VALERIE WORTH POEMS ABOUT POCKET TREASURES

Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Sherry at Semicolon for Roundup.

I don't know about you, but I love pockets. I love tucking away treasures -- most often my own hands -- and always feel a little lost without pockets. Which is why today I am sharing Valerie Worth poems about things that one might slip into a pocket and savor there in the secret, dark depths. (For more Valerie, see the left sidebar for previous posts in this series.)

pocket

These things
Might go
Into the pocket:
Sea-stones,
A bright
Beetle,
Knitted circles
of Queen Anne's
Lace;

These things
Come out
Of the pocket:
Sand, splinters,
Scraps
Of paper creased
And soft
as an old
face.

- Valerie Worth

How's that for an unexpected ending? Love! And of course, my grandmother had The Softest Face. Oh, MISS HER, I do.

key

Mute mysterious
Token, burnished
Metal carved into
grooves and flanges;

Glinting with
Clues and codes,
Reflecting exactly the
Secret of its lock --

But never, until
All its clever
Little tongues click
Round and home,

Will it tell
What hides in the
Shadowy house, the
Silent expectant room.

- Valerie Worth

I love keys, probably most for the secrets they hold. What's in the cabinet, what's behind the door? And how clever is the key/lock design? How intimate. I love that, too.



pebbles

Pebbles belong to no one
Until you pick them up --
Then they are yours.

But which, of all the world's
mountains of little broken stones,
Will you choose to keep?

The smooth black, the white,
The rough gray with sparks
Shining it its cracks?

Somewhere the best pebble must
Lie hidden, meant for you
If you can find it.

- Valerie Worth

I love picking up nature items. I know we're supposed to leave nature be and all that, and for the most part, I do... but I do love the idea that there's a pebble meant just for me, if I can find it.


jewels

In words, in books,
Jewels blaze and stream
Out of the heaped chests
Or soft, spilled bags:
Diamonds, sharp stars,
Polished emerald tears,
Amethysts, rubies, opals
Spreading fire-surfaced pools,
Pearls falling down
in foam-ropes, sparks
Of topaz and sapphire strewn
Over a dark cave-floor-
How dim, then, the ring
Worn on the finger,
With one set stone.

- Valerie Worth

I rather like the "one set stone" myself... but then I have not witnessed a cave of jewels (except in the movies). So much beauty lies hidden and requires work (and patience!) to reveal... another theme I like. :)

coins

Coins are pleasant
To the hand:

Neat circles, smooth,
A little heavy.

They feel as if
They are worth something.

- Valerie Worth

I did some coin collecting in my youth.. still have my US state nickel cards, not quite filled. But coins around here usually wind up in the jelly jar where they accumulate and accumulate, until the jar is full and we start rolling them in bank papers to trade in for paper money. I am always a little startled by how much those little coins add up to.... worth something, indeed!


sweets

Here
Is a list
Of likely
Words
To taste:

Peppermint,
Cinnamon,
Strawberry,
Licorice
Lime:

Strange
How they manage
To flavor
The paper
Page.

- Valerie Worth

Some of my favorite candies: Sweet-tarts and Peppermint Patties (not so smart to tuck these in a pocket unless you don't mind scraping the smushy sweet off the paper wrapper with your teeth - which I don't mind at all!). Secret: I used to keep peppermint patty wrappers in an old wooden jewelry box. Sometimes I would lift the lid just to enjoy the remaining sweet smell... almost as good as actually eating the candy!

What's your favorite thing to stash in a pocket?