Poems and Stories

Poem for Our Sister Claire

Claire,

You’re now dancing on                

The bright scales of heaven, in

A good place, twirling across

The deep decades of your

Beautiful life.

You’ll always be missed,

And always be our

sweet, sweet big sis.

Letter for Kathy

Dear Kathy,

Son Paul called to say

after the good fight,

you were gone.

You were living in

 a summer place with

a good man and well loved.

Someday, when I take

the time to watch a rainbow,

I’ll be looking there for you.

  Love, Paul

​

Epistle for Don

Dear Don,

At your funeral I

Cried secretly

Today I had

New tears for you,

I hope you could hear them.

Love, Paul LeSage

​

Epistle for Dad

Dear Dad,

You would have been a

Hundred this year. That’s

A lot of coal in the bin. I’m only asking

For half the man you were.

I’ll always be working on it.

Love, Paul

Fresh Grass Poem

The light from the   

Stage crowned your face,

A beautiful and ancient

Smile silhouetted against the

                       World-long night.

                        A reminder of someone

                        Somewhere that I once loved.

                        It was you.

​

​

 Late Innings

The girl that I like has

a husband and a boyfriend

We’re in late innings, and

I’m way down in the count.

Last line with no poem

You’ve created your own best sorrow

​

​

Fishpond Poem

With eyes half open, I watch

The stream of light move across the

Lake marking the way.

An armada of 3 brightly colored kayaks race

at snail paced speed, and

like our distant memories,

fade slowly past the horizon.

​

Forever in Flight

Twin black birds, one

At eleven and the other at four,

Fashioned in the

Wrought iron night.

​

The Eye of Here

The eye of here

opens through

the clouds.

It’s god, and

today

her eye is blue

​

The Perfect Heart of Strange

In the perfect heart of strange

I look for you. 

The Gift

The man’s wife

left him for

Christmas.

He had mostly

everything else.

​

​

Always

Always there’s a girl

somewhere in

my mind that

I love.

​

 Siren Heart

No siren’s song

Take me back to

Your heart from

Where we were at

The start

Take me back into your heart

​

Metro North to NYC

The attractive woman I

Said hello to in the

Parking lot sits

Across the aisle

Finishing her

Breakfast roll.

The sun pours through her window,

Another love lost in the light.

​

Fall 2015

The leaves are mulched, but are

Left to fend for themselves.

The grandkids’ summer

Voices sound through the wind nearly

As if they were still there.

Everything is put

Away. The garage fills with

No car inside, just a badly

Packed memory of you.

​

Fishpond Poem 8/20/12

In the late 50s and early 60s, we’d

hide in the air spaces between the

barrels shouldering the raft

waiting for the

summer to never end.

8/20/12 Fishpond Poem 2

Minus the new house,

Fishpond looks like so much time saved.

A small boy carrying

A fishing pole passes by heading

for the future.

Fishpond Poem 6/2/13

The pine needles drop

Like so many hints.

It’s warm, but the sun

Is being crowded from the sky.

A few Local tourists take

Their last gulp of summer and

Wave yesterday goodbye.

                            LeSage

Woman of the Mountains

The woman on the 

Mountains lies on her back,

Her head laid back on the

Bed of the earth.

Her snow covered breasts

Glisten hungrily waiting

For spring.

In the dusk, the night winds

begin to sing her

song as we all drift off to sleep.

Motorcycle Maiden

The motorcycle maiden

Drops her leather to the waist and

Purs through the North Adams

McDonald’s like an out-of-state cat.

She carries a purse that holds

So many secrets waiting to

pounce at the next person in line.