Tag Archives: Poetry

All the Flowers of my Childhood

In a dream I saw them
as clear as light
All the flowers of my childhood
The greens and golds
I walked past at midnight
Wispy dandelion seeds swept along cedar
by youthful breath
Clover necklaces
with knots in their stems
Distinct as the flowers of my adulthood
White and exotic and some
bearing fruit
Others only peeking long after
sun gone to slumber
Reds and yellows and umber
Some I cannot name
yet some the same
As those in the garden of
spirit’s infancy.

7841eb49-76f5-4462-ab1c-3ae6ac047933-medium16x9_sunflowers3 (1)

Leave a comment

Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet

The Wild Spring Breeze and All It Brings

My eyes cannot view the sea from here
but its brackish scent wafts through
with the course of spring wind

It reminds me of times spent in its warm, emerald waters
and the passage of time

So fleeting time, in its uncharted path
ever shifting like the wild spring currents

If I could go back again
however I cannot

Here I sit in calmness
breathe what the breeze brings
And know we will again
someday.

Spring Breeze

2 Comments

Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet

Night Jasmine

Welcome night jasmine 
to winter’s party
of cool breaths below
and indigo skies above

Welcome to shivery winds
before dawn
and another blood moon
to come

Your scent reaches February’s corners
ticklng the eyes of the passerby

Within that aromatic
flowery sweetness
a place nestled
among fronds to hide

Welcome night jasmine
will you linger
past the season’s
final song

And dance to spring’s
chittering cadence
I feel it
coming on.

2 Comments

Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet

To the Garden of Butterflies

To the butterfly garden I ran
its beckoning pulsed against the imminent sadness
of mourning and fading dreams
Its lush green vines and scattered wildflowers
a magnet to the journey of my feet
And just as I longed for and expected
when I entered there was no one there
Only the Longwing and Cloudless Sulphur
to flit on flower and autumn wind
to taste the nectar and dance again
And take with it the heaviness and suffering
endured
release it to the sky
so the sorrow would not weigh upon
so heavily
and my spirit may too
freely fly

2 Comments

Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet

Walkabout in the Land of Fallen Trees

And we passed the place
where we weren’t supposed to go

A hidden corner
on a rare chilly morn

Crunching of foot upon acorn husks
and withered needles of pine

She kicked sawdust
on me unknowingly

And he could neither
be still nor quiet

A spiderweb clinging
to the last branch outstretched

The hawk gliding high above
keeping a close eye

This is where we found
the dying babes of the forest

The wind tumbling them
to their last breaths

But this is where we sang an old song
I did not know you knew

And held hands distended
in our wooden circle

in the land of the fallen trees.

fallen trees

7 Comments

Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet

A Migration of Butterflies

Would the waves take me away
from the sorrow of life’s pain
along the crest we could fly
like the flitting migration of butterflies

Beyond the milky way
beside the gulf coast shore
its freckled sparkling light
as if never seen before

Time has ceased upon this
corner of earth
and we are sentenced to it
yet never pardon us from this moment

The only passing of minutes
by the slow descent of the sun
and the dance of insect wings
never coming undone.

3 Comments

Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet

The Rabbit Outside My Door 

A rabbit lives just outside my door
I call him Bun-bun

He travels the cloud-filled night
And nestles all day while the sun shines bright

For him a cozy nook under a pygmy palm
watching me leave with each new dawn

And when I arrive alongside sunset’s burn
the alcove is empty, awaiting his return

What goes on behind his big, black eyes
Where does he go underneath starry skies

It has become quite routine
for me to greet this cute little thing

And I shall be saddened so
when his nook is bare forevermore.

images

Leave a comment

Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet

Along Autumn’s Shadowy Road

Along Autumn’s shadowy road
among scattered leaves
and ever-blooming hibiscus
a scent surrounds and encapsulates
a time when you were here

Lace curtains and tobacco
warm biscuits and apple butter
a long drive to your houses
the train chugging beside the highway
or heard in the distance at night

Afternoons on the red metal swing
climbing trees
stepping on crab apples
dancing clothes on the line
robust tomatoes in the garden

You came to me in a dream
respectively
young faces
and smiling eyes

Along Autumn’s shadowy road
among a post-summer wind
a lamenting of the past
and an emptiness in the heart
yet peace settles in

Still I stare at the photographs
and pretend you are just a long drive
away.

4 Comments

Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet

Farewell September

We came back to thank god
all is ok
but the stench of humid decay
and fallen trees
rises like a bubbling swamp
and nighttime loneliness
pricks mockingly at the heart

Flood waters and sink holes
rip and drown requisite dreams meant for peaceful sleep

Blinding sunlight falling with the spit of rain
I want to sleep next to the open window again

A disconnect with those who stayed
and those who love but far away
a rash urge to flee again
or chop off all the hair
and wish it to grow back times ten

You are not sad
and I hope you never have to contend

I’ll take it all and bear through it as I wish September to end.

3 Comments

Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet

Breakfast in Milan

Green tea and almond cake
two cappuccinos and a cream-filled croissant
ordered in broken Italian
among the bright white cosmetic lights
of the Milan airport

Breakfast before our flight back home

Your happy-go-lucky smile
trumping my usual pre-flight nerves
I ordered you another brioche
and they understood.

img_0288

1 Comment

Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet