; which upholds

The permanently rickety elaborate
Structures of living, which is Atlas.

And maintenance is the sensible side of love,
Which knows what time and weather are doing
To my brickwork; insulates my faulty wiring;
Laughs at my dryrotten jokes; remembers
My need for gloss and grouting; which keeps
My suspect edifice upright in air,
As Atlas did the sky.

By UA Fanthorpe (Ursula Fanthorpe)