Poetry by Jeannie E. Roberts

               ​onur bahcivancilar CC



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How Can We Know a Life Unless We’ve Lived It?
 

As if bees in motion 
lake water quivers 
trembles atop the ceiling 
spreads reflective flutters around the room. 
Here your musings deepen 
enhance the array 
where letters launch 
dance across the page 
flow like the hover of wall ripples 
catch a wave.

Like the lake 
how can we know a life unless we’ve lived it? 
The revelation of essence 
expands beneath the sparkle 
heightens upon the plunge 
awakens amid the voyage 
as it sways beside the camouflage of catfish 
swirls within a school of bass 
dives where the turtle turns 
and weeds weave near the barbels of carp 
billow in tempo with crustaceans’ antennae 
as the sturgeon surveys its benthos--
when its elongated body leaps 
appears airborne for unknown reasons
splashes 
disseminates circles 
reverberates being. 
Here the journey diffuses 
radiates the dispersal of reflections
a narrative you and only you can know and tell.
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Jeannie E. Roberts has authored seven books, five poetry collections and two illustrated children's books. Her newest collection, As If Labyrinth - Pandemic Inspired Poems, was released by Kelsay Books in April of 2021. She’s a nature enthusiast, a Best of the Net award nominee, and the poetry editor of the online literary magazine Halfway Down the Stairs. 

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