The Gentle Man

by Bart Edelman

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The Gentle Man

In the tender hands
Of the gentle man,
Love grows like a rose
Whose petals open to show
The woman he knows.
And soft is his touch
That strokes her skin--
This slow, kind act
For which she wishes
To grant him forgiveness
The moment he asks it.
She wonders where he learned
The lost art of hesitation,
How kiss and caress differ
In every conceivable way
And why one of his glances
Makes her knees quiver.
Each night she prays
He will never go away,
Leaving her vacant and dry,
Unable to seize the desire
Which waits so patiently
In the tender hands
Of the gentle man.

---

Forgiveness

She knows now,
Yet never lets on.
The briefly mentioned name
Rings like any other:
Two syllables lightly pronounced,
An iamb of decency
Fills the friendly kitchen
Where we speak through morning tea.

At another time--
In this same place--
The voices of distant wolves
Were the only company
We kept for years.
And then the irremediable silence,
So stuffed with suffering,
We thought we'd lost it all
And begged to die
Before the next night fell.

The long trail to forgiveness
Sweeps behind the house we share
And runs along a rocky creek,
Where water gently flows
When rain collects there.
Here, we beat yesterday's clothes
Against the smooth gray stones
And slowly watch old stains
Drain below the surface.

---

In Albany Love

In Albany love
Taps me on the shoulder
And when I whirl around
There you stand, laughing,
Your suitcase packed,
A map in your hand.

In Albany love
Arrives in the middle of spring,
Floating on feathered wings,
Lighter than the breeze
That rolls off the Hudson--
And we catch it just right.

In Albany love
Drops softly from trees
And blankets the city streets
We walk hour after hour,
In search of a neighborhood
We can both call home.

In Albany love
Allows us to review
The course of history
It took to find us here,
Where we build a little house
On a lot outside Loudonville.

In Albany love
Teaches us how kindness
Is really hope in disguise,
How patience gets a bad rap,
And how nothing in this world
Will ever be the same again.

---

Last Request

Just one last request--
It's all I ask--
A small act of kindness
I wish to remember you by,
When winter slips into spring
And we stand no more,
Huddled against the stiff wind
This time of year brings.

Please don't let them know
How it was we came
To love each other--
Why yours were the arms
I chose to wrap around me--
A shawl of forgiveness
I wore to face the cold.

And don't tell woeful tales
That trap the truth in lies,
Where body and soul collide
Under the sad guise of reason.
Step gently away from temptation--
The profane urge to shed
What little remains of our skin.

More poetry by Mr. Edelman..

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ISBN # 1-888996-33-1