The Beauty Of Solitude

My grandmother, lover of words and beauty, created a world of fulfillment through her artistry and imagination. Very early she discovered no one else was going to sweep her off her feet provide her magical fantasy, so she set about doing it herself. That world she let her granddaughters in, to witness and create along side her. The art, the poetry, the music, the natural world, the make believe...it was all a part of the message: you can create it! Don't you wait for anyone to create it for you.

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The first poem is perhaps a moment of regret. But more likely it is a brief departure from fantasy, a meditation on reality. I can't see the purpose of posting this poem without the next, found side by side in the collection of poems "Between Raindrops" (book published 1985). If the first is the glimpse of her post-World War II reality, the second is only the beginning of what she knew was possible.
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 Above photo shot in the Ford Building with Ben Piago last spring. Model Hannah Gale. Make up by me. Sahlia Michelle Jewlery. Lizard Lounge shoes, tank and shirt. Model's own jeans.

Blue Rain

Where are you
this four o'clock afternoon
when the rain is falling
in great sheets?
where are you
when I'm crouched
in a wool coverlet
of rejection,
alone?
Are you
also in a cave
taking your ease
in dim lit cacophony?

My music,
my flowers,
my books
do not interest you
I will stir
my solitary cup of "instant"
and pretend
I'm hosting another lover

of rain.

-Anita Hamm

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A Coming Together

Today we made poetry
which is something
like making love.

A high bright fire
sings in the blood.
touching off radiance

Small rainbows
glance
off words.

Small arcs are struck
from our thoughts
as we make a weld

fragile
but enduring.

-Anita Hamm