only yes can turn the tide

Because hate is legislated… written into the
primer and testament
shot into our blood and brain like vaccine or vitamins

Because our day of time, of hours~ and the clock-hand turns,
closes the circle upon us; and black timeless night
sucks us in like quicksand, receives us totally~
Without a raincheck or parachute, a key to heaven or the last long look

I need love more than ever now… I need your love,
I need love more than hope or money, wisdom or a drink

Because slow negative death withers the world and only yes
can turn the tide.

Because love has your face and body… and your hands are tender
and your mouth is sweet! and god made no other eyes like yours.

~Walter Benton

This morning, while looking for something beautiful, I found a web page dedicated to my favorite poet.

Whenever I read his work, I am reminded that I have been greatly influenced by his writing.

I had one book, “This Is My Beloved,”  as a teenager, and I read it often. When I lost the book in a move, his writing became but a fleeting memory. Hail to the interwebs! Because I found it on Amazon, and received a copy from my dear friend a few Christmases ago.

I love to share his work with you, because some of you who have hung on the words of my poetry (back when I was writing a lot) will see what a style thief I became. My only grace being that I didn’t know I was doing it until years after I had written a great lot of my prose.