Gravitational Pull

By Jackye Swyers

Four Word Stanzas at Daybreak

Father Sky
Mother Earth

Shift Change
Moon Sun

Pure Scents
Bird Song

Black Silouettes
Becoming Clear

Heart Beat
Sipping Tea

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9781669803065

Jackye Swyers

Jackye Swyers and her husband live in the Ozarks of north central Arkansas near the White and Buffalo rivers. She recently retired from a banking career wearing many hats including a member of National Association of Professional Women. They raised their two daughters in a small rural town and have six grandchildren. They have always cared for animals of their own, the shelters and wildlife. Jackye stays involved in civic and community organizations, helping lead church and neighborhood events. She has been a member of Poets Roundtable of Arkansas and Free Verse Poetry Group of Mountain Home. She states, “I see poetry in everything. Some of it is hard to put into words.” Jackye’s poems display her love of life, reality of death and admiration for nature. Her first collection includes all of these.

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Copyright © 2022 by Jackye Swyers.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 12/08/2021

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

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Contents

In the Beginning

Arrowheads

Baseball

Bedtime

Bird Bath

A Bird Story

Blue Hydrangeas

Bridge of Death

Chocolate Milk

Conversations

Country Living

Cuppa Joe

Dandelion

To My Daughters

The Day I Took Groceries

Death of a Widow

Detour

Do Not Compare

First Reader

Fleeting Thoughts

Friend or Foe

From the Observation Deck

Grace and Gratitude

Graveyard

Guardian

Handkerchief

Harvest Moon

Harvey

Heart of the Home

Hey Baby

High School

I Meant to Say

Jewelry Network

Junk Drawer

Lazarus

Loading Dock

Love

Mariner

Monsters

Mother Nature

New Year’s Eve

Nobody Lives Here

Ode to Armadillo

Ode to Chocolate

Ode to Pond

Ode to Rainy Day

Ode to Roast Beef

Ode to Zinnias

Old Barn

Pearls

Pickles and Garden Tools

Prayer

Promise

Proposal

Recognized

Reminder

Reunion

Rusty Red Wasp

Seven Love Poems

Snowflakes

Southern Hospitality

Sunrise

Tea and Toast

Tell Me Again

Told From the Other Side

Top Tabby

Tradition

A Walk Down Crooked Creek

The Coming Winter

About the Author

Dedicated to

The Reader

In the Beginning

On these white pages,

black lines

wrap around a full

body of flesh, wild at times,

playful,

surviving, nurturing,

killing, loving, but not

at all sleeping,

for when we think we are sleeping,

the mind

forages the jungle,

the nocturnal jungle, with life and death,

sin and redemption,

the hungry tiger, the helpless prey,

the remains in the comfort of darkness

shall be exposed,

for these black lines yearn

to melt frost like the morning sun.

Let there be Light.

Arrowheads

Buying a polished arrowhead

for ten dollars at a flea market,

what story could be told?

I bought this for ten dollars at a flea market.

No, I prefer my chipped-mixed-collection

from walking in the woods.

Like his ancestors scavenging for food,

watching mammal and wind,

tracking trails, observing moss…

he bows to pick up a flat