For Poetry Jam: Steps

If we're lucky
Our first steps are
Hopefully into
Trustworthy arms

The next steps
Are guided
By loving hands
Keeping us from harm

Then we climb
Step after step
Planning our choices
Are charmed.

For Poetry Jam:  Steps
and for my grandsons:
Andrew, Jake and Zander
May all your steps be true.

Time Lost

Magpie Tales challenges us to match words to picture.

Poetry Jam:  Backward is their creative challenge.

This is a twofer (two for one)

image by crilleb50

TIME LOST

Alone 

He sat

Wishing

To turn back time

All the clocks

Did nothing

His heart in rhythm

Tick beat tick beat tick beat

Tick beat tick beat tick beat

His heart in rhythm

Did nothing

All the clocks

To turn back time

Wishing 

He sat

Alone

Lost for Poetry Jam

This week's prompt from the creative website Poetry Jam is Lost...anyway you want to say it.

LOST
I've lost many things
Of some I wasn't aware
I've lost my girlish figure
But haven't lost my hair

For everything we lose
Another thing we gain
That's a goodly rule
And helps ease our pain

This lass wasn't lost
But simply thrown away
Ki-Anne entered my world
I couldn't look the other way

I've lost my sense of direction
I lost my talent to draw
I can no longer write
But love comes with paws.

The Horseshoe...

For Poetry Jam Poets United and Imaginary Garden:  

The Thing About Rust

Things Carried

Empty horseshoe

With rusty nails

Plucked from

The worn trail

Inverted

For good luck

The empty shoe

Stood tucked

Standing in honor

Lying in state

Next to a knife

And a Civil War plate

My horses 

Ran barefoot

The shoe

Remains empty

Empty of luck

Empty of  horse

Just like my heart

Empty of course

Crystal And Mushrooms...

Crystals and fungi
Lay on a log
First they were silent
Then came dialog

Shrooms spoke first
Offering a prophetic scene
Crystal counter-offered
With a clarifying dream

Neither vision was truthful
Both of them lied
Each could deliver a trip
But it could be the last ride

For Poetry Jam:  Poetic Visions 

Poetry Jam WE Are The People

"My heroes have always been cowboys.

And they still are, it seems.

Sadly, in search of, but one step (not my link) in back of, 

Themselves and their slow-movin' dreams".

More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/w/willie_nelson/

My super heroes 

Wore boots and six-guns

Strapped on their hips

In a time when good

Always won

And the good guys

Wore white hats

I always wanted 

To be a Cartwright

To do good

And "save the day"

The closest I came

Was growing Hoss's frame

My weight made horses sway

That's the best I could do, Brian.  Do boots and underwear count as a costume???  Join Poetry Jam for some enjoyable reading and throw some writing in there too.

Feel The Heat at Poetry Jam

I feel the heat

Bone deep and soul wide

I dive into your coolness

Open-eyed

Welcoming the relief

Surfacing

I feel the heat

Join the creative fun at Poetry Jam

The Rocking Chair...

For Poetry Jam:  Rock On

Mamma rocks the hurt away
Daddy rocks away the fear
Granny rocks to my comfort zone
Grandpa rocks the tears

The Bogeyman creaks the closet door
The Black Sheep paces on the squeaky floor
Muffled cries SHRIEK
No More!  No More!

Daddy and Grandpa storm the door
Mamma rocks the hurt away
Granny wipes the tears
The voices silent leave with the fear

"We care for our own"
Danger held at bay
The men returned
The shovels put away

Mamma rocks the hurt away
Daddy rocks away the fear
Granny rocks to my comfort zone
Grandpa rocks the tears

Carry On With Poetry Jam and Real Toads...

The challenge at Poetry Jam this week is to spin a tale about the ability to "Carry On"...our take on the resiliency of the human spirit. Real toads challenges us with Hello/Goodbye.

    

My heart stopped
When his almost did
Do we stop
To count each mistake?
No
We carry on
Moment to moment
Knowing
We are not immortal
But our love is.

Our first hello
Was
Also
The beginning
Of our last goodbye
We carry on
Moment to moment
Knowing
We are mortal
Our love is not.

Poem In Your Pocket/Poetry Jam

What'ssss in your pocketesessss?
Gollum asked.
No rings nor treasures
No fortunes amass

Every day is different
Depending on what is found
But there's always something
Picked up from the ground

Today I have a screw
A broken piece of glass
A fossil from long ago
A flint chip from the past

Every day my pockets
Tell a different tale
Sometimes it's damp tissue
Sometimes a rusty nail

So when you ask
How was your day
You only have to peek
Pockets mirror the way

Joining the fun at Poetry Jam. for a Poem In Your Pocket Day.

Poetry Jam Castle of Glass..

Playing with Poetry Jam...

Just a small thing
A spot on daily life
Like a rock ping
On a car window

Super glue and Duct Tape
Couldn't do the job
Life pushed that ping
From a dot to cracks
Far and wide

Holding the glass together
With bleeding fingertips
Hopelessness is obvious
In my slippery grip

The Night of Dance

He called himself Jesse James
I said I was Belle Star
His leather vest and old fashioned tie
Didn't tell me differently

We waltzed
My feet never touched the floor
His eyes never left my face
He said I danced beautifully for an outlaw

He swore I must be royalty
As he swept me around the floor
No backwoods girl
Could dance so well

We never returned to our tables
Dance after dance
We were lost in the music
And in each others arms

The night ended
Much to our regret
The gentleman bowed
And I curtsied

We parted
Jesse and I
Never to know real names
Always remembering the music

For Poetry Jam  Poetry of Dance and sharing with Imaginary Garden With Real Toads.

Seeking Spirit...

I’ve regressed to past lives
Been Reiki healed
Had my Chakras centered
Read my Shustah cards
Advised by a Shaman
Created a medicine bag
I got in touch with Mother Earth
Had my spirit cleansed
I meditated
I imagined
Took baths in the salt of the sea
Then I finally realized
My condition is up to me.
If I had heard Kellerman
This would have passed
"Life is like a prism.
What you see depends
On how you turn the glass."


Hooking up to Poetry Jam.  Join the fun.

Poetry Jam and Flash55

 She called me Lizzy 

While placing me in a cage

 I overheard humans talking

 About forever home

 Cuddly canines

And something about 

Saving the world 

One dog at a time. 

 I didn't know 

What that meant 

But I do now.

It took awhile

 To know I was home

 At last. 

 I’m a farm dog now.

Poetry Jam

and 

FridayFlash55

For Poetry Jam...

I know forms of poetry
And care not to look today
What comes out
And lays on this page
Is just
Words
Not poetry
So there are no rules
Like paint only becomes art
After enough people say it is
These words can disappear
Be used in different order
But
They
Are
Just
Words
Owned by none, used by many

For Poetry Jam

Happy Thoughts...

Poetry Jam presents a challenge.  Write about happiness.  No sad poems allowed!

Old cars

Sleeping dog

Both Ramblers

In their own right

Does

 The defunct Rambler 

Dream like a dog

And honk while it sleeps?

For Poetry Jam...Walking

A Walk To Inspire at Poetry Jam is a challenge I found through a wonderful poet, Brian.  I thought I might give it a try.  I picked the wrong morning as beautiful days flowed by me this week today I chose to walk.


Winds strong enough to ruffle
Tail feathers on a metal rooster
I walked into the wind
Willing inspiration

I wondered why I picked today
A colder day than any this week
The  ground wet with last night's rain
The sand marked with flows past

Leaves danced in straight lines
A chorus line of early winter
Scattered like my thoughts
Over the winter landscape

Inspiration had been my goal
The day chased me indoors
With no thoughts
Except the price of heating fuel.

Poetry Jam...Throw-A-Way Dogs and Roses

Connecting to Poetry Jam this week.  I was nine hours late last week but wrote a poem anyway.  I do not claim to be a poet but hey, gotta give it a try.  For those who know me, I didn't murder anyone this week.

Love is the subject.  What is our passion is the question.  The answer is competely up to us.

I LOVE

Throw-away-dogs

Drinking from my water garden

At daybreak

Their eyes showing

With uncertainy

 Removed and forgotten

 They are finally home.

Pink roses

In the dark

 Holding fragrant memories

That tickle your nose

And take you back

To Grandma.

A New Discovery...Poetry Jam

I found a new challenge...I'm really challenged every day but I mean a creative challenge.  I need them you know because I head in many directions with my words.
Sometimes they are loud, sometimes soft but I keep 'em comin'.  I hope you're never bored here.
The new playground I just discovered has many participants.  This week's Poetry Jam is Shadows.

The mushroom cast a shadow

In early morning sun

Little did it know by Eve

Evil would be done.

The lady picked so carefully

The edible with the bad

No one would suspect her

For the death of the loathsome cad.

Carefully cleaning all the fungi

She prepared a meal

It was difficult

Her wounds were not yet healed.

The Cad had killed her husband

Her soul mate for life

The selfish little monster

Wanted her for his wife.

The lady had no choice

And stayed to protect her child

But the things that happened

Were absolutely wild.

She sliced and diced

The morsels she'd chosen

Battered and cooked them right

Fresh and not frozen.

With the child asleep

Fires carefully tended

They sat down to dine

One bite and his life ended.

No remorse did she display

Bruises unhealed from the night before

They came to take her away

She sweetly smiled as he lay on the floor.

They declared self defense

her daughter they didn't take her

Eve got a good job

She's the town's new baker.