Not in verse – free or otherwise
I realized I’d better get back to A Mother’s Garden when I submitted a poem to my hometown’s sidewalk poetry contest and a week later, I can’t remember what it was. I think that means I need to start creating new material again, rather than dipping into and revising the old.
Suggestions for content welcome.
I wrote and posted this poem several years ago on a theme of “A Mother’s Dream of Peace.” In light of events in Charlottesville, It’s still relevant.
I dream that differences will be valued, not disdained.
Eye color, hair color, body shapes, and skin shades will be appreciated for their beauty and variety.
Cultural traditions will not disappear, but will thrive and grow together into a rich and fascinating sharing of knowledge and beliefs.
I dream that blindness will be merely a different way of seeing, and deafness impair only the quantity, not the quality of the language ‘heard’.
Children will matter because they own the future. Their education, academic and social, will become and remain of utmost importance.
Mediators and peacemakers will be recognized as the strongest leaders.
Questions will come from curiosity, not ignorance, and the answers will breed respect.
Knowing each other, knowing ourselves, will lead to knowing that fights and conflicts, wars of all kinds, can cease to be of value.
I need to
I must
Oh, no, first I should
But if I’m not
No one else can
Everyone counts on me
Did I forget to
I hate to, but if I don’t
If I don’t, who will?
I haven’t had a chance
I’ll do it myself, just as soon as
Don’t worry, I’ll get to it
We teachers take on so much,
We forget that we take it on voluntarily
And we forget it’s okay to say no.
We caretakers and quiet leaders need care, too.
It’s time we put ourselves first – and mean it.
Two tiny pieces
Little treasure chests built of sugar and cocoa, storing creamy caramel or peanut butter.
In their shiny pink and purple wrapping
Fit perfectly in the cozy cubbyhole beneath my car’s radio.
Sharing their intimate space with extra sunglasses, they wait patiently.
For the day they’ll be needed
When their sweet aroma
And savory filling
Will satisfy Mom or Dad or child or teen
Traveling a long distance
Or running errands until dinner time is past.
How long will these little treasures last?
They will provide pleasure far behond
What their diminutive size might suggest.
an elemental poem
Water
Wet, clear
Dripping, collecting, pooling
Who owns this water?
The people who pump it into their swimming pool, clean it with cholrine, and swim in it to ease the stress of daily living?
Mr. and Mrs. Mallard who are looking for a place to live?
Those who harness its power for the industries that give us jobs and products to purchase with our pay?
Those who live near it, on it, and in it?
Or those who pum it through miles of desert pipeline to reach their homes?
Those who sail on it?
The companies who bottle it to sell in stores, Or the people who pay for the bottles?
The caretakers
Of all the water on Earth
Those who drink from it
Those who bathe in it
Those who use it, treat it, Return it to its source
All use, and therefore share, ownership and responsibility for this precious resource.
Piles of snow and ice tenaciously refuse to melt on the north sides of buildings and trees
Fallen branches from the ice storm mock the emerging crocuses
Beauty emerges within the storm’s beastly remains.
Grateful for low tech tools
The fireplace, the printed book, the battery-operated radio
We stay wrapped up in the magic warmth of blanket throws
And wait until the weather warms enough
to deliver tornado season.
Alas, that’s spring.
This is a “stolen lines” poem, created from lines “stolen” from a class collection of poems
If something sounds familiar, it probably is.
We stroll past the colors that transform a field
sometimes green and sometimes gray.
Where the sky is a page of water
with an in-your-face honesty to it, a clarity free of reflection.
We search out every horizon
through a veil of distance
in this vast and wondrous land
where everything is clear and still.
Now into the forever shadows,
the canopy lush and thriving above, a carpet beneath our feet
something less tangible courses here,
as we wander through woods that hold no breeze.
The soil is full of marvels and above it,
buckeyes, sycamores, and one black walnut
let their cello depths emerge from the cycle we call life.
Nature, great providder of the rainbow, sends
saffron leaves rusting, cresting into their moment
red-brown pine needles inches thick, a black beetle quick
to burrow back under the rich brown loam.
We listen, we believe,
oh stranger of the future,
oh friend of yesterday,
while a kind of twilight begins to permeate the air
As one hour sweeps into the next,
here it’s proven that time requires
this fleeting moment of eternity be savored — where
fact and fiction are indistinguishable in the moonlit night.
In the garden
–based on a poem written in 2002 and “inspired” by Homeland Security
Bottled water, analgesics, thermometers,
Batteries for the flashlights and radios,
And emergency rations, enough to last six weeks or more.
Remember,
Nuclear Power Plants are nearby,
But now —
No.
Shop, yes. And replenish the woodpile, too.
But I’ll buy a bottle of wine
A good book,
Cheese and crackers.
Seeds and seedlings for my garden,
We’ll continue living our lives.
Common sense, love and caring,
and family
Make survival after any disaster
Worthwhile.
originally posted in March 2007; originally published in WSRA Journal in 1997
When we were young
And could pick up a book,
A man with a gift
Made us all take a look
At a cat with a mission,
A feline with style,
Dressed up in a hat
With a hint of beguile.
The cat made us smile,
The Grinch brought a tear.
While the Whos down in Whoville
Inspired a cheer.
Those red fish and blue fish
Or green eggs and ham
The Star Bellied Sneetches
And that Sam-I-Am
The poor little boy
Wearing five hundred hats
Got caught in the oobleck
That fell and went splat.
His stories had morals,
Were strong with conviction,
Even though written
As young readers’ fiction.
A clear point of view,
The compassion he saw,
Like”…a person’s a person,
No matter how small.”
The elephant Horton
Who said what he meant,
That he could be faithful,
One hundred percent.
And think of the Lorax,
The one who said, “Please,
Oh, Please stop destroying
The Truffula Trees!”
His creatures were special,
Both comic and tragic,
Some small and some large,
With an aura of magic.
Think of the characters,
Ageless and timeless,
And how he could make
Something rhyme that seemed rhymeless!
The point of my story,
I’m sure you have reckoned,
Someone quite special
Was born on March second.
Creator of Yertle,
And Thidwick the Moose,
A talent unequaled:
The dear Dr. Seuss.