Three Poems by Shel Bockman: Shoah, Spring Memories, When Love Walks Out the Door

Three Poems

by Shel Bockman

Shoah

In this world of in betweens
Sometimes the extremes mean
More than you might first think
Because sometimes the one who
Nuances everything is the one
Who loses the meaning of the song
And loses the dream and new dreams

Rarely come along. And so in this world
Of in betweens sometimes love is lost
By all those in betweens and sometimes
Good is compromised by in betweens
And truth denied because it is much too
Extreme and you just might be wrong
And then the Holocaust goes on.

Spring Memories

That mind walked path where the South Platte flows
Towards the far distant snow covered mountains which
At first glance appear only as clouds that softly cover
The western sky that my mind is filled with vivid reveries
Composed of wonder-coated memories of a world alive
With songs of spring and splashed with fragrant colors
And in that remembrance I am filled with awe and the
Realization that even In this cold shattered time there
Still remains the sweet promise of hope and renewal.

When Love Walks Out The Door

And so it is in those parting moments when
Time spins and falls upon its knees and the
Slow motion world suddenly spins out of
Control that we realize that we are left with
Nothing but make-believe memories and lies
And wanting to rewrite the past.

Shel Bockman, a professor at California State University, San Bernardino, CA, attended the University of Iowa years ago and took some poetry/creative writing courses, but stopped writing poetry after receiving advanced degrees in a different field of interest. He started writing poetry again and has published poems in A Hudson View, SNReview, Boston Literary Magazine, Maverick, A Little Poetry, Flutter, Words-Myth, and Kupozine.

Copyright 2011, Shel Bockman. © This work is protected under the U.S. copyright laws. It may not be reproduced, reprinted, reused, or altered without the expressed written permission of the author.