A SOUL IN HIDING

         You are a secret

         Hidden from me.

         You keep your self enclosed,

         Remaining self-enclosed

         Even to your self.

Your charm is in your manner,

         An outward allure

         Suggesting, though not, promising revelations of

              a special kind

          If I could come to know you,

          And the secret.

          You are a secret

          Possessing a magnetic pull,

          Throwing me off balance,

          Out of sync with what should be

          My life.

          Instead, I find that I am drawn

          Away from knowing

          Who and what I am,

          Almost constantly in thrall

          To discovering what there is to know

          In knowing you.

********************************

  A PERMANENT ABSENCE

       For some there is no end in sight,

       No ending to how we live from day to day.

Perhaps we can recount dramatic milestones

            in our lives,

       Events, experiences that stand out

       In the slow process of aging that we

             fail to notice.

       The thought that all we knew and know

       Could, for us, cease to be

       Is theoretical at best,

       And best kept hidden from our sight.

       Of course, there are the other deaths around us,

       But if those deaths do not affect our self,

       The thought of them does not impress us

       With the knowledge of our own demise,

Which brings me to a thought I have had, of late,

       About how a sudden death,

       My death,

       Would impact you.

       Careless of how we treat each other while alive,

What kind of emptiness (if any) would you sustain?

Roberta Desalle joined Hamilton House, and the Poetry Workshop in particular, in 2013.

Exposure to the varied themes and styles of historical and contemporary poets increased her understanding of what is involved in writing poetry.

Writing in class, to sharing, and listening to other class members has been a stimulus to her own work.