Photography – Page 141 – Poetry, Short Prose and Walking

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.

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”.

Royal Terns, the Moon and the Sunrise

Terns wonder what I’m looking at
As I return their stare.
They do not move. They’re in some groove.
I love their goofy hair.

Venus shines but in the Sun.
Mars and Jupiter
Play with the Moon, that crescent Lune,
While wakened seagulls stir.

Waves keep up their wavy stuff.
They lick sand smooth near me.
The patient Sun begins its run
With birds and Moon and sea.

Text: Linked to dVerse Open Link Night hosted by Grace.

Photos: “Royal Terns”, above, and “Birds, Sun and Sea”, below.

One-Liner — Flight

Forgiveness opens up the sky to find the way back home.

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

Winter Moon

The Moon lets me stare at it unlike the Sun. I need a cooler face that doesn’t burn my eyes. I know little about the Moon, but that doesn’t matter.

I pass two cats along the boardwalk. They don’t mind me looking at them either and I know as little about them as I do about the Moon.

STRAY CATS ON THE PATH
WINTER–DOES IT BOTHER THEM
STORMS ARE COMING IN

Text: Linked to dVerse Haibun Monday hosted by Victoria C. Slotto with the theme “winter moon”.

Photos: “Winter Storm”, the panoramic view above, and below, “A Different View of Winter” by the author and linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with the theme Winter.

Family Trees

One fall when leaves were gone the clearings came. Those worth the haul were taken, but the rest would have to carry on. As if a flame had come to burn this forest’s ancient best, the parent trees, the wisdom they possessed, the ground turned bare as youthful family trees preserved their hold on Earth tenaciously.

Linked to dVerse Meeting the Bar with Bjorn hosting on the theme of silence. I formatted the Chaucerian stanza as prose to highlight where I would expect a reader to enjoy the silence. I use line breaks to mark the completion of metrical patterns not to indicate silence although sometimes I run out of breath and need to pause before I carry on.

Photo: “Thinning” by the author.

Righteousness and Grace

It takes no time at all to choose
But more to justify
The choice I made so I won’t lose–
Lose what, to whom and why?

I build a wall of righteousness
That only grace can smash
And let forgiveness air the mess.
Rejoice. Enjoy the crash.

Text: Linked to dVerse Poetics. Paul is hosting with the theme “grace”. I am also linking this with Debbie Roth’s Forgiving Fridays.

Photo: “Bottle in the Light” by the author. I am linking this to Trablogger’s Mundane Monday with the theme of “bottles”. I am also linking it to Frank Jansen’s Tuesday Photo Challenge with the theme “recycle” which is what I should do with this bottle since I no longer use it. Perhaps the idea of the light of grace shining through the bottle might link the photo to the poem?