Reality is all around
To give us things to see
That keep us centered on the ground
While hinting mystery.
Photos: “The Beauty of Wood”, above, and “Wood, Metal, Glass”, below, linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with the theme “the beauty of wood, the gleam of metal, the reflection of glass”.
Understanding opens the heart so it can accept more.
Linked to Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday.
I brew coffee in a French press and pour it into a blender. With a tablespoon I take a large amount of coconut oil and place it in the hot coffee. The heat slides it off the spoon. I often stop there, but one can always carry things beyond.
The full recipe which I am writing down for the first time right now goes further. I add a tablespoon of butter or some cream, but not always, and then spices because if I don’t eat them they will stay on the shelf: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, black pepper, turmeric and pink salt.
I blend these ingredients for a few breaths and pour it into a mug. I wonder if it is still coffee? It doesn’t taste like a colada or Cuban espresso which wakes me up, since I drink it alone, on those dawn walks when I wait for the sunrise with the birds. It might even be a kind of soup, but the buzz of clarity that aligns my awareness to reality tells me it doesn’t matter.
MOST LEAVES HAVE LONG GONE
BERRIES PROUDLY ON DISPLAY
HOME FOR TINY BIRDS
Text: Linked to dVerse Poetics. Paul is hosting with the theme of poems about drinking.
Photos: “Berries”, above, “Winter Vegetation”, below.
Saturday afternoon the snow started slowly. Being warm the flakes became thick. I started my walk catching some of it, missing most of it. I am not aware enough to be aware of everything. I must leave some for the saint’s creative contemplation or the monk’s mindful meditation.
The snow came down thicker and more beautifully as I walked back through sparkling white. I did not expect so late in my grey year to have so many blessings as if my impatience and despair had been forgiven.
GREY SKY WITH WHITE OWL
WAITING IN THE SNOW-FILLED TREE
LOOK–HE FLIES AWAY
Text: Linked to dVerse Haibun Monday. Björn is hosting with the theme “grey”. I am also linking to Debbie Roth’s Forgiving Fridays.
Photos: “Snow on Bush”, above, and “Snow on Branch”, below.
Snow wraps white.
Sky beams blue.
Winter’s night–
Calmly true.
Text: Linked to dVerse Meeting the Bar. I will be hosting and the theme is brevity with poems five lines or less. There are no other constraints. The pub opens at 3:00 PM EST.
Photos: “Sidewalk and Freshly Plowed Snow”, above, and “Winter Sunset”, below, linked to Frank Jansen’s Tuesday Photo Challenge with the theme “in my life”.
There’s nothing like stress to freak me out.
Linked to Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday.
If I murmur, talk or sing
Guard the magic with this ring.
Hold the thought and come what may
Let the sacred children play.
Understand but don’t read through.
Spirit will enlighten you.
Then forgive and what we’ve done
May be forgiven. Life’s begun.
Text: Linked to dVerse Quadrille hosted by De Jackson (aka WhimsyGizmo) with the word “murmur”. Because of the lines about forgiveness I am linking this to Debbie Roth’s Forgiving Fridays. I don’t know what this poem means. It just murmured its way here.
Photos: “Icicles in the Sun”, above, and “More Icicles”, below, taken at noon on this relatively warm winter’s day.
Winter locks the door on Spring
Frigid in the sack.
There’s snow and trees without their leaves.
Clean white suggests a lack
Unless it’s looking back.
Text: I am trying a variation of Japanese tanka that William N. Porter used to translate the The Hyakunin-isshu in 1909. He used five iambic lines of 8-6-8-6-6 syllables with an end-rhyme on the shorter lines. There should be a pivot of the meaning at the third line separating and then reconnecting the top and bottom two lines.
Photos: “Snow Capped”, above, “Love of Winter”, below, linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with the theme “the look of love”.
I hold you with an aging hand.
Winter let go fall.
Even sparrows understand.
It takes no time at all.
Eyes and hands recall.
Text: Linked to dVerse Open Link Night. Kim is hosting. I am aiming for brevity in this poem. In particular I want to use no more than five lines. I hope to present brevity as a challenge for next week’s Meeting the Bar.
Photos: “Snow and Shadow”, above, “Blooming Together”, below.
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 