Photo from a recent outing in Fredericksburg.
Here's a fun one I'd like to share with you about my detour away from poetry.
I Forgot to Write a Poem
It's been 20 years and
Oops I forgot to write a poem.
What happened to all those weeks?
What was I doing when I got to be alone?
Why did I forget to write a poem?
Life happened, of course, plus reading and sleeping.
It's ok to roll your eyes at the trite and mundane.
The truth is longer and articulated,
Like a snake racing in the grass.
Oops, I forgot to capture that snake.
I left to chase a dream and a future,
In foreign country, learn another language,
Try to make connections and
Fulfill my promise to prevent diseases but...
Oops I forgot to write a poem about HIV.
Then more learning and walking around a campus.
Reading, writing, applying for jobs...
Finding somebody who gets me and
Fast forward... wedding, dogs, career and babies.
Oops I forgot to write the love poems.
The words were there, swirling,
They are my constant companion but
There were no adequate words for
How it felt to hold my babies.
So I didn't write a poem about their sweet, rosy arms.
Maybe I just wanted to keep it to myself.
Maybe I didn't think anybody would care as much as I do.
Perhaps the poems got trapped behind my feelings.
Or maybe the poetry got left behind.
So - oops - I just didn't write the poems.
Cross-country moves, Oklahoma skies,
Learning about the wisdom of women and
The immense love I felt in our first house.
Baking cookies with our children,
All of the Christmas mornings,
The passage of people and things and time.
In 20 years I've lived so many poems.
It is time to start writing them down.
(c) Mary Beth Cox, 2025
