I didn’t have a chance to wish you
A happy birthday.
It is not
That I forgot.
But I was grieving
In anticipation of
Your grandson
Leaving
Again
Soon
To defend
A country at war.
And I have been grieving for your granddaughter
Who will soon have to walk her path alone.
As the sun sets in Phoenix,
Please hold her hand.
By J.Hamiltom
Silence seems so loud
In your absence.
My world has suddenly grown smaller
I feel like I might disappear in it.
The snow has fallen
Since you went to sleep.
The cold
White snow
No longer holds your footprints.
The rooms of the house,
Vacant,
A reminder of where you are not.
What if the most beautiful things are those moments
that then
Become memories?
I felt joy in living them with you,
How can I feel anything but pain now
As I sit alone
Remembering your soft sigh
The feeling of your warmth,
The love that you gave,
Knowing that I am stuck in my grief,
Trying to breathe.
When even breathing
Is hard to do.
By J. Hamilton
How do I let you go?
I wish you would walk by my side forever,
Rest your head on my foot,
Each night when we fall asleep.
Wake up in the morning,
A new walk,
A new journey
A new adventure.
I never want to forget your gaze,
Curious,
Patient and loving
waiting for me always
The times I left
And you waited behind the door.
It must have felt like eternity.
How do I spend eternity without you?
How do I decide when it is time
To let you go?
I do not want to decide.
hard
it was to have made this decision two times before.
For my father
Whose battle with death
Agonized over many days.
Even after they removed the tubes
That fed and kept him alive.
You were there
When my mother died.
How hard it was to decide to let her go
Cracked ribs,
Brain death,
Organs shutting down.
What choice did we have but to let her go?
Life sustaining means
Removed.
Her heart stopped within minutes.
Yet in my
dreams
I would hear her say,
I wasn’t ready.
I was consumed with grief.
You Embraced my heart,
Knowing how to comfort me.
Insulate my world
With a feeling of security,
Unconditional love and companionship.
My heart aches and aches
And your own heart ,
Sick and dying,
Still knows how to love.
by J.Hamilton
Hard to sleep.
The wind moans,
As if searching for something or someone.
The wind chimes play their plaintiv song,
Their metal beams swinging hard against the wind.
I should have taken them down in the fall
Maybe I am a little afraid of snow storms.
And the deep cold that crawls inside your bones,
And
The echo of death
In the wind,
In the falling snow,
And the memory of a
Woman
Who wandered away from her house
One year ago
In a midnight storm
Found frozen to death the next morning.
The harsh winters
Are relentless,
Relentlessly unforgiving.
I always find frozen animals
Under a blanket of snow
In the dead of winter.
Usually the morning
After a storm
When the wind has died down
And the sun lights the path
Of snow
Shining like broken glass.
By J.. Hamilton
The wind whirls
And howls,
Bangs against the window.
Blinding what snow,
Falling
Fast
On the sleeping garden.
The weight of your silence,
Of secrets
Just beneath.
By Julie Hamilton
Snow is beginning to settle on the
stones and dirt of a
forest path.
I see you spreading blankets among
Broken branches
Building your nest,
Tucked away in a temple of trees,
That are bare
And sleeping.
Do the trees shelter you from the wind
In that alcove of fallen branches
You have made your home?
Do you hear the howl of coyotes
At night
When you try to sleep
On the Earth’s floor?
Do they know you live among them?
They den not far from you where you are.
You reside here
Quietly,
Inside
A blanketed earth,
Branches above you,
Their long, steady arms
Stretched above you,
Both ways,
An embrace.
By J.. Hamilton
It is winter
Yet the leaves still sit among branches
Like stars.
It is too quiet here.
No snow yet,
But that stillness and almost
Somberness fills the crisp air
Like an elegy.
By J. Hamilton
In summer
Veils of mist fall
Through trees
That stand on
A distant path
Long, sleek figures,
Like lovers waiting
To meet in secret,
Under fog’s obscurity.
In winter
Carcasses of fallen trees,
Dark outlines on a narrowing path,
Resemble sleeping
wolves.
Or geese in snow,
Huddled,
Heads buried under a wing,
Unmigratory.
Veiled mist
Or snow,
An Obscured reality;
Of my choosing
Where metaphors and meaning
Live between fiction and season.
By J. Hamilton
It is 3 am in a village
Tucked in the edge of Krakow
Wintered and sleepy
As you lay in a room
Vastly unpopulated
Compared to the summer months
When volunteers across the world
Shuttled here
To build shelter.
You are among the few
To remain here
Til fulfil what is you have come for.
How can I be surprised
When I know this was always you
To lead and to guide.
Take my hand ,
I can still hear you say,
I know the way
By J Hamilton
It is night in Budapest.
I wonder if you are in a cafe.
Surrounded by
White washed walls, stucco ceilings,
A hot cup of coffee in your hand
And a slice of cake on a marble top table.
I miss you.
The house feels empty without the sound of your footsteps,
Heavy
Purposeful..
But you told me in July
You wanted to leave for awhile,
Leave your mark
On foreign soil.
So you left
To aid the wounded,
Shelter those displaced by war.
You are on a short reprieve now,
Taking snapshots of history
Visiting new places,
Meeting new people
On distant shores.
Have you seen the Danube?
Does it make you homesick for your own familiar rivers
That are now full of autumn leaves
And freshly fallen snow?
I hope you are warm,
Have enough money
And take the time to
Write a new chapter
To always remember.
by J Hamilton
Le cose piu belle (the most beautiful things) 