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tends to catch you by surprise,
like an old high school teacher,
math or English, the one you
made fun of because she lisped
while encouraging you in front of friends
after a failure. You hated the subject,
her class, the way the radiator
hissed incessantly all winter
in the drab room.
Back home years later,
you meet her on the street
and she smiles at you, happy
about your successes, glad
you’ve turned out all right,
her forgiveness making the trip
worthwhile.
From Faith to See and Other Poems (Finishing Line Press, 2007)
First published in The Penwood Review
Used with the author’s permission.
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Kathe L. Palka lives in Hunterdon County, New Jersey and writes in both Japanese forms and free verse. Her short tanka collection, As the Years Pass, won an eChapbook Award from Snapshot Press in 2011. In 2015, Red Moon Press published A Path of Desire, a book of tan renga written by Kathe and poet Peter Newton. Two poems from her long form collection, Miracle of the Wine (Grayson Books, 2012), were featured on The Writer’s Almanac. Kathe is a member of the Haiku Poets of the Garden State and has been involved in the presentation of haiku for their yearly April haiku sign installation at the New Jersey Botanical Garden in Ringwood, New Jersey since its inception in 2018. She has co-edited the online micro poetry journal tinywords.com together with Peter Newton since 2012. Kathe is currently at work on a manuscript in Japanese forms. Learn more about her at her Haiku Foundation web page.
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EstherJ:
Sweet!
Posted 04/09/2025 10:05 AM
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transitions:
Lovely...and true!
Posted 04/09/2015 10:40 AM
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msruff:
Beautifully put.
Posted 04/09/2015 09:52 AM
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Cindy:
like it!
Posted 04/09/2015 08:38 AM
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paradea:
I like this poem!!
Posted 04/09/2015 08:28 AM
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gigi:
Lovely poem, Kathe. So many of us have moments like these.
Posted 04/09/2015 07:39 AM
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KevinArnold:
Good lines:
You hated the subject,/
her class, the way the radiator/
hissed incessantly all winter/
in the drab room.
Posted 04/09/2015 12:43 AM
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