Poetry with humanist perspectives!
Welcome to the HP Poetry Corner.
Thank you for joining me in the poetry corner. No, no – we’re not here in the corner to be punished. This is where all the beauty is hiding.
My name is Monique Montgomery, and I am your new HP Poetry Editor. As my first official act, I have selected two short poems by the poet who started me on my path toward poetry in the first place, my father, Wayne Montgomery.
Enjoy these two poems – they fit nicely with this issue’s theme of Liberal Society & Rule of Law: Under Attack! Both poems lament the loss of life…and what could be more morbid than the death of democracy? Who knows what the poet himself had in mind – I dare not ask.
In the first poem, ‘ah these’, I imagine a young soldier having dedicated all his worldly goods, but to what end? In the second, ‘wondering’, I again see a young person on the battlefield, whose voice propels the poem even after death. I hope these two poems move you. That’s what I aspire to here in the Poetry Corner (yes, it is official, this is the name). So, if you’re a poet, please send me your work at the link above. I’ll publish two poems per issue. The only stipulation is you must make my heart move at least a little. I hope these first two selections do this for you:
ah these by Wayne Montgomery
ah these
these belong to a friend who died
he left his unplayed harmonica to a pianist
his gold watch and chain to a man who has had
three coronaries
his university degree to his mother
he left the country he had left to those he had left
behind
to her he left all the love he had
these
these he left to me
wondering by Wayne Montgomery
i wonder what i missed
a loving touch
a grateful sigh
power over others
$$$$$$$$$$$$$
i wonder what i missed
being alone in a life
breathing without air
a shattered body
i wonder what i missed
then i stop wondering
