Sunday, December 1, 2019

BARBARA EHRENTREU



BARBARA
EHRENTREU

If Voice Were A Season

If voice were a season it would be fall.
Fall is the luxuriance of color
Colors dominate the massing leaves.
Leaves remain alive even when they hit the ground
They smell like grass, sweet and alive with a hint of soil.
They're moist and sometimes after a rain mushy
or plastered over the ground—
as if cemented there.
Fall overwhelms the senses and takes them on a ride
until the leaves’ colors fade and meld into one color –
brown -- the color of death
Even then fall dies slowly until one day you realize it's complete.
The trees are bare - their youth is gone
You didn't realize the end was near, but hoped against hope
that this year would be different.
This year wouldn't end the same –
Bare trees stark against the grey late fall sky.
But you know the seeds of those trees
have already begun their life cycle
Deep within each tree's secret spaces.
life surges inside of them
hidden by winter's snows
and nourished by spring's thaws,
ready to explode when the warm sun brushes their coats.
Copyright 2019 by Barbara Ehrentreu








Aubade

Night disappears as your
golden rays paint the sky
peach and shades of pink
the clouds reflect your beauty
and create a backdrop
for your radiance

My supine body lies still
with eyes closed as you
shimmer into existence
and the dark slowly fades
to a grey and then blues
as the sky lightens from the sun

I do not greet you anymore
since I don’t want to acknowledge
the one who loved you is gone
his joy at your first stirrings
brought me to watch your rise
and glory in the splendor

Now, though, his presence
is no longer with me
the memories continue
and his announcement that
you had arrived is still pressed
into the synapses of my brain
as is his delight in seeing you.
Copyright 2019 by Barbara Ehrentreu









“I believe there are monsters born in
the world to human parents…. The face
and body may be perfect, but if a twisted
gene or a malformed egg can produce physical
monsters, may not the same process produce
a malformed soul?”
--John Steinbeck

Repugnant Monsters
Lurk Behind Cherubic Faces

Who knows where monsters lurk
Beneath a fair countenance could there be a monster?
Covered by the appearance of a normal person
could there be the disfigured soul of a demon?

Within the bluest eyes there might be the vision of
a psychopath who twists all events to benefit themselves
Though they might be the handsomest or most beautiful and deceiving of
your thoughts – the most charming – there is a darkness
inside of these souls that will destroy all in its path
if it is allowed to roam freely

Underneath is the craggy, pockmarked, oozing face
of an evil and despicable creature and if you were
to meet this face you would run away for it is
repugnant to all – if ever it surfaced

An invisible monster stirs within these delightful looking humans
and truly most would never know it exists
except these people have a fatal flaw
They do not like when they are ignored or thwarted
And they react in a tirade of unnatural acts regardless of who or
what has attacked them. They have no balance and will strike out
heedless of the place or person if that inner monster is awakened.

Histories of such people include the casual slaying of cherished pets
dating from childhood where crimes were never actually solved --
the mystery of the hamster strangled or the family cat fed poisoned food
all answered with the innocent smile of this cherubic looking child

They live disguised in this cloth of innocence and yet somehow
events happen around them in ever escalating order
implicating others while they peer from the sidelines with that
Cheshire grin – getting away with it all and pretending concern
Copyright 2019 by Barbara Ehrentreu
(Originally from: The Garden of Poetry and Prose)


BARBARA EHRENTREU

BARBARA EHRENTREU grew up in Brooklyn and moved to Queens. She has lived and taught in Long Island, Buffalo, NY and Westchester, NY as well as a year in Los Angeles, CA. She has a Masters Degree in Reading and Writing K-12 from Manhattanville College and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. She taught for over twenty years as an elementary and Reading teacher. Currently she is retired from teaching, and is tutoring and living in Stamford, CT with her family. If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor won second prize in Preditors & Editors as Best Young Adult Book for 2011. It was inspired by Paula Danziger for her children's writing workshop at Manhattanville College. Her second book, After, considers what can happen to a teen when her father becomes ill with a heart attack. It is based on her own experiences when her husband had a heart attack and the aftermath of what she and her family experienced. She is preparing the sequel to If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor. Barbara also writes poetry. You’ll Probably Forget Me: Living With and Without Hal, is a memorial to her deceased husband. Her poem, “ A WALK DOWN THE PATH OF MY MEMORIES" was selected to be in The Walt Whitman Bicentennial Anthology, Poets To Come. One of her poems,”TO CATCH THE UNIVERSE" has been displayed in a local library art show. Several of her poems are in the World Poetry Open Mic Anthology for 2017 and 2018. She is one of the US administrators for Motivational Strips and is on the editorial board of the new Motivational Stripszine magazine.  You can find her poems on The Garden of Poetry and Prose on Facebook. She has a radio show on Blog Talk Radio called Red River Radio Tales from the Pages every 4th Thursday of the month. In addition she has a blog, "Barbara’s Meanderings", where she interviews authors and posts her thoughts. She is a member of SCBWI and The Greenwich Pen Women Letters group.


2 comments :

  1. Excellent poems my dear sister. I like the flow of the words and impact of the messages. They are very inspiring and uplifting to the soul The descriptive excellence in each is wonderful. Great job! Have an awesome day, don’t forget to pray, stay encouraged, be strong, inspired, ingenious, resilient, and blessed always!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much my dear brother Joseph and I appreciate your favorable comments for my work!

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