Damp Earth and Deep Sky

Original Poetry by Evaonne F. Hendricks


Looking at your soul

I leave a noseprint

On the glass




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Page Two

To a Spider

"Little spider, why do you spin,
Webs so fine, webs so thin?
Why do you sit upon my wall?
How do you manage not to fall?"

April 1971


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Page Three

Some folks see your mind

Some your bankroll

I know what they find, but

I see into your soul

April 22, 1972





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Page Four

The Sea

The sea thunders
Then it rushes
Clutches
Jagged rocks
With painful embrace
Desparate
Clawing
Dragging back
Into itself.



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Page Five
Thoughts

Donovan. . .
A breath of fresh air
tasted me and passed

Strange,
how memory floods and rushes
bringing driftwood
on the shore of my mind.

The pools twist and writhe
in the eternal grasp
of thought.

June 1972

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Page Six

Sometimes paper
Escapes me
In a mad dash
--A wild rush of words
A poem unfinished
Forgotten
In the mad dash
--A wild rush of words,
For lost
Paper.

July 6, 1972



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Page Seven

When I write
The words
Run down my pen
Onto the paper
From my mind

Sometimes thoughts
I write
Startle me more
Than my friends
Who know me.



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Page Eight

I wonder
What I'm really thinking
While I'm writing
Poetry.
Unnoticed, I write
Secretly thinking to myself.

July 8, 1972

Spring

Summer raindrops melt the sun
Mist away when day is done.
Night-time mists o'ercloud the dew
Changing land that I once knew.

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Page Nine

Tattered shroud of night undone
Flees the dawn before the sun.
Dew-kissed earth awaked by song
Ope's green eyes 'ere sleeping long.

I, in morning's early hours
Kiss the drowsy, petalled flowers
'Till they open sleepy eyes
And gaze upon the sunny skies.

Whisp'ring streams in mountain grass
laughing rivers join and pass
Rushing to the tranquil sea
Plunging in, ecstatically.

1972-1973 sometime
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Page Ten

Princess Spring

Princess spring
Washed her hair
And shook it out in the sky.

Left the suds
On the sea shore
And her hair on the grass
To dry.

Fall, 1973

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Page Eleven

Chance

The world of "What was supposed to be."
And "What would have happened then?"
Is only a few decisions away
Yet quite beyond our ken.

December 4, 1973, 2:20 A. M.

Who Made The Stars?

I used to think that stars
Were magic glitter for wishes
Flung by Elf-folk
Dancing on the lawn.

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Page Twelve

Through the years I learned
That that they are nebulous clouds
Of gasses--burning, burning
Like a torch.

Such is the stuff with which
The Lord molds the infinite spaces
We call our universe, being
Slightly presumptuous.

Perhaps God lit the stars
As magic glitter for wishes,
While Elf-folk, praising,
Danced with Angels, on the lawn.

Evening, January 12, 1974
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Page Thirteen

For David - (1959-1974)

I met a butterfly one day
Sitting in an evergreen tree.
I helped it dry and fly away.

Away it flew into the wind;
I saw Joy flutter through it
And then it was gone--forever.

I kept its hollow gray cocoon
To remember the splendour
And Joy in flight at finding freedom.

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Page Fourteen

Go then, butterfly, on new wings.
Find the warmth of wind and sky.
Freedom is yours now, and forever.

My love follows you, brother mine.
Yes, I'll miss you, here behind.
Don't look back. I'll follow, someday.

Night of Departure. Sunday, February 24, 1974.



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Page Fifteen

The Sun

The sun is fuzzy and red at dawn

'Cause he still has his pajamas on.

October 18, 1974 10:30 A. M.






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Page Sixteen

Wisps

The weaver in the clouds
Who combs their fabric
Twists it with stong fingers
And weaves a cloak
From rain, mist, and sunlight
To clothe the dusk
With many-colored cloth
Whipped down the sky
By the wind.

January 13, 1975, 11:25 P. M.
Late Night


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Page Seventeen

Soft,
     fuzzy,
              round,
                     warm,
                           kitten!
Mew!
      SCRATCH!!
                BITE!!!!
Teeny,
     tiny,
         sweet,
              'dorable,
                       CARNIVORE!!
       Eats
           my hand.
September 1977
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Page Eighteen
John

I watch the driveway for the car
I know it won't arrive.
Like the cat sitting in the window, waiting,
I love you from afar.

Ah, how long the days without you!
How tedious the work, I moan.
Sometimes I stop and think, and realize,
I'm married, yet I am alone.

Another star for the ceiling;
Another run for the phone,
To talk to you for maybe five minutes,
--And here I am, alone.
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Page Nineteen

Partnerless during each Hambo,
Comfortless in our bed,
I try to sleep, but the empty spot
Won't let me rest my head.

At our age our parents had homes and children.
They lived with hope and trust.
We work so hard to help the others,
When will someone else help us?

I put a candle in the window
For my wandering boy.
I wait and hope, saying a prayer
Until he returns in joy.

May 3, 1994
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Page Twenty

THE UNSNEEZE

Oh agony without a name,
Incipient sneeze that never came!
You tickled and teased and ran about
My itchy nose, but would not come out.
I have to admit I'm glad you left,
But without the blast, I feel bereft.
(Where the heck do sneezes go,
When they tickle your nose and refuse to blow?)

August 10, 1996


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Page Twenty-one

HEAVEN

a prayer

I don't care about golden rings,
Or a golden harp, or golden crowns,
Or big white wings,
All I want is a foot in the door.

I don't care about where I sit,
Being first or last, or the middle place--
Wherever I'll fit.
All I want is a foot in the door.

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Page Twenty-two

I don't care what cloud I'm on,
If I get a hut or a mansion large,
With a lawn.
All I want is a foot in the door.

Lord, I just want to be with you,
I don't care where I stand,
If you're in view,
All I want is a foot in the door.

December 25, 2003 (Christmas)


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Credit where credit is due Department:
Most of this stuff is my old poetry, from a book of unpublished poetry I named Damp Earth and Deep Sky.

A few words of explanation might help, I think. For David was written on the night my little brother, David, drowned in a small lake down the road from us. As you can probably tell, my little sister and I still miss him, even after all those years. There have been some additions to the old book, not the last of which was John, which was written while my husband was in South San Francisco taking care of his parents, who were beginning to lose it with Alzheimer's. If you add all the years up, we cared for them for eleven years.

In case you wondered, the Hambo is a dance done by couples in Sweden. As far as I know, it's the Swedish national dance. John and I met while folk dancing in Arcata, California. We married in 1981 after years of dancing together. We're still happily married, and we still dance together.

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By Evaonne F. Hendricks
This page updated on 9/8/2004 (my birthday!)