Silverton Poetry Association

Silverton, Oregon

Favorite Poems

SONNET 9

My body is a message writ in Braille
Within which you may read your destiny:
Thought you should venture forth, you cannot fail
If you remember what you read on me.
When you'll have run your fingers through my hair,
You will have read how tenderness is born;
When you'll have lain my calf or elbow bare,
They will have taught you tears, and how to mourn.
You soon will learn your forces to conserve,
As I can offer but a sparing kiss;
That joy can kill, frustration can preserve
Is what my lips and tongue will teach by this.
Cry with the angels, "Holy! Holy! Holy!"
Remember that I love you, and you solely.
 

Christopher M. Wicks

From "New Sonnets, Bilingual and Otherwise," 2005

The Weight Of Sorrow

A lonely man,
                   Sits,
At the edge of town,
                   Pensively
Wringing his hands,
                   Searching for a roof
On a cold day.

This solitary man,
                   Accompanied by a loaf
Of pauperized bread,
               Wretched crumb
And lacking in nurturing wheat,
Endures the shadow of  his life.

 A forgotten man
                    Curled
In his urban pain,
Wrinkled,
By the weight of sorrow.

Efrain  M. Diaz-Horna

For further information, contact the Poetry Festival at the Silverton Art Association at 503-873-2480 or email at spa@silvertonpoetry.org.