Barbara Ehrentreu

 


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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