Fire

September 12, 2020September 12, 2020

Faded Color & Brilliance

The horizon is a dismal gray
air polluted with the finest
of ashy particles
blown by the wind
many thousands of miles
from fires on the coast
announcing the arrival
of fire season

momentarily I make a note
as I sit in a friend’s garden
with paints & brushes
ready to create color

my eye is drawn to weathered
metal sculptures that eventually
might appear to fade
into such a sky as now

but when my canvas is complete
it will portray a creature
that can blend & disappear
if it chooses to engage
in such transformative
ventures

but within my brush strokes
I color him brilliant
erasing years of rust
& faded paint

he makes me smile inside & out
so I temporarily forget
the horizon before me
for the air will again clear
& I will move forward
once more

The Art Below Is My Own

October 8, 2018

Flourishes & Whorls

When I first made your acquaintance
my hand wrapped ’round you
and found warmth & light

even though a tiny fragment of cedar
I minded not the lustrous feel of
your soft black carbon
within

as I grasped you time & time again
my muse trembled in anticipation
as she watched gradations of lines
forming

creating magic with loops curving
in every direction
to give life to every breath I
inhaled & exhaled

giving substance to the wind
to the very universe of which
the rotating earth is
contained

with each flourish & curve
you became as putty in my hand
as burning fuel for my muse

whereupon the light of day
merged with the dark of night
transforming sunrises
sunsets

igniting the embers in my soul
within my heart
into a flame

I have kept you close since
that crucial moment
the dawning of
a single
letter

Image Taken From Public Domain Pictures & Created As Art

One Letter

May 20, 2018May 21, 2018

Before My First Breath

Image Taken From Morgue File & Digitally Altered

Dragonfly Blue

Dragonflies are timeless bold creatures
found in the amber fossils of millennium
as is innocence secured wonder cocooned
in everything I saw around me
whether it was earthen brown
or flowers christened
by the sun

I drank everything in endless thirst
always yearning to understand
and to grasp all the words
to weave into life
even when threads
were frayed

So the years did not diminish
my questions nor
bring solace
to answers

There is youth no longer here
when reflections are
made of wrinkled sagging skin
but youth only rests
within the perimeters
of my mind

So that there will yet be a moment
where the light shines bright
and the fire burning glows
revealing the happiness and joy
I felt in being aware

That there are those things timeless
like questions and answers
held within my mind
not loved nor cherished
with my heart

I know now without pause for doubt
there will always be
dragonflies

April 15, 2017September 2, 2017

White Flags Flying

Excitement palpable within me
butterflies dancing
fluttering wings beating
against my stomach

every year the very same
each time I am dreaming of
tall pines, pine cones
needles making

a blanket beneath the tent
heavy and green smelling
of musty canvas
and flags

waving on a line strung across
our site by dad
clean diapers drying
marking the spot

where the tent is pitched
a Coleman stove sets
ready to cook a meal
a lantern lit

lighting branches a reflection
a glow of campfire
the sky filled with stars
happiness overflowing

This is in response to Jamie Dedes’s Wednesday prompt which you can read more about at https://jamiededes.com/2017/04/12/played-on-the-jersey-shore-a-poem-and-your-wednesday-writing-prompt. The photo below was taken from the Morgue file & digitized by myself.

Camping Pines

September 2, 2016September 3, 2016

NATURE’S TORCH

Photo Taken From Morgue File & Digitized by Myself

Orange Two

evocative blaze
torch in landscape
brilliant

This is for 30doh hosted by Rick Daddario. See his site http://rickdaddario.com/blog/ for more information if you are interested to join in.

December 15, 2014December 15, 2014

ANOTHER PASSING STORM

wind gusts are sweeping
across the surface of the house
like angry waves coursing
filled with emotions
no way to extinguish
like layers of tindered fire

Another Passing Storm

the windows rattle noisily
as though there are hands
that are shaking them
wanting and demanding
to get in

Another Passing Storm

check the locks on the doors
check the seals on the windows
wind is howling now in chorus
like babies wanting more

Another Passing Storm

just as the roof seems lifted
as if being pulled
the house does cease to shudder
the wind now but a breeze
the waves of it calm now
raging flames surceased

Another Passing Storm

Image Taken From Morgue File

January 22, 2013January 22, 2013

Fire Station

Image/Photo Online From Engine # 9 Restaurant

an old fire station now
a restaurant serving up
delicious food and drink
to share with friends
only antique pieces
remain to remind one
of another day and time
horses and the trucks
they pulled now gone

This is for the Small Stone Challenge January 2013. You can find them at http://www.writingourwayhome.com . This is Small Stone #19.

September 4, 2012

Elemental

elemental as fire and ice
my soul within me
gives rise to crimson
ashen lithe but strong
to cool as rivers swift
and strong allowing my
Spirit to rise in song

October 13, 2011October 13, 2011

Creation With Fire

Iridescent quality of the
incandescence of burning hot
flames tended to in the oven
to breathe life in an effort
becoming, evolving, creating

Reminiscent now of the epitaph
cold to the touch once burning
brightly but now on a granite
headstone quiet in a graveyard
resting ‘neath a tree on a hill

Brilliantly colored and glazed
once held in hands turned on the
potter’s wheel made hard in the
fire baked to perfection holding
bread on someone’s supper table

Mirror brilliant reflecting images
back to the viewer once held by
glass maker’s hands to blow air
within, the heat not breaking, now
viewed in awe in the shop window

White hot the flames fly a shower
of sparks threatening to burn the
artist’s hands ever-present seeking
solace in the knowing that fire is
creation to images unfolding within