The Poetry of Tere Starr
President, Miami Poets chapter, Florida State Poets Association
To Touch
"Touch me, remind me who I am." ...Stanley Kunitz
There’s alchemy in touch,
in soul reaching soul.
With a word or a smile,
we whirl with the stars.
Like the moon, we’re led
by an orbit of dreams
where we touch,
create connection.
There’s power
in skin touching skin.
Only such touch can transform.
With a universe in hands, in minds,
we’re riding on the straits of time
with hopes that love
will pierce our hearts
as fingertips and anxious lips
caress the body electric.
Step into my metaphor.
Surround my soul and
hold me through the night.
Explore the magic in our touch.
Remembrance comes,
then light.
*Step into My Metaphor, An Anthology of South Florida Poets,
2003.
The Same Heart
Beats
"the same heart come again
once more expecting nothing
caught by what was never there" ...W. S. Merwin
The same heart beats.
It comes again,
swinging on silver pendulum,
riding between hope and desire.
Thoughts of perfect love curl
in small worlds around my soul,
leaving me lonely,
longing to be whole.
The same heart beats.
The same words are spoken.
They capture and hold me
though the same truth is real.
The face I see before me
is only my ideal.
You are hiding behind the mask
I’ve placed right over your heart.
When you reveal yourself to me,
my vision falls apart.
I dismiss you then, and it’s so sad
because I never knew you.
The same heart beats
through winter and spring.
Too late to love? I wonder.
“How you’ve changed,” I say,
yet you haven’t changed at all.
Now summer’s gone
with final changes,
shedding leaves of fall.
*Bohemian Corner II, Pegaso Ediciones, Argentina, 2001.
Cosmic Light
The light is in the words,
winding through S,
hidden in the curve of U,
diverted by straight line of L,
too sharp to heal.
Light needs the circle of soul.
We spend lifetimes climbing,
walking through mist,
sometimes falling, and yet
we step with trust
from the pinnacle.
Masks removed,
we glow.
Meaning is found
in cosmic light,
a message
scattered in words,
our truths in letters
falling like stardust
remembered.
*Step into My Metaphor, An Anthology of South Florida Poets,
2003.
Tere Starr
"Meaning is found in cosmic light"
TERE is a poet and writer residing in Miami FL, where she currently serves as
President of the Miami Poets chapter of FSPA. Her poetry has been published in The Cove Rincón International Journal
and in the anthologies, Bohemian Corner II (2001) and Step into My Metaphor, An Anthology of South Florida Poets
(2003), to which she contributed the title poem. Besides poetry, Tere has completed a young adult novel, In Search of the
Golden Toads, and two one-act plays, Rituals and The Tree of Hearts. Her first full-length poetry manuscript,
Wings of Stone, awaits publication.