Fear

March 1, 2023March 1, 2023

The Spiritual Heart

The turmoil of this world will not diminish
the beauty of the earth we call Gaia
nor will it dampen the spiritual heart

though the fear of the unknown harbors
doubts, remorse and pain the sun will rise
to reveal clarity of what is tangible

Image Taken From Public Domain Photos & Digitized As Art

November 1, 2020December 23, 2020

A Child’s Request

The shadow of leaves from a tree
dance across the house next door
but in the darkness of last eve
only the children’s shadows
poured

dressed in Halloween costumes
finer than any Hallows Eve before
they came and kept leaving their
ghostly imprints on concrete
floor

smiles and laughter challenging
fears of a society that they
would dispel as though magic
were in the air and fear
just queerish

a memory of one small girl
a costume only a thin cloak
her words uncovered for she
asked for only a hug
nothing more

my heart was warmed
by her gesture
of which I obliged
in loving
measure

Image Taken From Public Domain Pictures and Created as Art

April 12, 2020April 12, 2020

Waking to Life

Being alive, feeling alive is
having been awakened
Being alive, being awake
All feel as having been
resurrected

The sun’s rays shining brightly
as the brisk morning is
late of frost diminishes,
relinquishes, is vanquished
& is gone

So life is new and all signs
of disease and suffering
begin to recede into
the distance
of my being

The future awaits brightly
as a glimmering beacon
admonishing gently
to not fear

for everything right is still here
& will be here in the blinking
of an eye, in the fluttering
of a heart beat new

in all that is a gift we can see
in each breath we take
in all the beauty of nature
if we but take time
to see

This Photo Taken From Public Domain Pictures & Created As Art

February 23, 2019

A Glimmer of Light

Leaving behind a passion of heart
in words left unwritten
words fading as ghostly images
when pen is not put to paper
when inspiration is set aside

always fearing unfounded criticism
of those you will never know
those never to breach your life

always choosing moral acceptance
rather than acceptance of self
acceptance of gifts setting idle
as dust settles upon them
as motes floating in air

ignoring a brilliance of light
that follows you in footsteps
as you close each door approached

a glimmering light shining
beneath its sill
until there is nought
but a darkening foreboding
becoming as tarnished silver
that no longer gleams

& only echoes fallacy of choices
that leaves voids want of filling
giving no purpose of self
as only seeking light will do
and in opening doors

Photo Taken From Public Domain Pictures & Created As Art

Brilliance of Light

January 8, 2018

Dreams of Flight

i-will-be

Closing my eyes dream like synapses
coalesce images of youthful fears
tainted by mountain high and
valley lows of emotions

feathered wings in flight I fancied
releasing me from my humble dawning
with the smell of lemons and lilacs
growing against a backdrop of cement
tainted with the odors of asphalt

on the other side of town peppered
with factory workers, shop owners
life ached for gleaming upscale as
housewives tended children crying
dutiful lives of status quo

but only dreams took me flying
into the darkness of night
smelling of sweet honeysuckle
scaling walls of rising freedom

as now all dreams of tender youth
have left me I no longer fear
nor struggle from whence I came
for the spring of my soul
bubbles forth a peace within

November 19, 2017

Gods Like A Twining Snake

Gods cloaked as inner fears
grounded in DNA
like a twining snake
posed to lunge
to strike

waiting within a tired mind
weariness a braided chain
harnessing movement

reality sinking into quicksand
bogs of memory calling
burning names
taunting

Gods of money and loving guns
meaningless possessions
of nameless masses

when the use of words like arrows
taken from the quiver
can be weaponry
to fight

dueling with engines
created of cells
stinging like bees

identified as expectations
masked as perfection
a straight line
blue chalk
do not cross

we try to let go, let be
erase illogical revenue
nothing money
can buy

for these Gods leave
no purchase
are grounded
on a slippery
slope

quickly buried by mud slides
that alter belief in self
confidence askew
in the remnants
of time

Jamie Dede’s Wednesday Prompt is all about gods we make in our image. I did a bit of looking into this idea and found this on Wikipedia giving an explanation of what ‘belief’ means. People can turn something they believe in to that of a god. Money, guns, nature and even things that cannot be touched…that which we believe to be the case, those things we think about within our minds. Belief is stated to be in Wikipedia as “the state of mind in which a person thinks something to be the case, with or without there being empirical evidence to prove….the case with factual certainty.” There is a quite lengthy definition of ‘belief’ and how it can become a god. See more at her site at https://jamiededes.com/2017/11/15/gods-of-our-making. The photos below were taken from Public Domain Pictures and digitally altered.

Serpent God

August 14, 2017

An Infinity of Stars Woven

Within the landscape of time are
the shadows of war residing
casting doubts of fear
over hope filled integrity

for if I could but ease the pain
& erase the memory of horror
that slices through hearts
once laden with joy
I would

but there will always be those
who seek righteousness loaded
with weapons of destruction
their efforts devoid
of compassion

and soldiers who participate
on the battlefields of wars
whether at home or across seas
will carry scars always

and if it were possible within
me as a wordsmith to pen a poem
of salve and healing
I would

so that children may once again play
on peaceful soil under watchful eyes
of mothers and fathers
who can rest assured
of a tomorrow

filled with the spirit of love
& that fireworks will be celebration
& not the deafening voices
of bombs falling

for my soul cannot rest within me
until the vision of the universe
is the essence of peace shining
like an infinity of stars

the threads of woven fabric
like none that has ever been made
containing naught of the shadows of war
but a humanity of peacemakers
the gardeners sowing
seeds for the
future

This is in response to Jamie Dedes’s Wednesday Prompt. Please read more poets responses at https://jamiededes.com/2017/08/09/do-not-make-war-a-poem-and-your-wednesday-writing-prompt. The photo below was taken from the Morgue File and digitally altered by myself.

Field of Peacemakers

May 3, 2017September 2, 2017

Dreaming of Children

A landscape of memory littered
with pieces of dreams
children that once lived
once laughed
oft times schemed

she sees a house abandoned now
ought times with love filled
each & every birth an
auspicious moment still
& each year

she knows she has been gifted
that any tears shed
were merely a bridge
between yesterdays
& tomorrows albeit

as other mothers cry oceans
of salt filled tears
for children that lived once
without fear in loving arms
with kisses, soft still

their auspicious moment shattered
a broken memory like
shards of glass
now buried descending deep
earth’s grief surpassed

whose sorrow cannot rebuild
houses in ashes smoldering
whose dreams
hold ghostly remnants
pale & fading

where a timeless epitaph remains
of young lives interrupted
photos tinged yellow
touched by death
a noxious poison

thinking of this she turns pages
a book of photographs old
& knows dreams
will still be her comfort
will still unfold

that some mother’s dreaming will
become a vile nightmare
an interloper in sun rays
unwanted slumber
empty days

I am a little late to post this on my site. It was first posted in the Bezine last month. You can read more of some wonderfully written poems and other posts at https://thebezine.com/project-type/the-bezine-april-2017-vol-3-issue-7. The photo below was taken from the Morgue File & Digitized by myself.

Dreaming Children