Too Many Stones

have been gathered to place on the headstones of those we've lost.  I've heard it's a Jewish tradition. I'm not Jewish but I bring stones that make me think of you.  If I brought every stone as I thought of you there would only be a mountain where you lay deep inside no longer with the living but always in my heart.

Poets United Midweek Motif~Mountain

Fiery Sadness

Collage writing prompt by MindloveMisery's Menagerie.
shared with Poets United

Quotes by Patti Smith

"Never let go of that fiery sadness called desire" 

"Got to lose control before you take control."

i spiral 

downward

desire 

lost

of toys

of nature

of man

of me

i spiral

I've Been Honored

at Poets United.  I am speechless.  Thank you, Sherry, and thank you, Poets United.
http://poetryblogroll.blogspot.com/2015/11/blog-of-week-gail-at-farm.html

I am a little "under the weather" so I will be breaking for a few days until the fog clears.  Have a blessed week.

We received two and a half inches of life giving rain over a three day period.  The trees are smiling but our ponds are low.

Wishing all of you the amount of rain you need.

Animation Creation

Animation
Claymation
Staycation
Vacation

Times where imagination is revived
                    roll playing comes alive
costumes created from fun and fright
                    and deadly tales survive

How handy to come just before
the week we celebrate death and more
So animation changed its theme
and became a tale to make you scream

Razors in apples, poison and ground glass
our children are laughing but will they last?
Another tale still told
of people attacking the traditions of old

So paint your face boldly
make your laugh deep
be a little scary
but be thankful for your treats

Happy Halloween to one and all
Fit all the wild into one night
'Cause the next one comes
A year from tonight.

For Poets United

Lost Words

this week i lost my words
they just slipped away
when I wasn't watching
i only noticed when they
didn't come out to play

this week i lost my words
are they hiding away
from the end of summer
or are they afraid
to speak and feel betrayed

this week i lost my words

Poets United:  Midweek Motif

Good Poetry Is

a rock that shines in the shadows
a tree that bends with no wind
a water plant in drought
stardust in your hair
water droplets after a rain

"good" poetry comes
writing itself
leaving me surprised
and breathless
with its truth.

good poetry
spews and bubbles
like a science student volcano
and grows and flows
i transcribe the dictation

and when its finished
i step back and read
filled with joy
and say, Wow!
who wrote that?

Poets United:  Midweek Motif

The Joy of Poetry

Pep Rally

Pep 

Rally

The band played 

as the cheerleaders

danced their admiration

football players flexed

the crowd cheered

flashes seared 

the night

with

hope

the field emptied

except 

for a 

crumpled 

schedule

tumbling 

in the wind

as

the 

lights

went 

out

one

by 

one

Connecting with Poets United:  Poetry Pantry

Say The Names

Sing the names
the forgotten
the fallen
the gone ones

Sing them loud
without prejudice
without rancor
with pride

Say the names of those
who could not choose
those who rose
for causes and fell

Do not sing in color
do not sing for sides
do not sing madly
sing for honor

Sing the names
fly their flags
remember them
say their names

History cannot be rewritten
nor the slate of atrocities
wiped clean
we must say their names

Allow them to live
in us in humanity
say the names
sing the truth

For Poets United

Controversy and Culture

Colors of Night

Colors of night
wild and free
unseen voices
serenade me

Fear not the dark
listen to songs
and flights
with romantic tones

Bats wing unseen
almost silently fly
while frog and crickets sing
fireflies blink amorous sighs

Deep in the dark
predators roam
who feed on the songsters
no right or wrong

Day breaks
night beauty fades
with the sun's light

dark feast degrades

Rest for the return of the night.

Poets United Midweek Motif

Wisdom

in dappled shade the damsels play

avoiding the spear of the midday sun

dogs cool in rolling steams

knowing staying cool is number one

humans toil in hammering sun

thinking it's important 

to get things done

we should mimic the creatures

that have more sense  

work at dawn and dusk

in between 

take care of us

For Poets United

Mary Was An Astronaunt

The world was full of pestilence

Only a donkey to be found

But that's no consolation

Must keep southward bound

Hollow breaths soil depleted

Onward they did go

Twenty steps a minute

The going was very slow

Leaning into night

Against a purple sky

Feeble were the hopes

They would get by

Mother Mary was a astronaut*

Father Joseph a working man

They traveled on for glory

Found not in a promised Inn

The mystics watched the journey

And knew from whence they came

Betting on the odds

If good or bad would win this game 

Oh, the glory of a stable

The cradle of a King 

Christ was born

Oh, how the angels did sing!

In swaddling clothes a mother held

The King of all man kind

"Happy Mother's Day" Joseph said

As the Northern Star did shine

 *I apologize.  There was no sacrilegious intent with this poem.  I was prompted.  I wrote.

For Magpie Tales who supplied the picture and for Sunday's Whirligig who provided the words and for Poets United who is celebrating Mother's Day.

To all mothers and all people who "mother" I wish you a Happy Mother's Day!

Mother Earth Cries

I was there for the first Earth Day
A new modern idea
That lived before in all generations

Many people do not hear
As they toss Styrofoam and plastics
Thinking selfishly

Naming a day does not wake the world
We are a society of disposable madness
Appliances, computers, phones...

Some businesses think
There's an infinite supply
For their demand

Dad knew there would be A Silent Spring
Before Rachel Carson wrote it
We lived to prevent this death

My ancestor's from Ireland
Leaving the Great Potato Famine
Settled here

Native ancestors
Lived by the rule
Take one, leave two

No one knows but
My ancestor's did
And passed that down

We are just the caretakers
Our duty is not to destroy
But enrich the land

Recycle, reuse, repurpose, words
I learned at my grandparents' knees
It's our duty to continue

Mother Earth cries
For the loss, for the madness
That rules the world today

You can change that
Beginning now
Nourish The Mother

Or we may waken
To a silent world
A dead world

To only remember trees
bird songs, grass,
frogs and teeming oceans

A mere beginning
To death of Her/Us
Mother Earth cries

Written from my heat

for Poets United Earth Day

Five Minutes with a Child...Enlightenment

I read three books

Got three Skittles

I read at home

I get stickers

Get a bunch

I get a toy

MS E made a volcano

She dug a hole 

with her hammer

Poured stuff in

Where are the frogs?

The volcano blew up

MS E put a can in

We put dinosaurs all around

but when she poured the liquid

the pterodactyl died

I kissed Summer all day

Ms E can't hear

She's old

And she's nice

I was good today

Played outside twice

All the dinosaurs died

I really like Olivia

My pictures, Z's story with enlightenment for the day and foolishness because I should listen more.
Poets United

The Big C

A man drives up
drawing deeply on
his last cigarette
before he joins
the room of people
with one thing in common
The Big C

From young to old
they sit as if alone
not sharing
No comradery here

Angiosarcoma
Testicular
Ovarian
Melanoma
Colorectal
The words lay
in the middle of the room
no one wants to own them

I imagine
what might be said
"I lost my breast"
"Damn stuff took my balls"
"With only one lung I still smoke,
yep, one after another"
"Gotta die some way.."

They didn't get to choose their death
unlike suicides of great variety
Through little fault of their own
Cancer chooses them
as if a Grim Reaper's
bony finger of death
points
you by cancer
  and you
     and you
        and you

The room of silent people
solemnly wait for their trials
and their sentences
"Two months"
"Nothing we can do"
"Remission"
The Grim Reaper
stands here unseen
but they know
his name is Cancer

Poets United

Fashion

I have none
Comfort is my goal
In warm weather I'm cool
In winter I avoid cold

You may find me in the grocery store
Wearing fuzzy shoes
Could be some pajamas
Every day or two

I must have elastic bands
And long and floppy shirts
Even a base ball cap
Doesn't hurt

Those days I don't comb my hair
My hat is my best friend
With a big smile
My garments don't offend

I'm at the age
I have no one to impress
Comfort is my king
I just don't care I guess

I hear a whisper
every now and then
"Oh, don't mind her
She's gone around the bend".

For Poets United

In The Seventh Layer

a thorny tree deformed
bears poison fruit
caught between bloody rivers
and flaming sand
eternal impalement
of my own making
awaits

Choosing the seventh layer, second circle of Dante's Inferno, his epic poem describing nine layers of hell.  I also used seven lines for Poets Untied prompt of Seventh anything.

Looking For Direction

I am not a writer but I've love answering the challenge of prompts.  Maybe because they have structure and guidelines like a school assignment. I did love the structure of a class room.

At Poets United: I Wish I'd Written This I had an epiphany after reading a Charles Bukowski poem.  I realized sometimes I force my writing, rarely with good results but mostly I would write an uninspired jumble of words that sometimes made sense and sometimes rhymed.  Many were pieces I had thrown together for the guidelines and not something I felt from the heart. People left kind comments and encouraged me to continue to write by complimenting my deep messages there merely by accident.

I may simply be an example of an Insecure Writer but I don't think so. Unless my writing is like Bukowski said  "...when it is truly time, and if you have been chosen, it will do it by itself and it will keep on doing it until you die or it dies in you."  I have had those moments but not every time I write.

So I continue from here and see what happens.

War

Is never pretty.
We tend to paint pictures
Where the Good
The Bad are labeled.
Yet neither speak.

Ike was a hero
To some
But I was told
He was crazy
The man who led
The allies to victory
With overwhelming costs
Was a crazy man

Who are we to judge
Actions that are past
We did not wear
Their uniforms nor their shoes
We did not lay in foxholes
And hear the screams

We rally
Scream "No War!"
In violent voices
And mistakenly think
Our violence begets peace

We cannot think
We know the answers
The solutions
In every instance of violence
There is a choice
We do not know
The heavy weight of choice
Until we alone must choose

I sing "Peace"
And
Soulfully
Hope
I
Never
Have
To
Choose

Sometimes there are reasons to war.

Poets United

The Key To Success...

A job no matter how large is only as big as the parts divided.  The entirety would scare anyone. So I try to remember the answer to How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.

You have to look at jobs that way or we would all throw our hands up and quit.

THE KEY
To success is ignoring the whole
Look only in front of you
Don't think as you go
Divide your tasks in smaller bits
The task will be finished
Lickety split

The grounds are slowly
Coming back
The path to the neighbor
Is open wide
At one piece of fence
You can see outside.

The key is
Not to fight
Take it slowly
Bite after bite.

For Poets United Midweek Motif

Darkness for Poets United...

In the darkness death crawled
A slithering snake unseen
But duty called
Light appeared
Making Lil our heroine and queen.

For Poets United