Carol Robbins Hull, 2007 Poetry Readings

Miss White's Heart

We learned to write fat red pencils,

write ABC's in wobbly manuscript,

read stories of Dick and Jane and Spot,

count by tens, add, and subtract.

Miss white also taught us

to weave heart baskets

guiding our little fingers

again and again

to go around and through

not over and under

turning ordinary paper into treasures.

Now over half a century later

And as my fingers guide paper strips

around and through

I marvel at her patience

and remember her loving heart.

Carol Robbins Hull, 2007

The Opposite of Love

In preparing for tests

we were reminded

that antonyms were oposites,

hot/cold, high/low, love/hate,

Always the questioner, I asked

"How hot? How cold?"

Was hate really the opposite of love?

The teacher replied "Life has its lessons."

The love I thought would last

longer than forever eroded

bit by bit with every hurtful deed.

then came his crushing final words

that left my heart hollow,

yet heavy as a stone.

The place that had been my heart

like a black hold devoured itself

leaving in its place not hate

but nothingness, an emptiness

that seemed not the absence,

but the opposite of love,

"I just don't love you anymore."

Carol Robbins Hull