Waken Slowly!

TWO POEMS

WAKEN SLOWLY!

Between the brash alarm-clock

And the morning altercation of the birds

The sleep-soaked mind,

A sponge in hand,

Is squeezed to consciousness,

If as on holiday

It were allowed to drip,

Green weeds of childhood memory,

Phosphorescence of lost loves,

Ideas, amazing star fish,

The treasures of that haunted deep

Would cling rewardingly,

Even at last, perhaps, the pearls

Of understanding and forgiveness.