Part of my journey over the last two years, during the craziness of the pandemic, has been spent coming to terms with my role as a poet. I’ve been writing poetry since my teenage years in the 1980s, all throughout college in the 1990s, and into my thirties and forties. It’s always been a never ending battle over whether or not to publish, how to publish, when to publish and whether or not my poetry would be highjacked. And while I’ve had a poetry blog or two over the last few years, well, since I’m staring fifty down, I figured, now is the time to play nice with others and share. And to publish my poetry. So, with that said, I’m sharing some of my poetry with you this week that I plan to include in my “Launched. A Memoir On The Road to 50” book and taking a departure from the previous writings. I hope you enjoy my poetry as much as I hope you have enjoyed my nonfiction essays on here. And thank you so much for being a subscriber and fan, it is greatly appreciated.
before technology. april 2021
Before cell phones
We were forced
To pick up the phone
Yes, a land line
Rotary
Push button
Dial a number
No caller ID
Crossing your fingers
That someone was home
Hoping and waiting
Just to hear a real voice
No voicemail
No using our fingers
To text a message
That was not an option
But using our fingers
To dial a number
7 digits
That we had to memorize
Remember
Phone books told us how to find
The things we needed
Address books told us
How to connect
To the people we needed
How did we ever get along
Without our devices
Easy
We called
We listened
Then hung up the phone
Until someone
Called us back