Lehua's Poetry Vol. 1

Lehua's Poetry, Volume 1

Ada had to admit that, at least now and again, just saying what your heart felt, straight and simple and unguarded, could be more useful than four thousand lines of John Keats. She had never been able to do it in her whole life, but she thought she would like to learn how.

-- Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain

Contents
Why
Heaven's Answer Room
Needing You
Squadrons at Dusk
Bookcase
Two for a Longtimeloverfriend
Can't Sleep
Very, very short poems:
	Neighbors
	Hatred
	Youth
	Moss
	Whales
	Hale-Bopp

Why

A poem for Marge and Tom Reed

I stand in the wind and see
the moon
and a single star

I search for answers

I obsess over why
and tremble from whether

And still
all there is out there
is the moon
and a single star

October 6, 1997

If there is a Heaven
And if Heaven is truly heaven

There will be an Answer Room
And someone will tell me

Where my cat goes each day
And what he does there
And what he thinks about that

-- Lehua, December 12, 1997



Needing You

The street itself sings inside as I near
	Where I might be finding you.
I play that game with myself -
	Will I see you?
	It amazes me,
		When I need you most...I do.
Then I sing, too,
Like the hidden, inner street.
I know I found you
Because I need you.

Need you.

You teach me new meaning for that word.
There are so many things
	I don't Need anymore.
But I need your smile.
I need your way of seeing.
I need you to hold me.

I need to know you're there.

You talk with your insides.
While we play our play
	And talk our talk
		Your insides tell me about
			Good Man.
Talking to me about warm.
Talking to me about safe.
Talking to me about a friend
	In a voice as golden
		As the voice that makes your words,
			Telling me so much more about you
				Than your words.

And you'll hold me.
When I'm hurt so bad I don't know where I can go
	I'll be seeing you rising our hill
		Toward me
			And someone I trust
				Will hold me.

			-- Lehua, May 31, 1988


	Squadrons at Dusk

	Glancing neither right nor left Driving straight ahead Staunchly focussed squadrons glide Swiftly overhead Streams of skillful warriors Leave behind their dead Calmly unaffected by Survivors' lingering dread Without a care but to insure They'll not be late for bed *The pelicans are back !!!!*
		-- Lehua, 6/10/98



BOOKCASE
Today I am an old, creaky bookcase A low-end bookcase Cheap, poorly made to start And all the worse for years of carelessness My middle sags From years of burden, and overload Sides bowed and weak, and uneven Every sort of book Well-thumbed or dusty unopened Leans dazedly against another for support I am disorganized In both appearance and function Victim of rampaging eclecticism Badly crafted joints Groan in petition... or warning This would alarm, except that none attends.
			-- Lehua, March '98


	I
	I watched you walking home last night You unaware Your coat swinging A hint of music in your walk Just the slightest suggestion of caged intensity An unreliable cage

	II
	I know you so well Enough to know I will know more I've loved you so long Enough to know You're a necessity in my world
			-- Lehua, 10/26/98



Can't Sleep
Can't sleep!
	Restless images are racing through my head

Can't sleep!
	Smoking, fevered longings heating up my bed

Can't sleep!
	Wanting, hoping, yearning, needing what's ahead

Can't sleep - awake! alive! on fire!
Can't sleep - my need/your heat conspire
Can't sleep - can't fight with my desire

Can't sleep!

	-- Lehua, 5/24/87, 3:00 a.m.

Some Very, Very Short Poems

The wind and the sea are having a loud argument.

They're normally such nice neighbors.

-- November 18, 1997



	Hatred earns hatred
	-- Lehua, 6/9/98



	I was young once.
	That is... SO... EMBARRASSING!!

	-- Lehua, 4/3/98



	Moss enchants me.
	-- Lehua, 5/30/98



	Whales are so improbable
	-- Lehua, 8/9/98
Written after watching the biggest pod of whales I'd ever seen in my life playing in my "backyard" for several hours



I miss the comet It made me think of bigger things
	-- Lehua, 10/20/98

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