29 Comments
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Jessica Rath's avatar

This is medicinal. There isn't all that much written stuff which has healing qualities, but your poems do -- they bring the beauty back. Lovely.

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Weston Parker's avatar

Thanks Jessica. That reminds me of someone hitting into a bottle of something "purely for medicinal purposes." Which I always thought was funny. All of us who battle these things for a long time (50 years in my case) have a habit of steering towards the comedy.

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Patris's avatar

As a mother, a grandmother, an older sister more like, arms around you my friend. You realize I hope this piece is all about strength. And so very beautiful.

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Weston Parker's avatar

Thank Patris. Keep on keeping on and don't forget the beauty around us.

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Ann Collins's avatar

I take a very deep breath,

just like the one

that must be taken

before a deep dive,

and in so doing I will swell,

well beyond my size

And with this beautiful image in mind, I'll end this hard day softly. Thank you.+

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Weston Parker's avatar

Aw, thank you Ann. To have aided and abetted in ending a hard day softly is a pretty good achievement in my book.

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Stanley Wotring's avatar

This poem is full of movement and grace!

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Weston Parker's avatar

Thanks Stan and it's good to hear that. I cut out a lot of stuff in the middle, filled with twirling and spinning etc but had to get rid of it, so at least for you, the movement was still conveyed.

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Stanley Wotring's avatar

Editing is always a necessary bitch, lol.

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Weston Parker's avatar

Yeah, like, "There are omelettes and there are omelettes with eggshells. That's editing."

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Brian Funke's avatar

This is beautiful!

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Weston Parker's avatar

Thanks Brian. The thoughtful comments never get old.

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man of aran's avatar

Very nice, Weston. I'll say it again. Very nice. Every word in its place.

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Weston Parker's avatar

thank you ever so much.

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26thAvenuePoet (Elizabeth)'s avatar

"Although my arms are empty

my heart is less so

and so, for this day

at least, loneliness

has ceded the floor." ❤️‍🩹

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Paul Wittenberger's avatar

I've done that same dance more times than I care to count, Wes, but you've really got the steps down in this one! Even I feel better!

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Weston Parker's avatar

Well, that may be from all the practice. I'm soon to be 65, so from mid teens to now, 50 years of all that.

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Markan Andreas Nkhwazi (M.A.N)'s avatar

The gripping and poignant substance that fills the outline of the poem aside, a round of applause ought to go to the formatting itself. Substack’s word processor is quite constraining i.e line spacing, margins... So bravo for going to such lengths to format the piece like this

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Weston Parker's avatar

Thanks Markan. The line spacing is due to using the "poetry block" located under the "more" button. The margins is just me centering each line, which is how I like my poems to appear, takes less then 5 minutes.

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Clare Burke's avatar

This is beautiful - thank you.

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Weston Parker's avatar

Thank you Clare.

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Jonathan Foster's avatar

Hey, I thought the last one was my favourite, now this ones my favourite!

Beautiful Wes.

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Weston Parker's avatar

Thanks Jonathan.

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Laurie Easton Parker's avatar

So poignant. Blessed to be dancing through life with you these past 4 decades! 💞

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Weston Parker's avatar

Thank you Mrs. Parker.

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Tresha Faye Haefner's avatar

I'm ready to admit it. Me! Hahaha!

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Weston Parker's avatar

My mother’s name was Trisha and she taught each of her five sons to dance.

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Tresha Faye Haefner's avatar

Beautiful imagery. I think we've all been there.

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Weston Parker's avatar

Thank you Tresha. I agree, I think we’ve all been there, at least all of us who are willing to admit it.

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