Poetry: Learning to Read

During the pandemic of this year, I've been writing a poem each day and posting it to Facebook. Most of my poems are celebrations of natural beauty; a few are ethical/political commentaries with some bite.

You can see more poems by visiting my new Facebook page.

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Learning to Read

©2021 Rev. Ted Tollefson

My Father used to joke

that he had newsprint in his veins

and worked most of his life

to get out the news, write it,

and pay for it with advertising.

So when he taught me to read

it was often with a daily newspaper

and his instructive refrain:

"What's the head-line, Ted?

Always read the head-line first".

And it was true in his world of newsprint

that the head-line always came first

indicating the main point of what followed

so even now when a text or speaker meanders

I often search for the line that announces its purpose

and sometimes even blurt out:

"So what's your head-line?"

My Mother was a nurse

trained in the hospitals of Rochester

where healing was the only business that mattered

every day and every night.

She listened for what was left out

and followed the tone of voice,

a series of pauses, circling patterns of words

as she looked for the hidden text from the heart

the loom that kept writing between the words---

messages of old losses and half-forgotten wounds:

the burned dress kept in an attic,

the love-letter from someone unseen in 50 years

and maybe now living only in memory, hope or dream.

Is it any wonder that I read with both eyes and ears?

looking for the point,

asking questions if there seems not to be one

and following with the ears of the heart

the wordless music of a sigh or pause

or a glance that scans for someone unseen?

On a good day, I follow both life-lines

and sing praises of both ways of reading

and the invisible threads that weave them

into a single garment for body, heart & mind.