Celebrating National Poetry Month: #5: Near the Window

If you are just joined me this month I am celebrating National Poetry month by posted an orginal poem I have written each day.

Near the Window

The lamp near the window glowed long into the night,
the wonder of words kept me turning the pages.
Curling up with Nancy Drew, Bess, and George
creating a life of intrigue and mysteries to be solved.
Finding poetry at the public library and saving words
as I hunted and pecked on the manual keys.

The stereo filled the hall room with beautiful sounds.
I wore out certain songs as I listened again and again.
I joined the Broadway cast of My Fair Lady and Oklahoma too,
and The Ray Conniff singers backed
me up on Somewhere My Love.
How many times could I repeat Three Dog Night
singing One
While belting out the lyrics with a makeshift microphone?

Near the window I could breathe in spring,
In winter the panes frosted, then melted in a thaw.
If opened in summer a breeze gave a small reprieve,
Burning leaves crept in at the closing of fall.

The neighbor kids gathered for Kick the Can
or Spoons, but
I cocooned myself in my bedroom upstairs.
Finding comfort near the window with my pile of books.

Broadway filled the room, images from poems remained.
I still carry the words and can recite the lyrical lines,
and l hear those melodies when I
sit near the window in my childhood room.


by inlandempiregirl, november 2007