Georgiann Baldino is a novelist and business writer. Recently she has added
a career in graphic arts. She lives with her husband near Chicago, Illinois.
In October 2000 she published her first novel, The Prodigy, in multimedia
format. Available
at amazon.com, the CD has twelve classical music files imbedded in the text.
Beginnings
marks on a page
confused and often
erased . . . striving
to come of age
marks forming letters
at first gone astray,
then combined into words,
which some day may matter
marks in rhythm or rhyme
made with hope that craft
will steadily improve
and mature in time
marks, impatient and yet
willing to wait
till thought and emotion
come into being.
Sisters
Jangling phone
ungodly hour.
The familiar voice
now foreign and pale.
Atonal harmony, fractured
meaning and muffled cries.
The comfort I offered
didn't cover her pain.
She talked for hours,
I listened best I could.
To anyone else,
a lopsided exchange.
To me, not so. To me
a promise that when
sorrow came my way,
she'd be there and listen to me.
Patron
I confess.
I never say
the words you
need to hear.
I stammer
poor excuses.
My thoughts
stumble and fall.
Grammar and syntax
don't fit my dreams.
Outside my head
I have little to offer.
But below the level of talk
hides a prize,
the kind of reward
only a patron can share.