G. Louis Heath Verse-Virtual 2016 October

October 2016

I am a native Californian, a Berkeley Ph.D., who is Professor Emeritus, Ashford University. That basically means that my campus closed and I had to retire at age 71 in May, 2016, after 47 years in higher education. Please excuse the clinging initial G. (for Gary) Louis Heath but I thought it was cool in 1969 when I first published! My books include Mutiny Does Not Happen Lightly, Long Dark River Casino, and Vandals in The Bomb Factory. I love to read my poems at the Midwest Writing Center in Davenport, Iowa and at other open mic events. I serve on the Human Rights Commission of my city, Clinton, Iowa. I love to hike along the Mississippi River where I can sit down, weather permitting, and work on a poem that I have stuffed in my back pocket.

Infinite Bodies

The galaxies are mired in the stellar truth
that immortality, aka infinity, requires new

bodies. They need not necessarily be the
product of a ginormous collision or a spin-

off from a star. New bodies like that are
beyond our Earthly ken. (Just ask my wife.)

Infinity here requires only a soft whisper, a
coy glance, a caring caress that galvanizes

the soul into orbit. Immortality soon follows
as new bodies orbit the confines of their cribs

and wreak havoc on playgrounds far and wide.

Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the author (email address above) to tell him or her. You might say what it is about the poem that moves you. Writing to the author is the beginning of community at Verse Virtual. It is very important. -FF