Poetry, Short Prose and Walking

Color

Happiness will help one glow.
Happiness may not come though
One does what one thinks one should do
As colors blend with others new
Cycling through the ever same
Rebuked, reformed then round again.
Winter’s whiteness stays a while
Awaiting one more happy smile.

Linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge. This week the theme is ‘Color My World’.

Also linked to dVerse Quadrille. Lillian is hosting with the word “glow”.

It is also linked to Trent P. McDonald’s The Weekly Smile. This past week the answers to a couple of questions on Quora suddenly made sense to me. There is nothing like understanding something (finally) to make me smile.

Cloudy

The sun comes rising from the sea,
A sometimes cloudy mystery
And sometimes not. It feels OK
To sit near terns who watch with me.

Linked to dVerse Open Link Night. Grace is hosting.

Echo

Autumn echoes summer.
It echoes winter too.
May I echo only good
In what I choose to do.

Linked to dVerse Poetics. Merril hosts with the theme “echo”. I hope this echoes the prompt.

The Arroyo

A cow is screaming across the arroyo. Looking up I pay attention to what’s around me. I notice the multicolored, fat fish in the arroyo which turns into a pond and then into a wishing well under the skylights of some mall. I photograph them with my phone to prove all this really happened.

The only coin I have in my pocket is a new penny. Perhaps they won’t mind. I toss it into the well so it can sparkle with the others like stars on the ocean floor.

Resuming my walk I wonder, as I likely should be wondering about everything, What was that all about? I decide to write a to-do list for my next walk just in case.

Linked to dVerse Prosery. Linda Lee Lyberg is hosting with the sentence “A cow is screaming across the arroyo”. It comes from Jim Harrison’s poem “Cow” which appeared in Dead Man’s Float.

Smile

These photos were taken only a few days apart last October. I deliberately went out in the falling snow to take the one below. Snow looks misty when it blurs bright boundaries. I also enjoy seeing sharp contrasts such as those made by the autumn light and shadows in the one above.

Thinking back on both of those very different kinds of day when looking for some photos to post made me smile.

Linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with the theme of Showcase 2019 and to Trent P. McDonald’s The Weekly Smile.

Talking

May the thought
My words have brought
Be pure
Like morning air.

It’s always you
I’m talking to
No matter who
Is there.

Linked to dVerse Meeting the Bar where Amaya is hosting asking us to use ‘apostrophe’ in a poem. She describes it as “simply an address to someone not present or to an abstract concept”.

Fearless

Fearless since what’s there to fear
Yet fearful of what might appear
But likely won’t. With death around
May Christmas cheer help hope abound.

Linked to dVerse Poetics. Laura Bloomsbury is hosting with a list of words ending in ‘less’ to include in a poem along with, hopefully, “a soupçon of hopefulness for Hope is the message in this first advent week!” I picked the word ‘fearless’.

Winter’s Breath

Winter turns the spirit out.
Leaves go red and fall.
Snowy silence sits about.
I wonder at it all,
But know the proof comes in the spring
When leaves and flowers bloom
When birds again have warmth to sing
And outside’s like a room.

Linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge where the theme is “The Coming of Winter/Winter’s Breath” or “Playing with Light”.

Also linked to Trent P. McDonald’s The Weekly Smile. I realized that I don’t understand all that I think I do. No matter how bad that might seem, my smile comes from also realizing that it isn’t all that bad.

Also linked to dVerse Quadrille. De Jackson (aka WhimsyGizmo) is hosting with the word ‘spirit’.

One Half-Dozen Red Roses

Roses are red
With all we’ve been through
Those many long decades
Are roses on you

Roses grew red
Violets turned blue
Fresh dreams with springtime
Still blossom from you

Roses are red
Ocean’s green hue
Shines with those seagulls
Who wander by you

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Winter has happened
And snow’s falling too

Roses are red
Cards slip like new
That ace up my sleeve
Turned into a two

Roses are red
Violets are blue
The last of my roses
I'm giving to you

Linked to dVerse Open Link Night. Grace is hosting. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

A poem , Walking, with an accompanying photograph of mine were published yesterday in Ancient Paths Literary Magazine. I am grateful to the editor Skylar Hamilton Burris for accepting it.

Walking – Published in Ancient Paths

A poem , Walking, with an accompanying photograph of mine were published today in Ancient Paths Literary Magazine. I am grateful to the editor Skylar Hamilton Burris for accepting it.