time

April 17, 2024April 17, 2024

Life Yawning Wide

Time stands still once more in the wake of change
in the midst of flowers touching the surface even as they
lie in the earth breaching, yearning to breathe the air

Feel the trembling leaves vibrate a rustling leaf song
layers of green penetrating the sky, never the clouds
puzzle pieces form a life yawning wide, incomplete

Each puzzle piece has unto its own another puzzle
the frantic search to be free, taking flight with wings
untethered as an eagle gliding on air currents

Sees the world with the clarity of vision, of knowing
freedom is fragile, beyond the grasp of recognition
a fleeting memory held within as in a vague dream

Image Is My Own Digitally Altered

August 12, 2021August 12, 2021

The Chestnut Tree

There is a behemoth of a Chestnut tree
now standing alongside my broken road
amidst the passage of time it’s seen it all
never made to fall nor can it be budged

houses built long ago now aged with time
gardens planted and many fences built
between slats of a fence it does not bow
with heavy boughs it’s always stood witness

whilst the wind is causing its’ branches
to bend & sway in rhythmic dances
you can hear the rustling of chestnuts
like tiny instruments softly stirring

waiting for another day another year
to find their freedom is in their falling
each twisting round in another season
to tumble soundlessly to the ground

March 27, 2021March 27, 2021

There are moments when time seems to stand still
to those of us who are trapped in its’ wake
as though our boat has lost one of it’s oars
thus enabling numbers of concentric circles
forming a whirlpool, disadvantaged proportions

where time seems to be held equally captive
in a time warp as though another universe
holds sway unknown to us until we are crossing
it’s unseen boundaries causing ripples
across the water a stone casually tossed
in by those onlookers unsuspecting

for we are unheeded until a life changing event
spins us ’round for us to suddenly take notice
of all gone unseen in Nature’s wonderment
and it is then we see clearly life’s window
open before us at breathtaking possibilities
to realize how long we have been away

Image Taken From Public Domain Pictures & Created As Art

January 17, 2021January 17, 2021

An Earth Older Than Time

The world revolves symptomatic of that unseen
that becomes the invisible nemesis of people
on a planet named earth so old the beginning
of which cannot be counted in grains of sand

for there is not an hourglass large enough
to hold all the countless grains needed
to account for all that came before
for all that will come after

to enable mortal beings a bit of knowing
just a small cushion of comfort
telling all that live here

they will always be like
babes in the wood
unable to measure up
to countless millennia
of black holes starless
universes unknown

Image Taken From Public Domain Pictures & Create As Art

June 26, 2020June 26, 2020

The Amber Mirror

The paradoxical algorithms of life
speak of birth and death colored
with a beginning and an end
both caught within the shadows
of rules, mandates and laws

tasting and speaking of freedoms
both ‘masked’ in lies and deceit

a truth hidden behind closed doors
spoken in silent unheard whispers
seen through the eyes of the faceless

while the legends of time and history
move between the spaces of passions
where wisdom is a time honored truth
where love of others and of self
is the resin that frees them

an amber mirror that reveals life

The Photo Below Created As Art

November 21, 2017November 21, 2017

A Single Wink In Time

Powder blue painted firmament
inhaled in a single breath
a cushioned cradle for my soul

hands ciphering the distance
to embrace this tranquility
to coalesce this miracle

sun’s warmth salubrious
rays pulse gold nuggets of life
a radiant fragrant aloe balm

touching a single wink of time
becoming a scope of magnitude
am shrouded in a calm destiny

weighted heavens are buoyant
evident of stellar celestial bodies
emanating love and I am home

The photo combination below was taken from Public Domain Pictures and digitally altered by myself.

Wink In Time

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

September 17, 2017

Rainbow Laced Muses

dreams are like the sweet smell
of ambrosia
not like
the bitter of coffee
before her

she sits by the restaurant window

staring at nothing

and seeing everything

perhaps she sees her life
without children
running about
demanding
time

time she doesn’t have and
does not have to give
for life should chord

space and quiet

life should be filled

with writing muses
laced with rainbows

filled with artist
paper

& tools for both
housed in a place

beneath
trees

sprinkled with star dust

a place with fields of
wild flowers so
she can commune

with nature
with her
soul

she is lost in her thoughts
as the restaurant
comes to life
around her

with the laughter of

children

playing

she is reminded that life
hinges on choices
of ambivalence

like her food
turning cold
it is only
new

within the essence
of the moment

This is in response to Jamie Dede’s Wednesday Prompt. Read more at
https://jamiededes.com/2017/09/13/hes-a-tumble-weed-a-poem-and-your-wednesday-writing-prompt. The photo below was taken from Morgue File & digitally altered.

Sweet Ambrosia

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

July 17, 2017July 17, 2017

A Siren Wailing For No Reason

The sun had risen high in the blue sky
over rolling hills of farm country
causing a dry heat much as the roiling
heat of the home of her childhood
produced in waves upon asphalt streets

she knew the howl of a siren near by in
the close distance as she sat visiting
with her son her terrier mix at her feet
and he saw her puzzled look asking why
to glean the meaning of that sound now

for she recalled a time years past
in the elementary school days now gone
the drills that came, of getting down
upon the floor to hide beneath her desk
with her hands upon her head to wait

but as the memory flashed upon her face
her son smiled to say the neighbor
who lives not far likes to hear the siren
wailing as it does for not a reason
but he hears it every afternoon of a day

so she smiles with him to recall those
drills of her youth and hoping as she did
that her desk might shield her from harm
for it might come with her eyes shut tight
the all clear was given & she breathed a sigh

This post is is response to Jamie Dede’s Wednesday Prompt. You can see more of other poet’s responses at https://jamiededes.com/2017/07/12/at-the-dead-of-noon-a-poem-and-your-wednesday-writing-prompt. I visited my son recently in the town of Ritzville which has a very small populace, a very large granary and railroad tracks running through town carrying all manner of things from lumber to oil to grain and much more. But the one thing that made me take note was the siren which someone sets to wailing every day. Brings back memories and for some of you it may spark your own and for others perhaps not but I hope you enjoy the read. The photo is of my son’s house which I have digitally altered for this post.

A Sound of Siren