January 31, 2012 My Companion

My Companion

On the shady side of the Portale

You wait

Observe all that happens

I am not alone

Your presence comforts me

As I work through the day

I sometimes catch sight of you

From the corner of my eye

Just a flicker

We are both making preparations

For that day

In the future

Life will be as long as it is

And in the end

You will wait for me

January 29, 2012 Sunday Whirl

Sunday Whirl

I open the book

The perfect grey feather

Found waiting

Morning quiet

Light penetrates my permeable

The only sound

The echo of the beat of my heart

Before me the field is open

The earth still frozen

My bare feet feel the cold

I am startled by the serenity

After the anguish

Shock of loss

A new day is born

The air fresh

A tiny flame burns in the hearth

January 24, 2012 Beautiful Birds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWKTfqivbRQ

(Advanced Style, a documentary about old stylish women in New York.)

Beautiful Birds

Wrinkled from head to toe

Old as the oldest tree in the forest

Baubles and beads

Red and Green

Stretch round the world

Great hats

Great make up

An appreciation of fabrics

Woven round the world

Old boney hands

Select fish net hose

Red wisps of hair

Perfectly coiffed

It’s all about me

Don’t you see

I’m admired by my friends

Envied by all the others

Stop traffic

When I move I move

It’s all about freedom

Each an artist in their own right

Through their choices

They see Marilyn or Andy

They are one of them

Fearless

They have reached

Their prime

January 22, 2011 Sunday Whirl

Wordle  Sunday Whirl #40

Ashes and Red Out Poker

Small ashen clouds

Scattered in early morning sky

Like shards of tea leaves

Found in the bottom of a cup

Whisper hopes and dreams

Of young girls

Telling stories

Sisters with a knack

For charming lies

Scalding the heart

Of a young lover

Crush the instinct

For carnal urges

January 19, 2012 Word Gathering

http://margoroby.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/the-things-you-dont-say-tuesday-tryouts/#comment-2964

Margo Roby Prompt:  “The things you don’t say.”

Got nothing

Bite my tongue

Ain’t talking

Been here before

Learned my lesson

Keep it to myself

Blue berry pie

All over my face

Says it all

Clouds roll in

A new day begins

 

Note*  In a commercial, the Reverent Al Sharpton speaks of the children that come home from school, and find the blueberry pie left by their Moms who are away at work.  The children eat the pie and get blueberry pie all over their face.  I think I am saying we are transparent and everyone can read what is all over our face.

January 15, 2011 Sunday Whirl

winter-pond wordle

Wordle #39

Promise of Spring
Bear is not vain
Chooses winter to be dormant
Kneeling in her cave
Padding the surface with soft grasses
Sleep away the winter
In the depth of her cave
All is still
Still life

Time to reflect
To contemplate
Fresh crisp greens of spring
Dotted along the river
Home of the salmon
Resolution
To reel in as many as she can

In Spring
She looks across the broad meadow
A spectacle that is new
A promise

January 14, 2011 Still Life

Monarch Butterflies

It was a day in November,the day I reached my Mother’s home in Texas, the Monarch Butterflies were covering my Mother’s tree in her front yard.  The butterflies were on their migration to winter in Mexico.  There were only a few blooms that had not faded.  The butterflies were drinking from the blooms, the flight is a hard one.  I do not see Monarch Butterflies often in New Mexico, only a few times, and even then I questioned myself, I do not know if Monarch Butterflies even come to New Mexico.

Still Life
No one knows
When the sands will end
The final grain will crash to the floor

Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock

Ah, I am speaking of time
The length of a life
The whole day through
The moment it will end
Still Life

Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock

I look out over the meadow
The reddish brown horses
The leafless trees
The blue mountains
I see forever
I see through the eyes of a child
As nothing is forever
It is time to put away this childish view

Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock

For a moment I think
It isn’t fair
Again a childish thought
For who could be more fair than death
It comes to everyone
No one is overlooked

Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock

January 13, 2011 Beannacht For Josie

Beannacht For Josie by John O’Donohue

This is a poem sent to me from my friend.  I thought you might like to share it.

Beannacht – For Josie

January 1st 2012

---

Dear friends,

Yesterday afternoon (December 31, 2011), John’s dear mother, Josie O’Donohue, passed away. She was surrounded by her family when she slipped peacefully across that threshold to John’s waiting arms. 

Years ago, John wrote this blessing, “Beannacht”, for his mother . . . 

On the day when
The weight deadens
On your shoulders
And you stumble,
May the clay dance
To balance you.

And when your eyes
Freeze behind
The grey window
And the ghost of loss
Gets into you,
May a flock of colours,
Indigo, red, green
And azure blue,
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
In the currach of thought
And a stain of ocean
Blackens beneath you,
May there come across the waters
A path of yellow moonlight
To bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life.

January 7, 2012 Sunday Whirl/ Wordle #38

Sunday Whirl Wordle #38

 Mother

My hands grope

Lost among thousands

Not forgotten

Yet to remember

Causes a shearing

Pain in my chest

You come to me

Slowly bubbling up

From the darkest hiding place

I watch

You breathing for the last time

In the little house

With the thatched roof

The fire in the hearth

Cold

A gate opened

Together on the thrshold

Your path new

I was left to rebuild

Still your love fluttering around me

In a flash

I discovered the stones

You had dropped

Marking the way home

You are Mother

January 5, 2011 Small Stone

I forgot about the small stones of January.  http://www.writingourwayhome.com/p/river-jan-12.html

Today being the fifth day of the month

I will speak of loneliness

The loss of my Mom

Her life ended on Dec. 2

She was my Mom

My nurturer

My teacher

My rolemodel

My friend

Her leaving has left an emptiness inside of me

She lives in memory

These are the first five stones of January