SOAR

Some souls are meant to soar
with the saints
like a star.

Some souls are rooted
to the Earth
planted at birth.

Some souls sail
upon the sea
moved by moon and tide.

My daughter
cast free.
Ride with wings of grace
propelled by love and faith.

Some souls are meant to soar
with the saints
like a star
like a star
Some souls are meant to soar.

Yes, I agree with my wife; that stanza really is beautiful. I especially love how you repeat that one line:

like a star
like a star
Some souls are meant to soar.

So simple, yet so effective.

I wanted to ask you, is Maggie May your daughter? And could you tell us a little of how this poem came to be? Those were my questions to which I referred in my other post; reading this poem, and reflecting on it, makes me want to know the story behind it, as I feel there must be one. The feelings run deep. I know I have been criticized so much for not being critical enough--a delicious irony, actually--but I just really do like your poem.

Maybe it's all the Zen I studied, I don't know; I just don't feel very analytical about art, and I hate it when people prattle on about poetry in a deconstructive way. I know all that stuff, and I can bullshit with the best of them, but I just like to read poetry and experience it, and, if I like it, to say so. If I don't like it, I say nothing.

Hmmm... I think I'd better stay around here on this board; I think the perspective of a kindly old fella might come in handy someday to someone, and might even be appreciated.

In any case, I like your poem, and so, as you have seen, does my wife.

I wonder what you think of mine?

Solidarity, my fellow poet.

AD ASTRA PER ASPERA

These greater things we wish for our children.
Like the sonnet for your son,
I wrote this when my daughter graduated (form high school).
She was moving to the east coast, over a thousand miles away from us.
I was so proud of her courage. To take flight and strike out on her own.
SOAR, is a little homily for pushing the baby bird out of the nest, so to speak.
Her father, my husband, is an agronomist,
"rooted to the Earth"; he is the most pragmatic member of the family.
I, love the water, and as an artist; I am easily "moved by moon and tide."
Yet, I see in Maggie May, the cumulation of all the gifts from the family saints that came before her, and I know, she will be a star.