Throughout National Poetry Month of April 2021, we invited the New Milford community to submit original poems. We are proud to share these creative works. A hard copy of the collection will also be available for checkout soon!
Like Snowflakes
Anonymous
Snowflakes falling to their destination
Life ending where the melt takes place
Snowflakes falling in place of lives
Life ending without disgrace
Snowflakes falling with grains of life
Intertwined with love, a husband or wife
Snowflakes falling from stories above
Snowflakes drifting as long as lost love
Snowflakes devoured by debris and disguise
Snowflakes falling, but not from the skies
Snowflakes falling from towers on high
Snowflakes falling, but not knowing why
Snowflakes forever instilled in my mind
September 11 be it ever unkind
Snowflakes so cold and engraved in my season
Snowflakes remembered, no rhyme and no reason
Snowflakes remembered.
Empty Nest
Anonymous
I went into your closet seeking out your smell
I miss our time together and can’t shake the lonesome days.
I seek you in the crowded malls and catch a glimpse in photos
But I can’t see your sun lit eyes and feel I’ve lost my friend.
My life seems shorter day by day and longer by the hour
The minutes pass by time stands still and you are nowhere near
Oceans away and mountains blocking your life from my own
Phone calls embracing laughter and love, but my heart stands alone.
“Samnogram” on Living
Anonymous
It’s impossible to focus and your brain seems like a fan
Spinning blades and moving air no coolness in hot sand
You’re running from the trying times and fleeing from the pain
You’re looking toward a life that chimes unlike its past again.
Taken to a valley with a mountain blocking sun
You feel the cool air swirling down and then begin to run
The heat became familiar and the burn was welcome too
The fan can cool the heat outside but insides never cool
Plateau the feelings of the rage and gain a steady touch
Allow the bleeding of the urge to dry and form a crutch
Peel away each layer now and adapt to new formed skin
Build facade where pain subsides and focus from within
Chance the taking for the luck and see if you shoot well
Playing craps and betting on the knowledge built from hell
Adapting to the single blade that rotates on its own
The fan may spin in unison, but the single blade alone
Will find its place within the base and make it a new home.
The spokes, the wheels, the turning cycle reminds of us the trip
So grab your faith and remind yourself to never ever drip
Into the negative domain that seeks to grab your heart
Abide in love and peace and shake the broken mangled part.
My Time to Bloom – from Fear and Love
Anonymous
Fear and Love were meant to be separate in identity
When at first I feel the pain long left from loves despair
It’s fear that wins my heart from you and all you’ve given there
Invaded by the beast within, the terror hidden dreams
The bruising left by you within, no abrasions to unfold
But scars of passion never heal, nor ever do subside
Yet build a tissue like a screen where deep emotions do abide
I loved you once and gave to you the part of me untouched
And you will always hold that place with fear a partnered match
For you did make the bed of nails where forever you will lay
Where fear and love and lives destroyed reshape each lasting day
And I my love will find a burrow hidden by the leaves
Amongst the weeping willows I’ll allow my heart to bleed
At last when spring does come again and I resurface there
I’ll bloom again like roses do, facade made up of thorns
And mourn for you among the fear and love that you adorn.
Every Work of Art Stops Time
Bob Varettoni
I was surprised to find myself
among the papers I was about to throw out.
You had drawn this many years ago,
and I had forgotten.
I am comically disguised as myself,
in beard and chunky glasses.
I am Dorian Gray in reverse,
diminishing every day in real life,
with a hidden portrait of when I was whole.
Your hand-made cardboard frame,
sandwiching a plastic sheet to protect the surface,
had come undone.
Like us.
Stuck to a rough edge,
fossilized in scotch tape,
was the thing that froze my heart.
A single strand of your blonde hair.
Everyone Is Different
Jude Ezeh
Everyone is different
And everyone’s journey are different too
Cheer, support and applaud others on their journey
Never envy any
And most importantly, discover yours, pursue it, and be content with it and in it.
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National Poetry Month ~ April 2020
Check here: https://poets.org/national-poetry-month for a variety of ways you can celebrate poetry at home. But before you head on, we’d like to introduce to you poems selected and read by the New Milford Library staff. More will follow so stay tuned! As the library closing is becoming longer than expected, we miss seeing everyone more and more everyday. How integral social interaction is in our lives! Hope our online visits brighten your days a little. We would love your visits as well! Send us a recording of your reading to reference@newmilford.bccls.org We look forward to seeing you all.
New Milford Public Library Director Terrie McColl reads Emily Dickinson’s “Hope is a the Thing with Feathers”
THANK YOU New Milford Mayor Michael J. Putrino! Mayor Putrino joins in the celebration of National Poetry Month with his adaptation of Robert Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay”
Darlene, Tech Services, reads a poem she wrote titled “Beyond The Bars”
New Milford Councilwoman Lisa Sandhusen reads “Finding The Space In The Heart” by Gary Snyder
Thank you Jude for participating in National Poetry Month! Jude’s selection “Lost Poems” by Wole Soyinka
Gloria, Circulation Assistant/Page reads “Warning” by Jenny Joseph
New Milford Councilwoman Hedy Grant reads “Lake George Barns” by Barbara Unger
“To My Mother” from A Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson is read by Robbie, our Library Assistant
“How Do I Love Thee?” (Sonnet 43) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, read by Linda, a page at the New Milford Public Library
“The Cow” by Robert Louis Stevenson read by Amy, Library Assistant at New Milford Public Library
Ruth, Library Assistant at New Milford Public Library, reads “When White Hawks Come” by Dg Nanouk Okpik and “Let America Be America Again” by Langston Hughes
New Milford Public Library’s Reference Librarian, Brian reads “So, We‘ll Go No More a Roving” by Lord Byron
A selection from John Keats, read by Yolanda, who oversees the New Milford Public Library circulation operation
“Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou : Read by Anna, our Adult Services Librarian
“When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer by Walt Whitman : Read by New Milford Public Library Children’s Librarian Ms. Sun.
Judy reads her poem “In The End”
“Judy’s Poem” an original poem read by Judy who works in circulation.