Poetry Winner 2014

I read my poetry as part of the award luncheon

     The Oklahoma Department of Human Services, Department of Aging, holds a conference each year on aging. As part of the conference, a poetry contest is held earlier in the year. Winners are honored at a luncheon Friday of the conference. This year, my poem "Tapestry" took 3rd place in the women's division. All the poetry entered, over 100 poems from all parts of Oklahoma, was published in a book and given out at the conference.

     For those who have asked to read my poem, here it is, a tribute to a marriage lasting over 52 years, and one that may end any time when one of us leaves the other as we vowed, "until death do us part."

Tapestry
by Vivian Zabel

As a sun peeking o're the horizon
spills streams and sparks of fire
into the tint of night sky,
love pours light into a dark life.

Bubbles of joy burst, erasing
the deep sorrow of loneliness,
leaving pools of calm, of peace
mingled with shards of broken storms.

A baby's cry, children's laughter,
sobs of despair create a mosaic
held together with blooms and thorns,
silky softness joined with ragged roughness.

Hand clasped in hand join two
whose hearts entwine with one beat,
lasting year after year together
through eternity, even after death.

Receiving my award