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

© Renee Espriu April 2020

This Photo Taken From Public Domain Pictures & Created As Art

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

© August 2017 Renee Espriu

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

Reflections Mirrored

swirling motions of
passengers on the
dimly lit rail
i ride along
with them
unknowing

as they too ride along
with me
some with lunch boxes
others their
sleeping bags
disheveled

all people like me
yet “not”
like me at all
seeing the lines of
my reflection
moving outside

staring back at me
a parody
a shadowy spector
looking past at
other people’s
reflections

sleeping, talking, happy,
sad or angry with
lives moving
forward while
their
sillouttes

face them trapped
inside the rail
glass…hoping this
ride will
end……
differently?!?

perhaps she will not
go to work a
mirror of
every yesterday
and he not
to the mission

again seeking food,
company or a
hot shower
to wash away
his homeless
tired life

each one seeking
another path
a way out of
the same tomorrow
hoping reflections
outside

are their real lives
going somewhere
a destination
past their stop
to another
future

© August 2012

Renee Espriu

Unaware

the world catapults us forward
whilst all along humanity
becomes cracked, parched
without even the slightest
moisture

but we settle in
unaware

continuing forward waking
sleeping and hidden
beneath customary plaintives
only crying momentarily
beseeching

this is not reality
unaware

of future moments unraveling
tangling our dreamscape
lives within its’ measure
our creation of thus
by our choices

again we settle in
unaware

© July 2012 Renee Espriu

Small Stone: Glass Beads

Tiny droplets of water      
like fragile glass beads
settling on blades of
grass pure life giving
sustaining a future

© January 2012
Renee Espriu

This is my submission for January 9, 2012 Small Stones on Writing Our Way Home at http://writingourwayhome.ning.com