A SOULSPEAK E-BOOK
This SOULSPEAK E-Book is Copyright 2014 Justin Spring
All rights reserved. No part of this E-Book book may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the author.
This book was originally published and copyrighted in 2006 by Sarasota Poetry Theatre Press as a chapbook. In this electronic version, some of the poems may have been edited and the order of their appearance changed.
The cover was originally designed for SPT Press and is used by permission of SPT Press
Cover Art: Isabelle Dunkeson
Cover design: Justin Spring
Publisher
SOULSPEAK/SPT PRESS
P.O. Box 5932
Sarasota, Florida 34277
Author: Justin Spring
Phone: (941) 306-1119
E-Mail: soulspeakspring@gmail.com
WEB Page: http://justin-soulspeak.blogspot.mx/
Author’s Foreword
Some fifteen years ago, my friend Cliff Huxford was married for the third time, at age 60 no less. I was astounded. If anything else, it seemed to merit a poem, but I was somewhat dubious about my ability to write a poem of occasion, as my poetry is quite unconscious and usually unresponsive to my conscious needs. Yet, to my surprise, the Muse delivered, and the poem turned out quite well:
Hux Is Getting Married
Here it is, Santa Monica, I told you.
Hux's place is just down there, past that hill. It's like a stack of boxes, full of surprises.
Some movie actor lives downstairs.
His girlfriend too. I saw them lifting weights one night.
Lea?
Lea’s thoughtful, soft.
It's going to be a good marriage,
Hux's third I think. He must be close to sixty now. These late marriages: the wedding nights must be so odd.
Desire?
Of course desire, it's always there. But something else, a kind of awe: all those years of slowly dying
in singles bars,
and here you are,
starting out your life once more
with someone that you barely know.
Encouraged by the result, I began to think about writing more wedding poems for friends and family, but still being unsure if the Muse would deliver, I used Hux’s poem as a model, modifying the particulars to conform to the wedding in question. This accounts for the similarity of many of my earlier wedding poems. Such an