Barbara Ehrentreu
Past Midnight Alone
Night creeps
slowly into me
Settles in my
head as a low murmur
My body moves
into night mode
When the trials
of the day disappear
And the sinuous
strand of memories
From the past
appear
Remembrances of cherished
moments
When we were
alone and in love
The tantalizing
touches you gave me
And I returned
them
A curtain of
ecstasy surrounded us
As we learned
each other’s bodies
The moon can
shine outside my window
But it means
nothing to me now
For you are not
here to share it with me
Its beams seep
through the blinds
And the silver
light bathes me in its essence
I am no longer
tempted by the warm breezes
of summer to slip
outside and stand in the
light of the full
moon as I did as a girl
only beginning to
understand the
pull of the urges
inside of me
Until you
unlocked the wonder of love
and we moved into
a dream filled with
heavenly gardens
and lush aromas
Lavish blossoms
lay in our path
and we drank from
the nectar of these blooms
Funny how midnight
thoughts bring tears sometimes
When my life
flashes in brilliant memories painted
with the colors
of you and us and the thoughts of you --
No longer with me
in the flesh -- but always living in my mind.
Copyright 2021 By Barbara
Ehrentreu
The Night Whispers
When night
inevitably breathes its
wispy presence
into my life
whispers with the
satin stillness
of the silent
dark sky
creep into my
body and
steer my thoughts
to the
idea of sleep,
stroking
it with the
promise
of sweet
surrender
My still vibrant
soul
becomes a vessel
for the
unspoken
fantasies let loose
as I lay emptying
my mind --
my tousled blonde
curly hair on
the pillow in
disarray
uncaring of the
look
For fashion
counts zero here
comfort wins all
the time
My brain sorts through
the myriad events
and creates
its own Broadway
play complete
with costumes and
sets
in which I stroll
or run or even
glide through on
feet or sometimes
travel in space
without walking
from place to
place and in a
straight line or
more often a
crooked or jagged
pathway
as dreams toss me
around
like a ship in
gale winds
And I am helpless
to respond
as the play
unfolds or abruptly
ends — the story
slowly disintegrating
as the light of
day encroaches and I
open my eyes —the
last scene lost
forever.
Copyright 2021 by Barbara
Ehrentreu
Response To
Samuel Taylor
Coolidge’s Poem:
What if you slept
And what if
In your sleep
You dreamed
And what if
In your dream
You went to
heaven
And there plucked
a strange and beautiful flower
And what if
When you awoke
You had that
flower in your hand
Ah, what then?
Taylor Coleridge
Heaven’s Flower
One night I took
a trip in my dream
Cocooned in sleep
my mind
whisked me away
in a dream cloud
full of wishes
and desires
And in this
somnambulant state
I floated within
the boundaries
of heaven’s
passages
to awaken upon a
bed of clouds
holding a
long-stemmed flower
very much like a
peony-- if they have them
in heaven -- and
smelling sweet as all the
perfumes on earth
And the touch of
the petals was
as soft as the
skin on a just picked peach
the color
radiating from light pink to
deepest purple
with a bright yellow center
And I sniffed of
this delight
held triumphantly
in my hand
inhaling the
fragrance and gaining strength
with each
inhalation as I realized the aroma
was that of Truth
and Justice
And as the dream
wound to a close, I felt a clarity
When I opened my
eyes to the reality of the world,
I followed the
remembered scent
of this bloom
throughout my life --
searching for the
source
And though I have
not yet found it
I still hold the
flower close to my heart
and will battle
any who would stomp upon it.
copyright 2021 by Barbara
Ehrentreu
BARBARA EHRENTREU
BARBARA EHRENTREU
lives in Stamford, CT with her family. If I Could Be Like
Jennifer Taylor, her first book won second prize in Preditors & Editors as
Best Young Adult Book for 2011. After is her second book. Barbara has a poetry
book, You’ll Probably Forget Me: Living With and Without Hal, which won
Honorable Mention in the NLAPW (National League of American Pen Women) Vinnie
Ream contest for 2017 and The Child Poet: A Poetic Galaxy for Children,
co-written with bestselling author Brenda Mohammed. Several of her poems are published
in the anthologies: Crossroads: A Poet’s Life Journey, Poets To Come: Walt
Whitman Bicentennial Anthology for 2019, “Queen”, World Poetry Open Mic
2016-,2019, Prompted: An International Collection of Poetry, Beyond the Dark
Room, Storm Cycle and Backlit Barbell. In addition, her short screenplay for
“The Kiss” won 1st Prize for a Romantic short screenplay at Indie Gathering,
and Honorable Mention for Best Dialogue in a Short at Action on Film. She is
the Regional Director for the West for Motivational Strips, the world’s most
visited writers’ website, and she has received several awards from Motivational
Strips and some other foreign governments including: the coveted Indian
Independence Day Honor from Gujarat Shaitya Academy on August 15, 2020, Cesar
Vallejo Premier Mundio 2020 from Union Hispanomundial de Escritores (UHS) and Motivational Strips, Premio Mundial A La
Excelencia Literaria 2019-2020, The Order of Shakespeare Medal. From
Khazakhstan she received World Poetic Star, August 23, 2019. She has a blog,
Barbara's Meanderings, and hosts a radio show on Blog Talk Radio, Red River
Radio Tales from the Pages, once a month. On Facebook she is a member of
several poetry groups, including: The Garden of Poetry and Prose, Sargam – For
Arts, Literature and Music, WPOM Poets and Friends, and Poets Attic. She
belongs to Greenwich Pen Women Letters and SCBWI.
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