Universe

March 12, 2023

Brilliant Stars

The evening sky’s light dims as night approaches
while the silhouettes of mountains and trees
hover as giants lining the distant horizon
all creating the initiation of wonder

as the painted palette of life dulls to grays and blacks
stretching out alongside a winding road
as seen through the windows of a car
two brilliant stars appear to follow

while the road twists and turns they like magnets
draw attention to quiet stillness and light years
become closer than a planet’s nightly orbit
for Venus and Jupiter shine as beacons
within the mystery of the universe

Photo Taken From Public Domain Pictures & Digitized As Art

April 29, 2021April 29, 2021

The Sky So Close

This evening when I took my dog out I stood in awe
as I have done very few times in my life while looking at the sky
the clouds of gray and white as the sun broke through
I have felt this before but so rarely
I felt as though I could touch the very blue of the sky
as though it was so close it became more solid before me
instead of part of the Universe that surrounds me
the clouds felt the same as though they were so very close
I might touch them and feel the mass of them
even though they drifted about me and did not stay still

there may be one who causes everything in life
to look more beautiful than it has ever felt before
when I was a very young girl before everything changed
I might have looked at Nature in such a way
in wonderment of its very being
but now, incredulous as it may seem and it does
my world is as beautiful to me as when I was a girl
a world that holds me in awe and I am entranced
by the mystery of it, the magic of it
and life now begins anew

Image Taken From Public Domain Photos & 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

December 22, 2020December 23, 2020

A Dance of Planets

The Christmas Star shone brilliant
in the evening star for many eyes
to see but hid it’s brilliance from me

for Saturn & Jupiter danced in tandem
on a stage sprinkled with a universe
of stars holding court for them

and I stepped into the predawn light
to see a night sky littered with stars
applauding a new day in dawning

The Image Below Taken From Public Domain Pictures & Created As Art

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

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

December 7, 2016September 2, 2017

A Breath of Wind and A Dew Drop

I am part of something greater than myself
some would call God and others Goddess
or perhaps Buddha,Allah,Jehovah or Shiva

something greater as the breath of the wind
breathing life into all that exists
as the raindrops falling, filling the oceans
becoming rivers, lakes and waterfalls

something greater as simple as a dewdrop
clinging to my skin in the early hours of morn
as it clings to the leaves and spider webs

something greater even as the universe spins
holding within it pinpoints of light
from an ominous burning star that is the sun
moonbeams full of the wonder of stardust

I am a part of that something greater even
as it exhales in anguish breathing as the wind
creating devastating storms of despair

causing the oceans to rise up flooding the
banks of land, becoming hurricanes
and I hear and feel them all because I
am part of something greater

I know the sigh of relief breathed into a breeze
a rainbow after storms the colors of hope
shining through a waterfall because I am

part of something greater

Photo Taken From Morgue File & Digitized by Myself

great-as-a-dewdrop

June 7, 2011June 26, 2011

Surrender

Viewing a waterfront arising
from the peak of a road
descending slowly, showing
hundreds of flags as a
surrender but not to war or
cataclysmic events but only
holding to the brilliance of
sun shining on rippling
movement of water holding
afloat sailing vessels
large, small coming to gather
paying homage to nature’s
god of the universe