Poems - Pat Grigadean

I am a sailor.
You are a dancer.
We sail and we dance along.
I, to the beat of the thundering waves.
You, to the waves of your own heartstrings' song.

Living to me is the life of the sea.
And the life that I live is just where I belong.
I steer by the stars and I rise with the sun
While you dance and you sing to your own heartstrings' song.

I won't ask you to wait.
You can't ask me to change.
But I hope that our hearts will beat strong.
Mine, to the crash of the thundering waves.
Yours, to the time of your own heartstrings' song.

For true love can be like a ship on the sea.
It can sail between loving hearts parted so long.
So I'll steer by your passion, you'll dance to my touch
And we'll thrill to the tune of our own heartstrings' song.

©Patricia Rose Grigadean, 1993

Rolling over in bed on a hot summer night,
Feeling the ceiling fan caress my back with a gentle breeze,
And the delicious delight of coolness tickling my sweat-kissed skin,
I recognize the combined miracle of perspiration and evaporation
And wonder how anyone could doubt "Intelligent Design".

©Patricia Rose Grigadean, 2015

“You know I’ll always be here for you”, he said.
As he walked away, leaving me alone with tears in my eyes.

© Patricia Rose Grigadean, 1988

For today: Love

Only love.
Just love.
Free love.
Love life.
Live love.
Give love.
Love others.
Other love.
Love each other.
Each one is love.
Love is.
Give love.
Gifts are love.
Giving is love.
Love giving.
Give lovingly.
Gift of life.
Love of life.
Give freely.
Freely love.
Give life.
Life of love.
Willingly love.
Love, love, love.
God is love.
God's love.
Love is God.
Love God.
Is there love?
Love is there.
There is love.
There is only love.
There is only God.
God's gift of love.
Love is God's gift.
God is.
Love is.
Be love.
Be.
Love.

©Patricia Rose Grigadean, 1988

The trick is to give
Without getting got.
To give what we want
And not what we ought.

©Patricia Rose Grigadean, 1988

I saw some spiders on a wall
They did not see me there at all
Or else they would have run away
And I'd not have got to see them play

Yes, playing they were, or seemed to be
Upon the wall sat on by me.
Push-ups they did or dancing it was
But whatever it was, I kept watching because

Altogether as one
In a rhythmic bounce
And though each little one
Didn't weigh quite an ounce

Together in motion
As one and alone
The tee-ninesy spiders
Were pushing the stone

And I saw as I sat there
That the spiders would win
For the wall made of stone
Would one day give in

And as I watched them work and play
Upon that wall of stone and clay
I knew that in a little bit
There'd be no wall on which to sit

I know you think this can't be so
But I will tell you what I know:
If any creatures, great or small
Decide to topple down a wall

They only need to see it done
And unify themselves as one
Then work and live and laugh and play
And walls will tumble down one day

©Patricia Rose Grigadean, 1988

(From Three Nights of a Broken Heart)

My lover said goodbye on the phone.
I didn't speak again - ever
So that my last words: "I love you"
Would not be profaned.

**********

If they came today
And tore me limb from limb
It would hurt me no more
Than your silence.
It would, in fact,
Be a relief.

**********

I have moved you from the realm
Of reality to fantasy
Where you can break my heart
Without doing so much damage.

**********

Tears are how a broken heart bleeds
Sometimes I believe I will bleed to death through my tears
But the bleeding stops, for a while
And I'm fine, for a while...
Then something touches my mending heart
A flower, a poem, a memory
And I collapse in a pool of tear-blood
My eyes, two hemophiliacs, pouring out warm sorrow onto the floor.

Life is a costume party
And everyone is God in disguise
I like to look behind the masks
And see God in everyone's eyes

(for Tom and for Sr. Rose, who replaced Mrs. Rice)

I love to write
I love to sing
I love to dance
I love to swing
A bat that goes “craaack” when it hits a ball
I love the springtime
I love the fall

I love my birthday
I love my name
I love to laugh
I love a game
Of Clue with people who like to play
I love the nighttime
I love the day

I love my family
I love my friends
I love my lover
Who always sends
Me flowers and smiles
When he mows the lawn
I love to sneeze
I love to yawn

I love the sunrise
I love the set
I love the moon
I love to get
Snuggled in covers
When the nights get cold
I loved being young
I love getting old

Whenever I think
I’m not happy enough
I try to remember
The marvelous stuff
Like a beach or a rose
Or some simple thing
That makes me write
And makes me sing!

Everything is part of me
And I am part of God.
Every single sight I see
Now doesn't that seem odd?

That trees and rocks and rusty nails
Each bug and slug and bee
Is part of God who never fails
And God is part of me.