21
" Stretched to infinity,
the sea appeared as a blue metallic skin,
drawn tight and taut
over the face of the world
and tinged orange at its far edges
by a low-hanging sun,
glowing like a tangerine cut wide open.
As the sea broached the shore,
small waves squeezed out from the depths
and spilled, surged and scoured the beach.
Memories of our love,
holding you in my arms
on that the shifting shore,
made everything feel so right,
so whole,
as if we were always made to be together.
Our love holds fast even now,
despite the long shifting shoreline
of our lives.
(together) "
― Jeffrey A. White
22
" If I could cut out my beating heart
and put it in a box
and forget about it,
I would.
Maybe I would pad the box with our photos of you,
our love letters, a lock of your hair and that heart-shaped perfume bottle,
the one that I gave you for your birthday.
You always said it was your favorite.
Maybe if I put the box up in the attic,
some place out of sight and sound,
I could forget you.
(sigh)
I force myself to look around my yard.
The sun is brilliant against the bright blue sky,
birds are singing out their borders
and gathering twigs and grasses for nesting,
and the late-season daffodils
are bursting an egg-yolk yellow.
I feel myself smile.
For the first time this season,
I spot a Peace rose,
a sunshine-swelled bloom of yellow and pink flame.
I inhale the bloom's faintly sweet fragrance,
which floats delicate memories of you
across my mind's eye — I am happy.
Without thinking, I turn to the house
to call you.
If only It was that easy. "
― Jeffrey A. White
39
" Several years ago,
I visited a friend who had built a country cottage,
surrounded by a vast rolling garden of sunlit meadows,
rainbow blooms, shaded glens,
streams and ponds.
It was impossible to see
the entire garden all at once.
The only way to imagine the wholeness of the garden
was to walk through it,
follow the winding path
and view the garden from different perspectives.
Invariably, secrets revealed themselves
around each bend.
And sometimes, I chose to step off the winding path
and follow the contours of the land
and my heart.
In my youth, I imaged my entire life
planned out before me,
a straight path, if you like.
Today, I know that I was seeing
only one perspective.
And like any winding path,
perspective may change around each bend:
youth, sacrifice, friendship, success, love, parenthood,
joy, loss, folly, misfortune, and aging.
And yet, no matter how many turns we may take,
we may not fully comprehend
the wholeness of our life,
the unifying secret of our life,
until we look back
on all that has come before. "
― Jeffrey A. White , A Blueness I Could Eat Forever
40
" Breaking from the universe,
like waves spilling, plunging and surging
against a shore,
we crash with life and vigor,
scrape and scour,
spit beaches and eat land,
polish stone, glass and driftwood of splintered dreams,
uncover and bury bleached bones
of ambitions and aspirations,
carve grottoes of intentions and regrets
and then slip back into the deep
from whence we came
and may return again. "
― Jeffrey A. White , A Blueness I Could Eat Forever