Photography – Page 146 – Poetry, Short Prose and Walking

Cloudiness

Circling rain from hurricane
Leaks through the wrecked roof.
Only hope can drain:
Up comes wavy proof
Drowning the dry place
In torrential waste.
Nightmares blocking bliss
End with fear and pain.
Sink with thoughts of only this.
Sink in wet of wider rain.

Linked to dVerse Quadrille Monday hosted by Bjorn using the word “bliss”. I am thinking of Hurricane Harvey. The poem also represents the “acrostic” form which I plan to use for this Thursday’s dVerse form prompt.
Photo: “Cloudiness” by the author linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with theme “A Cloudy Configuration”.

Love

Life finds milder melodies.
Only laughter sings.
Virtue wipes away decay.
Even frowns grow wings.

Linked to dVerse Open Link Night. Gayle is hosting.
Photo: “Unusual Flower” by the author taken at the Chicago Botanic Garden and linked to Floral Friday Fotos.

Announcement I won second place in Story Seed Vault’s “Bees” flash fiction contest. I am grateful to the judges for selecting my 140-character micro fiction story.

Announcement I am a new board member of the Illinois State Poetry Society. Blogging provides inspiration and contact with other poets. Local organizations provide something similar on a more personal level.

Pink?

Would you say the color’s pink?
It’s bordering on red.
It’s bordering on darker green.
A brighter green is also seen
Within this flower bed.

Perhaps it’s purple like the eyes
Of dragons when they stare
As border guards for gold held tight
So yellow rarely sees the light
Deep in their dark blue lair.

Linked to dVerse Poetics where Grace is hosting on the theme “borders”.
Photo: “Is There Any Pink In This Photo?” by the author taken at the Chicago Botanic Garden and linked to jasenphoto’s Tuesday Photo Challenge with the theme “pink”.

Living in the Light

At the Chicago Air and Water Show we watch antique planes from World War I go straight up into the air and turn down dizzy across Lake Michigan looping and looping. Then we watch more advanced planes go even higher into the air and turn down looping, pretending to run into each other. They were from World War II. Finally we see planes that could float above the water like a UFO. They move even faster. They were from World War III.

Along the lake we watch seagulls rest one per piling in the water, well-behaved, living in the light, indifferent to the air show, keeping their distances and yet clearly together. Back home I notice that my neighbor’s flower bed is still colorful, but showing its age in the light of summer joy.

PETALS DROP WITH AGE
AUGUST AIR WARMS SEAGULL PEACE
EVEN WE CAN FLY

Linked to dVerse Haibun Monday hosted by Toni with the topic, “What did we you do on your summer vacation?”
Photos: “Lines and Waves” above and “A Neighbor’s Garden” below by the author both linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with the themes “Living in the Light” or “Rain”.

Wheel of Fortune

Change is what will never change.
There’s some new change tomorrow.
Let street and alley rearrange
As joy takes turns with sorrow.

There is no randomness to see.
There’s nothing that was forced to be.
The choosers chose and choice arose.
The dancer ever on fresh toes
Spins on with Love eternally.

Photo: “Courthouse Viewed from an Alley” by the author linked to Tuesday Photo Challenge — Alley.

My Heart Stays With My Dreams

At times I cannot find my dreams
Or fear what they might be:
Hidden habits I don’t want
With burdens blinding me?

With them my heart stays anyway.
My mind’s not far behind
Though searching for some better dreams
If better I might find.

Linked to dVerse Quadrille hosted by De Jackson here, aka WhimsyGizmo, with prompt word “dream”.
Photos: “My Heart is Where My Dreams Are” above and “Other Heart-Dream Locations” below by the author linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with theme “where is your heart?” The first photo is also my answer to Jane Dougherty’s challenge to show the surroundings where we write.

Lady, Green and Red

Lady loved the plants’ light green
With flowers brightly red.
Her face angelically serene
Had leaves to shade her head.

Linked to dVerse Open Link Night hosted by Grace.
Linked to Jilly’s Casting Bricks August Challenge as the first part of a cooperative poem for whomever might wish to continue it.
Photo: “Lady, Green and Red” by the author and linked to Floral Friday Fotos.

The End — Collaboration Jeren/Frank

This is a collaborative poem using the form “Interlocking Rubáiyát”. The first eight lines, in red, Jeren Nazuto wrote as part of Jilly’s August Casting Bricks Challenge. I added the last eight lines and decided to also link this to dVerse Poetics hosted by Lillian since my half contains the word “shade”.

The world, burning around me
All the lands and the sea
I weep in streams and rivers
Over the fallen world tree

From the sins, the fire delivers
The earth’s misguided caregivers
And all the pain and suffering
Fueling my body shivers

All this pain I’m here to bring,
My offering, this mindful thing
Obscured by all the shade we’ve made
As cloaks of shadows wrap us, cling.

Who knows where we can turn for aid?
Tomorrow may these fires fade.
May heat with flames and misery
Leave fresh, cool waters where we’ll wade.

Photo: “Red in Yellow” by the author and linked to jansenphoto’s Tuesday Photo Challenge with the theme “Golden”.

Birds

Birds line up near the water’s edge to watch the sunrise on the beach. So do a few people although not in such nice lines. Workers collect garbage from trash containers. Others drive tractors smoothing the sand roughed from yesterday’s play. Unintentionally they make raked Japanese Zen gardens, but without the stones. They are so perfect they need delicate footsteps. So much order also wants to be beautiful.

BIRDS OBSERVE THE SUN
ROUGH WAVES SOOTH THE WINTER SHORE
WALK THROUGH FRESH RAKED SAND

Linked to dVerse Haibun Monday. Victoria C. Slotto is hosting with the theme Wabi-Sabi, the art of imperfection.
Photos: “Sunrise Watching” above and the collage “Bird Tracks on the Beach” below both by the author. These are linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with the theme “Birds and Bees”.
Come join us with your photos and haibun!