Edmund V. Strolis Poems

He did not see me beyond the Lilacs
I wondered how he got there
Who had led him to this place
Seated on that old chair
...

Santa- like beard but alone on Christmas eve
Above his cabin the slow swirling smoke of burning wood
He is alone but not lonely in his home
Pines sway and erase the horizons starry night
...

Oliver's ordeal was a nightmare of loneliness and numbing pain
Punished simply for being. unwanted, born an orphan in a raw world

From his first breath taken, an innocent being never to be warm again
...

When she smiled he knew, the certainty was liberating
She totally caught him off guard, no doubt, no debating
Cupid's mark was laid upon his love starved heart
He knew this love was real, right from the very start
...

The topic never matters around that battered wooden table
In that village square their chairs move with the cafe shadows
The Mediterranean sunshine is reason enough for a drink
What concern was it of anyone if they brought their own?
...

But didn't that river sparkle that day?
Light dancing from the summer sun
Two kayaks gliding effortlessly
Two easy smiles dancing along
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Rain drenched battered spires
Gothic sentinels face the night
Centuries since first foundation laid
Forever majestic, defying time
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Mandela had his prison garden
To keep him planted on this earth
And from the good earth that he tended
He reaped the bounty that he sowed
...

Before she met him she was sad
and even her gladdest moments felt incomplete

Before she met him she had surrendered
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Her eyes now perpetually wet
With veins like the furrows on her face
Red and painfully earned
Crows feet framed by worry
...