ILL WINDS BLEW: Nature's Beauty Didn't Save Me

started writing poetry
when life seemed
to call for poetry writing

many zoeypoems
about dog love
and devastating loss
(then Zoey's book:
Unbearable Loss:
The Traumatic Death
of My Soulmate Dog Zoey

starting with loss
reaching an endpoint
with the last deep griefs
in my life
my second beloved dog Jena
Mom, then Dad
gone

and so, in 2012
the next-to-last last poem
A Black Horse Comes
13 days after my dad's death
then silence on paper
a new word-quiet
oddly yoked
to relentless images, emotions, voices
I carry daily
and dream nightly
but do not write

until June 27, 2013
when I was felled
deeply
by the death of NOVA
extraordinarily loved
and powerfully bonded
cat companion of 18 years