When our cat died, we wept. We looked at each other differently, with more patience and not taking the other for granted, for about a week feeling her presence in her absence.
Eventually laughter returned. Whatever we learned, and will have to learn again with the next dying we face, laughter was no disrespect for her passing. The return of laughter was her gift of gratitude to us.
Linked to dVerse Poetics where Lillian is hosting. I look at this as a prose poem or aphorism.
When I can’t get off my butt, there’s nothing like a kick to do the trick.
I’m beginning to value pain. To reinforce that value I think of it as the whispering of angels calling me to pay attention. Of course, I could just as well think of it as a kick in the butt, but this is supposed to be a poem, and there is more to reality than meets the eye.
This is also supposed to be about spring, but all I hear about is winter. So. More snow? Or is it time for winter to get off its butt and go?
PAST WINTRY PAIN
COMES SPRING-BOLD RAIN
WE START AGAIN
Linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge and to dVerse Haibun Monday. Merril is hosting with the theme of March Madness.
Tame the Dragon tossed by Moon and Sun.
Flames of falsehood torch dried truth to ash.
Defend us from ourselves until you've won.
Stop the raging waves before we crash.
Flames of falsehood torch dried truth to ash.
Keep your soul prepared like a sharp sword.
Stop the raging waves before we crash.
Beware what glitters in the Dragon’s hoard.
Keep your soul prepared like a sharp sword.
Others braver than you fought but lost.
Beware what glitters in the Dragon’s hoard.
Gather only pain as worth the cost.
Others braver than you fought but lost.
Defend us from ourselves until you've won.
Gather only pain as worth the cost.
Tame the Dragon tossed by Moon and Sun.
Linked to dVerse Poetic Forms. Gina is hosting this month with the pantoum. The idea for this poem comes from M. Scott Peck’s Further Along the Road Less Traveled where he discusses “The Myth of the Hero”. Here is a quote from page 111-2:
The integration of our masculinity and our femininity is achieved very painfully. It is the struggle that the child goes through in the myth in the course of his or her growing up. But if we can go through this struggle of integration and learn how to approach the same problem with both our right brain and our left brain simultaneously, with both our masculinity and our femininity, then we too can be heroes. We too will be able to solve problems that the world has not yet been able to solve – a world that is desperately in need of heroes and solutions.
Although it’s faster to forget
And bury passing pain,
There’s much in blame that I regret.
The storm outside’s not over yet.
May clouds transform with rain.
I am hosting today at dVerse with the theme of blame and forgiveness, either or both, any form or no form, confessional or not. Come join us!
This is also linked to Debbie Roth’s Forgiving Fridays.
I meet a crowded, free-board bus
Fantasizing all of us
As travelers taken by the hand
Unaware of where we’ll land.
Does no death bring me to my knees
Except my own? Delusion sees,
Sipping clouds that wander by,
Wonder neither how nor why.
Linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with theme “Moving clouds, a heavenly perspective”. Also linked to dVerse Quadrille where Mish is hosting with the keyword “sip”.
A painting by Doris Myers
Memories are the remnants of Grandma's Parlor, shining through like a full moon on a fall night A settee with horse hair batting, upright piano, marble top stand, cane chairs, lace curtains and area rug Parlor protected, saved only for Sundays
Poem and artwork by Doris B. Myers. Linked to dVerse Open Link Night.
Detail of a painting by Doris Myers
Many leaves turn out to be like the others on the tree and make it beautiful to see.
Linked to Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday.
Diablo, you old God of War,
How we quake when you want more.
Militantly ignorant,
Losing all you’re looking for.
Linked to dVerse Poetics where SarahSouthWest is hosting with the theme to use three names of video games from a list somehow in a poem. I picked Diablo, God of War and Quake although I haven’t played any of them. The “militantly ignorant” comes from M. Scott Peck’s description of evil in Further Along the Road Less Traveled, which I found in a used collection of books a few days ago.
Not the branch nor the tree
Dancing leaves majestically
Do their small but useful part
To green the ground with mystery.
The wind may kiss us on the fly.
We catch caresses from the sky.
Sublimely structural - stay low
To aim our treasures high.
Linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with the theme “sublimely structural”. Also linked to dVerse Quadrille where
De Jackson (aka WhimsyGizmo) is hosting with the word “kiss”.
We had few toys. The mud pies that we made
We’d sell for mud-pie cash or try to trade
For treasures that would fortify wild dreams
That didn’t need much more than that we played.
Linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge where the theme is “toys”. The The photo below is a hiking trail through a golf course which may be a kind of toy. I don’t golf, but I do walk this trail. The featured photo are the eyes of a beautiful troll we bought many years ago made by 5 Arts Studio in Cosby, TN.
I am also linking to dVerse Poetry Forms where I am hosting during February on the ruba’i quatrain form.
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 