The First Time

I remember the first time you touched me.

my mind …

my heart …

my body …

my mind was like a landscape that you explored with deliberate, tender steps

seeking to behold another soul, waiting to know if I were the one or should you move on.

my heart was like a garden, on which you sowed seeds of your vulnerable, truthful self – transparent and transcendent

breaking open to let the slender, fragile shoots of your beautiful soul

blossom into a fiery, enduring love that rages beyond finite time and space.

my body was like a canvas lavished by the brush strokes of your deep desire

to know me – the vibrant colors and rich textures of sweet communion with your beloved.

All these touchings are now just memories I cherish

and longing for them to come alive again

in my dreams

in my striving

to keep you ever present

with me,

long after I finally decide to scatter your ashes over the ocean that once separated us, but now

has become an ever flowing reminder

that our love goes on and on …

– Carla A. Romarate-Knipel

7.19.23

(copyright 2023)

an ever flowing reminder that our love goes on and on…

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Carla Romarate-Knipel

Ever since I was a child, I enjoyed reading and writing. Perhaps it was because my parents were great storytellers and voracious readers. As soon as I learned to write (yes I did it in cursive like everybody else did then!) I started a diary. When I was nine years old I sent a letter to my Dad who was an overseas contract worker in Guam. I wrote it in a form of a comic book and illustrated it myself. As a student at the Central Philippine University Elementary School, I was the Filipino literary editor of our school paper, the Mini Echo. To this day I was baffled by that because I was not that good in Filipino! In highs school I served as literary editor in the Central High Herald. I began to write poems and short stories that unfortunately I don't have any copies saved because we didn't have computers and flash drives then. II joined a short story writing contest sponsored by Central echo, CPU's college paper some time in the 1980's. I joined because I needed money to buy a new pair of sandals. My short story was titled, "Leaves," and it won first place! The chief judge was Prof. Alfredo Q. Gonzales, author of the classic essay, "The Will of a River," one of my favorite reads of Filipino literature in English. I did a lot of writing in college/seminary and graduate school but the most fun I had was when I was writing poems and short stories. Fast forward to the 21st century, I now write sermons every week and articles for our monthly news letter. Currently I serve as Senior Pastor of Central Baptist Church of Woodbury in Woodbury, New Jersey, U.S.A. This is my twelfth year at CBC, where my husband and I served as co-interim pastors from 2010 through 2012. We have a 19-year old son who is a college freshman, and my technical adviser in all things digital. In this continuing writing adventure I am thankful to God for giving me the inspiration to write and the joy that goes with it. I hope that my poems, prayers and prose inspire joy in my readers.

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