Poetry has become just my favourite.

It’s my favourite to read, and my favourite to write, too.

Here’s one I wrote about my children:

Tattoo

If  I were to get a tattoo

It would have your names

As if I could prove

By etching them into my skin

That there’s nothing I wouldn’t do

For you

Or maybe I’d have them draw

Onto my outstretched arm

A message in a bottle

An inky epistle

As if by doing so

You’d suddenly know

Wherever you are

My heart will go

Perhaps I’d ask for a different bottle

One of tears,

Collected over the years

As if you’d see then

How I always feel your pain

Perhaps they could draw a star

For how bright and glorious you are

Or a seed for how you keep growing

Or a river for the way you keep going

A tumult of love and emotion flowing

A force to be reckoned with showing

That humans are beautiful.

I don’t need a tattoo, of course

Love runs through my veins

And in my pores.

And if you’d like to read some poems by actual poets, here are a few links…

Poems by Imtiaz Dharker

My friend Lucy’s recent collection

Pessimism is for Lightweights, by Salena Godden

The Poetry Pharmacy

My Poetry Board on Pinterest (yeah, it’s heavy on Mary Oliver)

Mslexia