Love

Eternal Love Locks, Pont de l’Archevêché,  photo by Susan

Forgiveness is a part of

Love

Pushing through after the mistakes-

A branch breaks

In time, corrects the wrong

And still grows strong

You and I will always belong

Together, like autumn and spring

Whatever the fates may bring

love: a branch breaks and still grows strong. 

submitted for Poetic Bloomings, In Form Poet, Ovillejo
and Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, First and Last Lines, What is Love?

and Poets United, Verse First, Committed

Suburban Irony

In the suburbs wander wild deer

Hunters shoot them; then they're gone

They say wildlife don't belong here

Then put statues on the lawn!

source

submitted for Poetic Bloomings, In Form Poet, Chastushka

Bats

The day is done now; comes the gloaming

Creatures of the dark are roaming

Wings of leather, bodies warm

Gracefulness of function, form

Like two hands inside of gloves

Circling the sky above 

Clicks and echoes in the night

Shadowed hunters take to flight

Blackness ends now; sunrise soon

Hide again, birds of the moon.

Moon Bats by RichO

submitted for Poetic Bloomings, Prompt 92, Gone To the Birds (I know bats are not birds, but they fly and they're cool!)

Don't Rush Me!

source

I just can’t seem to write on cue

Too hard to do

I seem to lose

My fickle muse

I read a prompt; my mind goes blank

May I be frank?

When I can’t think

My ideas stink!

Sometimes I’ll try to write in form

Results lukewarm

I need more time

To be sublime!

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Words Count With Mama Zen, Hard Stuff

and Poetic Bloomings, In-Form Poet, The Minute

Dramaturgy

We draw the curtain on today
The scripts and props are put away
Tomorrow's lines remain uncertain
On today we draw the curtain

We move like players scene to scene
Do we remember where we've been?
Always something more to prove
Scene to scene, like players we move

The page is done; the lines are said
Make up washed and costume shed
We crave the solitude of one
The lines are said; the page is done

But you can see inside my shell
No one knows me half as well
From you I do not ache to flee
Inside my shell just you can see

With you I need not wear a mask
I set aside the actor's task
When truth can be hard to construe
I need not wear a mask with you.

submitted for Poetic Bloomings, In-Form Poet, Swap Quatrain
and Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Open Link Monday

Black and White

Franz Kline, Figure Eight, 1952

You lay the strokes with confidence

a master calligrapher

Awed

I watch as you create the piece

I think I know where the next brushstroke will land

but you change course

following a sketch that only you can see

(or is it all improvisation?)

You say questions of perception versus reality are pointless

that we can argue endlessly about interpretation

but it really comes down to black and white:

Either I believe you 

or I don't

I don't.

submitted for The Mag, Mag 127

and Poetic Bloomings, #65 Betrayal

and Poets United, Poetry Pantry #107

Sometimes We Must

Sometimes we must destroy to build

Let go of the common to find the rare

Old structures upturned and new soil tilled

Though we may not believe we are skilled

We haven't the strength and do not dare

Sometimes we must destroy to build

So difficult to be strong willed

But inertia is too much to bear

Old structures upturned and new soil tilled

Though we breathe, the heart is stilled

We can not grow in stagnant air

Sometimes we must destroy to build

Create a place to feel fulfilled

Where one finds joy beyond compare

Old structures upturned and new soil tilled

Too many spirits silenced and killed

Find that thing for which you care

Sometimes we must destroy to build

Old structures upturned and new soil tilled.

submitted for Poetic Bloomings, In Form Poet, Villanelle 

and  Poets United, Vice Versa #4

Dichotomies

image by Nata Ibragimov

I love our dichotomies

Your dark bristled face

against my fair cheek

Tender lips

crashing together in a violent kiss 

Your hardness

against my soft

And when our bodies part

sizzling droplets of sweat

become cool puddles on our skin 

tiny swells

under the turning fan blades.

Puddle, 1952, M. C. Escher

submitted for The Mag, Mag 122

and Poetic Bloomings, Burning Passion #60

Nature's Music

source

Serenity surrender to restless ruminations

I return to the feral forest where rests make music's metre

Wooden sun bleached boards carry me through sighing Cypress

Moments and measures play longer by the cadence of the creek

Waterstriders wade like tiny persons paddling

Raucous red bellied woodpecker spies russet red tailed hawk

Bullfrogs burp; spring beauties blush. Senses soar like swallowtails.

submitted for Poetic Bloomings, In Form Poet, Alliterisen (Complex)

Untitled (A Naani Poem)

Jack Moebes/Corbis

Joseph McNeil (from left), Franklin McCain, Billy Smith and Clarence Henderson sit in protest at the whites-only lunch counter at Woolworth during the second day of peaceful protest, Feb. 2, 1960.

Woolworth lunch counter 1960

School lunch room 2012

Black and White separate

What progress?

submitted for One Single Impression, 221, Black and White

and Poetic Bloomings, In-Form Poet, Naani Poetry

Sometimes You Drive

Never Easy by untaintedsoul

Sometimes you drive the road
Sometimes the road drives you
When you don't know the difference
Every place is the bad part of town

Sometimes the road drives you
Makes you do things you don't want to
Every place is the bad part of town
And all the strangers know your name

You do things you don't want to
When you give up the wheel
All the strangers know your name
But you don't remember why you came

When you give up the wheel
And you're just along for the ride
You don't remember why you came
Don't care if you make it home again

You're just along for the ride
You gotta keep up the drive
Don't care if you make it home again
You let the road decide

You gotta keep up the drive
Though you can't say if you'll arrive
You let the road decide
Between dead and alive

Though you can't say if you'll arrive
When you don't know the difference
Between dead and alive
Sometimes you drive the road.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Kerry's Wednesday Challenge, On the Road
and Poetic Bloomings, In Form Poet, Pantoum

See No Evil

black snake at Brookside Gardens

Black snake suns on log

Bead black eyes stare from raised head

Forked tongue scents spring air

I watch as people stroll past

Unaware, they have no fear

submitted for Poetic Bloomings, In-Form Poet, Tanka

You

image by Sarolta Ban

 You're a little, little man

Trying to play me for the fool

Did you think you had a plan?

What an idiot you are!

Just a worthless, paltry pissant, and an

utter trifling tool.

You're an itty bitty boy

And I really hate your hat

Try to treat me like a toy?

See what happens to you now

Go away and don't annoy

me anymore you rotten rat!

You're a small pathetic loser

and a parasitic tick

You know that it's all true, sir

I am looking down at you

Come on, face me, your accuser

Jeez, you really make me sick!

submitted for The Mag, Mag 107

Poetic Bloomings, In Form Poet, Genesis

The Stars Do Not Decide For Us

source

The stars do not decide for us

They are but flames that burn the night

They do not cast our fate but just

Reflect it back within their light.

Though we may wish upon the stars

The stars do not decide for us

We choose to become what we are

The cure for savage luck is trust.

A shining caracol and thus

Its twists and turns an endless game

The stars do not decide for us

And so our lives are much the same.

While Heaven's reach is far and true

And kneel before her strength we must

What we believe and what we do

The stars do not decide for us.

submitted for Poetic Bloomings, In Form Poet, Quatern

and Rosemary Mint, Monday Melting, Week 3

Happy Birthday

source

Frosting roses atop her cake

Closing her eyes, a wish to make

Next year will be for her own sake

This slice she will not eat

Her preferences she will not fake

The roses are too sweet

submitted for

Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Kerry's Wednesday Challenge (a non- clichéd flower poem)

and Poetic Bloomings, In Form Poet, Rime Couee

Musings on the Year's End

source: Google images

And so another year has slipped on past

We wonder what we've learned and what it means

and whether what we've done is meant to last

Replaying last year's memories and scenes

before our life demands and intervenes

How did the year live up to what we planned?

What do we see behind us where we stand?

We should not mourn the year that's come and gone

The cards were dealt and so we played the hand

New year, new hand and so the game goes on.

submitted for Poetic Bloomings, In Form Poet, Dizain

The Advance of Middle Age

Her body is an occupied city

The fortress has been seized

The ruin and devastation a pity

Her body is an occupied city

It used to be so bright and pretty

The invading troops can not be appeased

Her body is an occupied city

The fortress has been seized

submitted for Poetry Jam, Occupy This!

and Poetic Bloomings, Triolet

source

Be Prepared!

Preparation is the answer
Don't be caught off guard
Do your work a little early
It's not all that hard.

Hang your Christmas lights up 'fore the
leaves have all gone brown
Next year you'll be ready if you
never take them down!

Buy your Christmas presents at the
sales on New Years Day
Keep them in the closet safely
wrapped and tucked away.

Come the holidays and they sit
underneath the tree
You find you don't remember what on
Earth those gifts could be!

A tie for Uncle Edward who just
died the month before
Tap shoes for little Susie who's not
dancing anymore.

A His and Hers bath towel set for your
cousins Nan and Nate
who decided this past summer they were
going to separate.

With just a little planning it's not
difficult to do
Preparation is a gift
that you give to you!

submitted for Poetic Bloomings, Prompt 33, Be Prepared
and Smiley Sociology, Study 11, Gifts