Poetry – Page 51 – Poetry, Short Prose and Walking

Walking Home

 
Warm it was, your mother’s hand.
She waited at the school bus stand.
You won’t believe how young she was
When dreams caressed your cheek unplanned.

Linked to dVerse Poetry Forms. I am hosting at dVerse with the ruba’i or rubaiyat form.

Harbinger

 
Some signs predicted mountains soon would crash
And we would, too, like stones dropped in the deep
Where doubt takes over truth in dreamy sleep
And counting doesn’t compensate lost cash.
Those signs suggested treasured stores held trash
Since death consumes what excess we might keep.
But who needs more?  The miser, too, will weep
When life moves on for both the wise and rash.

By what we take for granted we are led
And what we give makes rich the giving hand.
The blessings she proclaimed link me to you.
I don’t remember much of what she said.
Her words I doubt I'd ever understand.
Her voice though sounded kind. May it come true.

Linked to dVerse Poetics. Sarah is hosting the the theme of harbinger.

Sharpest, Deepest Sleep

 
Beneath soft covers steeped in dreams
Sleep reveals golden schemes
Left from sharper, warmer day
When calmer night with moonlight beams.

Oceans deepen. High waves spray.
Bounce the ball as children play.
Nothing need be as it seems.
No one turns their own away.

Linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with theme “sharpest image”. Also linked to dVerse Quadrille. Mish is hosting with the word “steep”.

Linked to dVerse Poetry Forms – the Rubaiyat. I like short tetrameter lines and how the AABA rhyme scheme allows the quatrains to be interconnected based on sound.

Deep Shadow

 
It took its chilly time to shed its light
And turn blood-red in darker, deeper night.
I finally realized its end had come,
But trusted once again it would shine bright.

Linked to dVerse Poetics where Lillian is hosting with the theme word “shed”. The photo above is the Moon in dark shadow through my phone when I went to bed. It looked more amazing in real life.

In a Blur

 
I’d rather flow in given grace
Than try to race or go away.
If things get blurry, I don’t care.
Come, take me where you will today.

Linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with the theme “in a blur”. By focusing on the foreground that I normally don’t pay attention to, I blurred the background that I do,

Coin Laundry

 
If I could only wash my age-soaked heart
The way I do these clothes in this machine
And trust in thirty minutes it’d be clean.
I’d likely try it once or twice to start.
What soap would do the best to tear apart
What’s good from what has grown with time too mean?
I’d make it cleaner than I yet have seen
And wash it everyday - if I were smart.

These quarters are too little I confess.
For payment ancient angels might want more
Since no one gives forgiveness out for free,
But then came dreams of lucid mystery.
They weren't what I thought I was looking for
Yet I felt clean enough to let them bless.

Linked to dVerse Meeting the Bar where Jilly is hosting and the form is the sonnet with enjambment. I hope there are some lines above that represent enjambment.

Personal

 
The present doesn’t go with last night’s dream.
My future rolls her eyes. Those older books
Stare at me with their hostile, angry looks
Suggesting that I’d not know what they mean.

My dragons are far kinder than they seem.
We drink fresh water from the ancient brooks.
We catch our fish with only magic hooks
And what we eat becomes our sacred theme.

It’s not that I have nothing to confess.
It’s only what I’ve done is far too small
To bother you with details should I sin.
I’m sure the bed you’ve made looks like a mess.
I’m sure you also felt that you would fall,
But here we are. And look! The morning’s in.

Linked to dVerse Poetics where Anmol is hosting with the art of confession.

The Spirit of Rain

 
The Sun is raining down on me
To warm the watery mystery
That also sometimes likes to fall
To change from clouds pressed over all.
Formerly that greedy cloud
Darkened, thundering out-loud -
What lovely gifts we freely get.
Some come dry. Some are wet.

Linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with the theme “the spirit of rain” and to dVerse Quadrille where
De Jackson, aka WhimsyGizmo, is hosting with the theme word “change”.

Bookcases

 
The bookcases of one-by-six planed pine
All screwed to dark but open basement beams
Are how I feel the language of my dreams
Twist hidden deep within each antique line.

I rarely read these books and none are fine
And no one wants them anymore it seems.
Like waters from some minds' now frozen streams
They'd flow for someone’s eyes, perhaps for mine.

Sometimes when lost I find a letter there
Recalling handwriting from someone dear
Suggesting paths forsaken in the past.
The words she wrote were reasoned well with care.
The details I forgot are once more clear.
The present waits then leads me home at last.

Linked to dVerse Poetics where Lillian is hosting with the theme of writing about something in your home that speaks to you and to last weeks’ Meeting the Bar with the sonnet theme.

This January I hoped to see a tiny crescent Moon in the morning just before sunrise. I think such a Moon is upside down, but maybe it is right-side up as well. Regardless, the mornings this January when the opportunity arose were cloudy. The expected sliver of Moon did not appear.

While waiting to see if the clouds would clear I recalled an old couple. Toward the end of their lives they behaved like teenagers in love. They held each other close even in public. They smiled warmly at each other. They seemed upside down to some of us although we all wished we would have their right-side up love when we were their ages.

For many of us clouds get in the way modestly blocking reality. I’ve learned this January that all that is perhaps the way it is supposed to be. Clouds in morning sunlight also put on beautiful shows. Besides, it is easy to forgive all that cloudiness when I realize they also wanted a happy ending.

 
THERE'S VENUS, CLOUDS, AND
JUPITER. IT’S WINTER, BUT
OCEAN WAVES ARE WARM.

Linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with the theme “upside-down” and to dVerse Haibun Monday where Kim is hosting with the theme of January. And to Debbie Roth’s Forgiving Fridays.