January 2018 – Poetry, Short Prose and Walking

One-Liner Wednesday

How many deep thoughts do you want?

Linked to Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday.

Grounding

Belief shows me what I would see
With mirrors everywhere.
Dark branches of the leafless trees
Shiver in the winter’s breeze
As I do standing there.

Text: Linked to dVerse Poetics. Bjorn is hosting with the theme of mirrors.

Photos: “Grounding”, above, and “Lake Michigan from Gillson Park”, below.

Mythological Jellyfish

Five hundred million years ago
The jellyfish poem began.
It is sung in the sea. It’s sung on the land.
To sing it again is the plan.

The winds blow the waves.
The waves move along.
The myth is resung
Like an wonderful song.

Text: Linked to dVerse Quadrille Monday where Victoria C. Slotto is hosting with the word “poem”.

Photos: “Windblown Jellyfish”, above, and “Found on the Beach”, below, linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with the theme “Mythological”.

Air and Land Show

Pigeons stick together waving through the sky.
Seagulls wander off alone aiming their dreams high.
Plovers busy with the shore flitter now and then.
Terns wait by serenely. The Sun will rise again.

Text: Linked to dVerse Open Link Night where Grace is hosting. I am also linking, as gratitude to the Sun for rising, to Debbie Roth’s Forgiving Fridays.
Photos: “Bright Sun”, above, and “Birds Around Me”, below.

One-Liner Wednesday — Not Deep Enough

My last deep thought fixed me up real good.

Linked to Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday.

Writing on the Trolley

I found a new brand of pen in the drugstore and I’m on a trolley which distorts my handwriting although when it stops it is easier to write.

I don’t know what the next words will be or whether I will like any of this when I redo it later. I am grateful that some words come.

It occurred to me recently that we don’t–can’t–have complete explanations for anything including why I’m on this trolley and I am grateful for that as well.

MOVING PAST EACH STREET
WINTER HERE IS COOL AND WARM
PLOVERS EVER PLAY

Text: Linked to dVerse Haibun Monday. Kim Russell is hosting with the theme of handwriting.

Photo: “Writing on the Trolley”

News: I permitted Carly Stambaugh to use my poems as part of the data for her artificial intelligence project last October. She published her results last Friday. Three other poets were involved.

At the End of the Day

Evenings keep on coming.
Mornings happen, too.
In between I’ve breaths to breathe.
It’s all I need to do.

Photos: “Sunset and Clouds”, above, and “Evening”, below, linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

Hope

If hope should have small penguin wings,
We’d doubt how well it flies.
We want perspective on what’s true
To filter out the lies.

Alternatively, we may feel
It’s wings are fit to soar.
No matter what we think we know
We’ll trust that it knows more.

That’s why we let the present be.
Hope may fly through gray,
But when we know we’re good and lost
We hope and find some way.

Text: Linked to dVerse Meeting the Bar. Jill Lyman is hosting asking for a response poem. This poem is a response to Emily Dickinson’s “Hope is the thing with feathers”.

Photo: “This bird knows I’m watching it”, above, and “I don’t blame this bird for flying off”, below.

One-Liner Wednesday — Wave Meets Footstep

In the time it takes to deeply breathe the waves forgive and wipe my footsteps clean.

Linked to Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday and Debbie Roth’s Forgiving Fridays.

Earth, Fire, Air, Water

Waves today calmly bounce
Then crawl toward waiting shore.
The air is warm enough for me.
That’s what the sun is for.
Reality is ever near.
It’s patient, does not hide.
I take it all for granted, true,
Still it waits by my side.

Text: Linked to dVerse Quadrille hosted by De Jackson (aka WhimsyGizmo) with theme word “bounce”.

Photo: “Morning Sun”, above, “Earth, Fire, Air, Water”, below, linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with theme “earth, fire, air and water”.