Poetry, Short Prose and Walking

The World In Lockdown

On beaches blocked and empty
Oceans still will drum.
Seagulls once searched on this shore
For bread crumbs. They can find no more.
The sun turns slowly bright
To fix the morning with daylight
Discharging darker dreams of night.
The gulls arise and soar.

Linked to dVerse Quadrille. De Jackson (aka WhimsyGizmo) is hosting with the word “fix”.

Linked to Cosmic Photo Challenge where Dale offers the theme of “The World In Lockdown”.

Also linked to Trent P. McDonald’s The Weekly Smile. I noticed this past week that the beaches are still closed, but the boardwalks are open. I do prefer walking on the boardwalks’ hard surfaces than on the soft sand, but the sand with bare feet washed by the waves is nice too. Things will change in ways I can’t imagine perhaps for the better and the thought of that makes me smile.

Wisdom

Like Solomon I’ll ask for Wisdom, too,
Since what I knew before as true is not -
Not true enough, that is, perhaps, not true
And that is what I know will never do.

Linked to dVerse Open Link Night. Mish is hosting.

I took all the photos in the summer of last year.

Garden Planting

Wizard fooled us with a magic trick
That sparkled brightness from Aurora’s eyes
That left the Trail of Tears with fresh surprise
All planted in our garden deep and thick.
The spell was nullified when Dazzling Blue
Affirmed his faithfulness to Tender True.

Linked to dVerse Poetics. Sarasouthwest offers a challenge to plant a garden with her favorite seeds. I picked Wizard, Aurora, Trail of Tears, Dazzling Blue and Tender and True.

My Summer Space

They didn’t have to hurry
Running through the glen.
Perhaps I didn’t see them,
Nor me, those forest men.

But if you didn't see them
go on, proclaim me mad.
A summer place, a happy face,
Cannot be all that bad.

I may as well be loony.
I’m isolated, too.
I smile and learn to whistle
These lock down summer blues.

Linked to the Cosmic Photo Challenge where Dale offers the theme of “my summer space”. My summer space would have plants and places to walk.

Linked also to Trent P. McDonald’s The Weekly Smile. I didn’t know what to write for a poem for Dale’s prompt and so I just let my mouth run (which is what I normally do). The result helped me keep smiling and hopefully it didn’t make others cringe too much.

Making a Difference

If asked to speak I don’t know what to say.
Words appear and then refuse to be.
Mumbling nonsense I can’t clearly see
How dots from here to there could find their way.
Even so those dots begin to play
And laugh as they enjoy confounding me
And jeer when I pretend some honesty,
But nonetheless I’ll risk these words and pray:

  Make a difference. Show us something new.
  Judge us with Your mercy.  May we ask
  For wisdom so we'll see the pointing sign?
  Lead us so that we may more align
  With what You know is now our better task
  And not what we might like to see come true.

Linked to dVerse Meeting the Bar. I am hosting today. The theme is to write a poem with fourteen lines. There’s no other constraint. I used a Petrarchan sonnet here, but no form is required. Come and join us with a poem of your own.

I heard earlier this week that the first Thursday in May is the National Day of Prayer in the United States. This has been happening on some day in the US since 1952. With our health and our economy at risk, I’m offering this sonnet as a prayer. Hopefully I am not offending the God who makes a difference with what I’ve said.

Solitude

In solitude I’m not alone.
Memories stay near.
Regrets have often held my mind.
Joy as well I also find.
Sweet turning made ways clear.

Linked to dVerse Poetics where Bjorn is hosting with the theme of “solitude”.

From an Unusual Angle

While looking here
Or searching there
Am I now near
Or now nowhere?

Alone and standing,
Silly breeze,
Trails and landings
Restful ease.

Autumn green
And yellow blooms,
Sunsets seen
From prairie rooms.

After searching did I find
All that's best I left behind?

Linked to dVerse Quadrille. Lillian is hosting with the word “silly”. Also linked to dVerse Meeting the Bar in the final hours of the prompt where I am hosting with the theme of fourteen lines.

I am also linking this post to the Cosmic Photo Challenge where Dale offers the theme of “from an unusual angle”. I took the top photo on a trail in Colorado Springs. I don’t know why I decided to take a view of the trail while kneeling. Perhaps I liked the railings. It now looks like an interesting angle. The bottom photo was of a prairie in Northbrook, Illinois. I pushed all of the potentially interesting detail to the top right portion of the picture, not how I would normally look at the scene when walking through the park.

I am also linking to Trent P. McDonald’s The Weekly Smile. Some friends decided to continue our monthly breakfast virtually on Zoom. I thought it was odd, but then I have heard of a couple recently who decided against postponing their wedding and instead do it virtually. So I guess it wasn’t all that odd after all. It made me smile to attend our virtual breakfast.

On Thursday at dVerse Meeting the Bar, I will be featuring poems with only one constraint that the poem have fourteen lines like the one posted here.

Fourteen Lines

We hope we built it on the solid stone.
Earth that would get dizzy makes things wave.
We used what we were given, staying brave,
Though walls might fall and we’re left all alone.
We did avoid the sandy, shifting shore
Licentiousness had offered in its hand.
We chose perhaps unjustly the well-planned
When legalism offered frowning chores.

Looking high we see dark skies above.
The morning brings us color from the sun.
We built our best, remained in spite of doubt
Talking from our hearts to only one,
Walking on the waters of his love,
Confidently breathing in and out.

Linked to dVerse Open Link Night where Kim, Writing in North Norfolk, is hosting.

I started focusing on poems with fourteen lines. Here is an attempt at a Petrarchan sonnet.

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Though not the sort of Gods that I
Would bother to believe in,
They raise their silence to the sky
Rejecting useless reasons why
Without pretending they can fly
Point edges up uneven.

From a distance they look small
And red against the range.
They shock me. What was once so tall
Stands dwarfed as nothing much at all.
What rose majestic seemed to fall
Where wind and rain bring change.

Mountain heights may help me see.
Foothills praise more modestly.

Liked to dVerse Poetics where Lillian is hosting with the theme of describing a place we can travel to in our minds during in this lockdown.

The top photo I took from within this beautiful and well-maintained park. I took the bottom photo at Palmer Park a few miles away. At the top of the photo just right, off-center, below the mountain range are these unusual rock formations called the Garden of the Gods.

In the distance is the Garden of the Gods below towering Pikes Peak

Food As Art

Pumpkin piles rising high
Pointing to the blue fall sky.
Going up perhaps a mile
Or just enough to make me smile.

Linked to Cosmic Photo Challenge where Dale offers the theme of “food as art”. I hope those pumpkins or squash taste as good as they look. They are from two different fall displays at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Also linked to Trent P. McDonald’s The Weekly Smile. One unexpected thing happened this past week. I realized I have now re-seen all of the Pink Panther movies including the not so great ones. There’s nothing left to watch. That made me realize that I will have to crawl out of my comfort zone, take a breath of fresh air, and find something else to risk watching. And that made me smile.