Two Poems by Linda King

 

lines from the blue notebook


beyond impossibilities hints and cautions the sounds of loss

ghost ship run aground sinking to your knees prelude to

punishment stranger than forgiveness truth

arrives in a raging tide while your fear

puts on a dark grey overcoat



most of us fade into our own history careless mourning doves

missing our silver tongued companions we wait

for words to catch fire all wild and wise

like delicate beach glass a glimpse

of what will come from what





love poem to the existentialists


a word is not the meaning of a thing

there are too many blank scrabble tiles

in between the meanings



still all words have their price

equal parts what you want and what you don’t

the aftershock of too many verbs



but you continue to write love poems

to the existentialists assign yourself the task

of deciphering their philosophy



although you know the game is fixed

and you are running out of sympathy

and moving on



to where it’s best to remain on the sidelines

inhabiting and exiled at the same time

within the neighbourhood uncertain

Linda King is the author of five poetry collections-including Reality Wayfarers ( Shoe Music Press, 2014) and antibodies in the alphabet ( BlazeVOX Books, 2019).  Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals in Canada and internationally ( including Lothlorien Poetry Journal ).  She has been nominated for Best of the Net and also for The Pushcart Prize. King lives on The Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, Canada.