Featured Poet:

continued

Unspoken: Love Song For Vicki

 

Prisoners of ice and death,
In a world

where cold breath

can wither leaf and flower,

we search for the ax

to cut the frozen lake

within us.

Even when my heart sings,

I, too,

fettered by words,

wear the stripes of silence.

 

                       WHEN I AM GONE

     

When I am gone, remember this of me:

         Dappled sunlight that caresses black earth,

         Leaves that change from green to gold,

         Birds that sing their freedom as they fly,
         A falling star that flares in the night sky.

 

And remember this, too:

         A curve of neck that invites a kiss,

Arms that enfold

Lips that blend,

         The taste of salt that clings to wet skin.        

All these and more.

 

I understand that

Fault lines across my face—

Erosions around mouth and eyes—

Are the usual suspects

Of unfulfilled promises.

We lacked voice in our birth,

But love—that old cliché—

Filled us with possibilities,

Pointed us in directions

Leading to inevitable choices.

From these,

Voice of my voice, soul of my soul.

Jim Hitt is a graduate of North Texas State University and holds a BA in English and history and a MA in history.   He taught high school in the California public school system for over thirty years, the last sixteen at Ventura Community College in Ventura, California.   In addition he has also lectured for the Gene Autry Museum. He is also a member of the Western Writers of America and the author of THE AMERICAN WEST, FROM FICTION TO FILM (McFarland Publishers, Jefferson, North Carolina, 1990) and WORDS AND SHADOWS, (Citadel Publishers, New York, 1993). In 2001 Adventure Books published his novel THE LAST WARRIOR.
For more on this subject, see Mr. Hitt's website Books Into Films