Poem of the Day
Poem of the Day is a changing display featuring one poem and photo from my archives. See below.
For additional information about the poem and photograph, contact Marc
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The Tender Melt
Winter seemed forever
when summer’s sign appeared
tentative and unsure
unaware it was revered
it peeked around the corner–
should it land and stay
or once again detour to
elsewhere on the flyway
I had become convinced
summer lived in the past
known when I was a child
a warmth that left so fast
now, some decades later
it first melted the frost
and wrote upon my window
time was the only cost.
© 2002 Marc P. Anderson
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I think of this poem as an anticipation of a time when I would leave the regular work force and retire. For me, it will be a return to a time when I was young and summers were my favorite season, allowing a special freedom and exploration of life.
The image is of frost melting on my bedroom window one morning when I lived in Brooklyn. Often I have written poems that were inspired by photos, which happened in this case. The photo was taken in March 1984 and the poem was written more than 15 years later specifically for the photo.
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MarcWords
My poems arise from moods and thoughts generated by my own life and from placing myself in the lives of others.
For decades I have written poems and mated them with specific photographs in the belief that the two art forms can result in something even more fascinating when presented together. Sometimes I have taken a photo first and written a poem for it later. Other times the reverse occurred. A time span of days to years can separate the writing of a poem, the capturing of an image and their final mating.
I am not a poet. Instead I am a photographer who also writes essays and poems. My poems do not follow any rules. I write what I feel. The style of writing is usually accessible and the approach is often personal.
Many of my poems with stronger, controversial themes, which appear in a collection entitled MarcWords, have been categorized under the headings Life and Death, Race, and Love and Sexuality. They are accompanied by equally strong images including artistic nudes. In order to keep this website accessible and non-offensive to the general public, such poems and photo combinations are not included in Poem of the Day but they are available in MarcWords and other non-public web journals.