Poems of Love and Loss: Friends, Lovers, Self, and God

By Leigh Cole

College was a difficult time for me. Between the ideas of free love and drug experimentation, I felt lost and confused most of the time. I started writing down thoughts and feelings to help me cope with emotions that I could not or did not totally understand. In the beginning I only numbered my thoughts, but as time passed I started naming my works after the people who touched me in some way or by an event that was shared with someone special. My original writings started in 1973 when I was at the University of Central Arkansas and continued until I was in my forties. Since that time I have kept a journal that has become more of a source of comfort to me than my poetry.

I hope that you find comfort, solace, joy, or pleasure from reading my memories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LifeRich Publishing
• Release date: Oct 14, 2015
• ISBN: 9781489705570

Leigh Cole

Leigh Cole was born in Piggott, Arkansas, in 1950. After graduating from college she taught math for over thirty years. Even though she worked with concrete concepts, she enjoyed the arts. Since retiring, she has enjoyed concentrating on her hobbies of photography, playing the guitar, riding her bike, scuba diving, and traveling.

Book preview

One

Don’t try to chain

self-confine or

rearrange.

The pressure of

difference is

all I can take.

My feelings are

changing

But ever so slowly.

Don’t hurry me – Self!

I’m not sure I’m ready.

Your beings have meaning.

bringing joy with

moments of truth

But the bond you share-

glows green on my

face—at times

when I’m weakest.

Then I stop and realize

I’m happy for just to

be knowing you.

So please do not question

My Why’s? or

Why nots?

Someday I’ll be ready

to accept life your way.

For now I must take

my strength from

Today—

And the thought—

I have Friends

who don’t demand

from my heart and action—

for me,

I need never to start.

Two

Like the birds we like to fly,

To see what can be found.

You look for peace and a way of life

In which you can be free.

Me, I’ve got a permanent straight-

And somedays I crash so low,

But I always bounce back to the sun

When I talk to Him about life.

I know your ways—you know mine-

And things conflict with both

Because we care—then compromise

We can say At least we tried.

All my friends—they aren’t like me.

In fact you might agree

That the only thing in