Her smiling girl-heart danced
behind the grey, grey hair.
—Terri Guillemets
scrambled blackout poetry created from Enid Bagnold, National Velvet, 1935,
youth
Keep playing
Keep playing, young one —
keep playing
Keep playing, mother —
keep playing
Keep playing, grandmother —
keep playing
Keep playing, white-haired youth-at-heart —
skip off into death
with a giggling heart.
—Terri Guillemets
Afterthoughts during
The wrinkles don’t hurt as much when one remembers the playground in one’s heart.
—Terri Guillemets
Iridescent
The years sprint, sail, drift, fly —
Days melt into sleep
Decades we no longer know —
By taste or smell, yes — but
Hard, fast memories tend not to keep
Youth lives on — yet, is long gone
Birds chirp each Spring anew
But our hearts sing the same shades
Of childhood colors we once knew
—Terri Guillemets
Remembering goes both ways
My younger passions are still listening, as I age.
—Terri Guillemets
Youthage
Some kind of tragic loss happens somewhere between kitten and cat, between child and adult, between innocence and ego.
—Terri Guillemets
Grown in heart & beyond
After a girl is grown, her little brothers — now her protectors — seem like big brothers.
—Terri Guillemets
Pressed flowers are still pretty
Age is a gradual steamrolling of youth.
—Terri Guillemets
Stories of the future
In a new love, it’s easy to live for the moment because there is no past. The more past you accumulate, the harder it is not to live there — and that’s true whether it’s good or bad.
—Terri Guillemets
Shaken, stirred
Our passion and kisses were stumbling, but stumbling in sync.
—Terri Guillemets