Poetry

A CHOICE

I yearn to tell about the ache inside

To ease the pain by sharing it with one

Who also feels the hurt of needs unmet

And longs to soar with joy ere life is done.

But needing to be loved and thought of well

Requires a stance of hiding grief and strife

I smile and share my wit—my happy self

And wear the mask throughout my lonely life.

Joyce Heintz

February 1989

A DILEMMA

My poetry and sense of life must match

My poems must rhyme and have a metered form

For making sense my world must order know

My poems iambic, stanzas row by row.

When someday I give up my need to know

Deciding simply being is enough

With structures gone, chaotic life may be

But you will get a free-verse poem from me.

Joyce Heintz

July 1988

RESIGNATION

I think I was not made to be alone

To struggle in the void and grope for light

To search for answers where they hide from view

And long for dawn while blanketed by night.

I'm told the sunshine of another's love

Could warm my world and melt away the cold

A shared concern, a word, empathic tear

A balm for pain, a touch of Midas-gold.

Yet still I stay within my captive cell

A quiet place where risk can enter not

Secure and safe, alone, not reaching out

And sadly granting now that pain's my lot.

Joyce Heintz

June 1988

RESONANCE

We sit across the booth and talk awhile

And revel in shared thoughts—a hope, a dream

We feel alive as gaze and hearts unite

And understand and know a common theme.

Our eyes oft linger, yet a moment more

And yearn with poignancy for all that's not

They plead for seeing who we really are

And ask what might yet be of what we've sought.

There's partial solace, being not alone

In unreached dreams, relinquished hopes and goals

We both have mourned for that which might have been

And never touching, join our separate souls.

Joyce Heintz

July 1988

Princess Elizabeth married her Phillip in a much celebrated Royal Wedding, when I was just a child in 5th grade at Horace Mann School, Charleston , W.Va. My friend, Ann Morgan, and I put our little heads together and wrote the following poem:

THE ROYAL WEDDING

Over in London a wedding took place

Her gown was of satin and lots of lace

Her name is Elizabeth, she'll someday be Queen

With jewels and gems 'twas a sight to be seen.

Her carriage was glass, the horses were white

The church was decorated with candlelight.

Someone made a lovely big cake

It took many pans for this to bake.

She went to the altar with the King

And there she received a diamond ring.

Phillip was nice and handsome and tall.

She was the same but as cute as a doll.

The day was cloudy, about to rain

Friends were there and still others came

Buckingham Palace is where they will stay

Life will be pleasant we hope and we pray.

By Ann Morgan and Joyce Schurman

Click Here to View the Original Letter

Click Here to View the Queen's Response

TO MY CHILD

If I could grant you happiness

Bestow your lasting joy

And somehow give to you the gift of peace

And see your goals achieved without alloy.

I would bequest to you the ends you seek

And summon health and love to fill your days

I'd gladly give my life to make it so

Oh that I could—But it must come in other ways.

Joyce Heintz

July 1988