Poetic Asides useful item

A long, round, pink sponge

fits on the end of a spoon

to help my husband use his left hand,

since now his right hand is useless.

A care giver has become a care-givee.

elegy almost

Miracle on June 11^th 2017

I would write an elegy but, you see, you didn’t stay dead.

Your wife and daughters cried and moaned in church

when they saw your blank eyes and greenish-gray skin.

They touched your wrist, your neck—no pulse.

I left the church with some others, thinking you were gone.

I thought about how your homecoming would be sweet.

I’d go home and put your wife on my widows prayer list,

but no, I’d wait for confirmation. There were people praying.

Then the amazing news that you visited heaven and returned.

You saw a dusty road, Jesus and millions of children,

We serve an awesome God. May others receive Him

because of your testimony of the things you’ve seen.

Happy 63^rd Anniversary! 

Couplet

I ponder as he splishes, splashes in his bath

Allowing my muse to emerge from the waters

Cinquain

Bath

Warm bubbles

Relaxing, soaking, contemplating

Relieved, peaceful, hopeful, cheerful

Water

Devotional prayer

My Everything

It’s taking me awhile

to focus on You

and not be so distracted

by so many things.  

Sorry it takes me that long.

You make my life worth living.

You are what I have going for me.

Not my family and friends.

Not my church. Not my writing.

Not my money. Not my travels.

You are IT for me. I love You.

You are my strength and life.

You are the lover of my soul.

You promise me eternity.

Thank You this life isn’t all there is.

Prayer from devotions

Partnership Prayer

Sometimes when I feel sluggish,

it feels like I’ve always been this way  

and always will be.

Thank You, that’s not true.

Thank you for energy, motivation

and for when I can think clearly.

Lord, I want to partner with You.

I want to write what’s on Your heart

with words that will glorify Your name.

Help me be sensitive to Your Voice.

Please forgive me for all the times

I tarnish Your name with my words.

.

I get nervous about spending my time.

I’m so afraid I’ll waste it.

Lord, help me rest in You and be grateful

for time to spend in prayer and Bible Study.

If I don’t get anything else done today,

I know I chose the best part.

I give You this time back

and trust that You will let Your peace

and hope flood my soul

and that things will work out

 much better today

than if I hadn’t spent time with You.

So today, I eagerly look forward

to what You will work out for my good

 because I love You

and am called to Your purpose.

Please carry out Your purpose in me,

my family, my town, state, country, world.

Poetic Asides form poem

Sweet Sixteen

(Quatern)

Was sweet sixteen so long ago

A high school junior with long hair

A date who drove like A. J. Foyt

No clue to what would lie ahead

I had my friends and Jesus, too

Was sweet sixteen so long ago

The moods that went so up and down

And having fun my main delight

The memories are jumbled now

The speeding car on PA turns

Was sweet sixteen so long ago

The many kisses in the night

The A. J. Foyt guy’s still alive

But he’s so far back in the past

I’m married now with two grown kids

Was sweet sixteen so long ago

From morning devotions

Thank You, God, Anyway

Yesterday—lazy and lethargic. Thank You

for an encouraging note from a friend,  

an invitation to a birthday lunch,

and a grocery trip with the family.  

Even though, when I went to the lunch

I was so rushed and stressed and cloudy

I wrote out the birthday card

to the wrong friend.

From morning devotions

Thank You, God

Thank You for this wonderful day.

An early start. An early a nap,

 A friend in need of a ride.

Prayer time with other friends.

A quiet time with You.

Crossing to-dos off my list.

Making plans for fun days.

Thank You for loving me.

From morning devotions

Foggy Morning Prayer

I’m feeling very foggy at 7AM.

Thankfully not 5 AM like yesterday.

Lord, please guide me as I make my plans.

You have a much better perspective than I have.

Sometimes when I get up in the morning,

 it seems I’ve forgotten how to live.

If I could do anything I want to do,

I don’t know what that would be.

Nothing appeals to me right now.

Lord, remind me to focus on You.

Please, help me wake up

and get more enthused about living. 

SCWA entry wordle

No Greater Love

The lonely woman dreamed illusive dreams

Her bitterness engulfed her like a flood

Her sordid past did hammer her with screams  

And fenced her off with memories of blood

The storm of guilt condemned her without end

It crackled through her veins like burning fire

It bugged her that she didn’t have a friend

She went full tilt into the mental mire

Her neighbors thrived on each exciting scoop

Her finger hesitated on the dial

She wouldn’t call that gossipy vile group

One golden thought did bring about a smile

With speed, she fell upon her knees in prayer

Beneath the moon, she met His loving care 

Oahu

A plume of white water

Waved from the azure ocean

Against the indigo sky

Oahu photo

Tall slender palms

Silhouetted against an amethyst sky

Looking like giant whirligigs 

PA repair

Through the Fog

A stirring in her heart and mind, a cry

A nudge, a poke, a groping through the fog

A search, a hope for a repair, a sigh

The flow of thoughts come jammed like stream with log

A quiver and a try to find her way

A wrinkle grows impossible to fix

The crushing weight of time’s demanding sway

Patchwork of light and darkness in a mix

She goes full steam ahead and gathers strength

So like a blasting rocket, she won’t stop

The charm compels her swiftly go the length

She plugs along and pushes for the top

Her hands grasp other hands in simple peace

At last she breathes and laughs in sweet release 

Poetic Asides Betrayal

Cell Phone Betrayal

I hadn’t seen her for a year.

We settled in to a Scrabble game,

as our custom. Then her cell phone rang.

She answered. A couple more turns.

The cell phone rang and she answered.

Mid game and guess what.

Several more times the cell phone rang

and she answered. We finished the game.

and then the next. Talked little.

As I listened to one-sided conversations,

I felt betrayed.

PA bug

What Bug Is This?

What bug is this, it’s such a pest

Up my arm is creeping

On tiny feet, looks for a treat

I swat it and it’s leaping

This, this, a nasty flea

From my dog, a gift to me

Haste, haste and bring the spray

Spay rugs, the couch, and pillows

PA Land of...

Land of Host Home for Developmentally Disabled Adults

It’s a strange land

where common rules

don’t necessarily apply.

It’s a land

most don’t visit,

let alone live there.

It’s a land where people

think you’re a saint

or insane.

Some days you think,

Why me?

The other, why me!

With inspections

you feel like

you live in a fishbowl.

But other times,

you feel forgotten

and alone.

Sometimes you wish

you could be

forgotten and alone.

Sometime you experience

great joy, sometimes

you would like to see it end.

Sometime it’s easy.

Sometime in the wee hours

it’s impossible.

It’s always relentless.

PA historical persona

Great-grandfather Matthew

Lovely Mary said I do

to the preacher, before God,

committing her love to me

for better or worse

till death do us part.

I know she means it.

We’ve been driving

up the Pennsylvania mountainside

in my creaky wagon

pulled by my trusty horse.

My little cabin’s in sight.

What will she think

when she realizes,

for better or for worse,

I already have nine children?

When they meet,
I'll say, 
"There's your kids."

Lovely Mary, what will you do

when nine pair of eyes

are looking at you? 

PA snap judgment

Stand Closer

Ae Freisligh

Brushing skittish alpaca

Stand closer others told me

It hurts less when they’ll kick ya

As they attempt to bolt free

Though I had this truth in-head

As their back legs came rushing

I’d leap like a youth instead

Then I’d continue brushing 

PAD 23 Last Blank

Last Days

Faith grows cold

Persecution grows

Disasters

Poverty

Plus wars and rumors of war

Watch for His return

PA repair

Daddy Can

My four-year-old

brought me her burst balloon.

“Fix it,” she said.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I can’t.”

With confidence, she proclaimed,

“Daddy can!”

Reminding me to bring

impossibly broken things

to God, knowing,

“Daddy can!” 

PA pieces

Jigsaw Patience

Life in fragments

Waiting on God

to bless in His timing.

Fitting pieces together.

Making a beautiful picture.

PA forever

Love, Grace, Joy

Smiles, Laughter, Singing

Cool colors

Fresh fragrance

Tears and sickness washed away

No need for the sun

PA reconnect

Reconnect

For the last two and one half years,

I’ve been taking college classes,

one after the other, back to back

except for Christmas vacation.

Somehow at the end Shakespeare,  

in mid-May, I have two weeks off

to do whatever I want and need to do,

during warm weather and longer days.

It will give me a glimpse of what

it will be like when I have no more school,

when I’ll have a chance to reconnect

with my life as I once knew it.

Visit friends in another town on Saturday,

Work on my writing projects and submit them.

Take a long walk without a timer in my pocket.

Take a day to shop and lunch with a friend.

I know it will go fast and I’m thinking

how to best use those two weeks.

Clean the house? Landscape the yard?

Take a trip? Or absolutely nothing?

Or maybe a little bit of everything. 

PAD 30 The Blank

The Snow Outside

The snow outside confuses me.

I must remind myself what month it is

So I won’t break out the Christmas decorations

My lilacs are afraid to bloom

The mower’s in the garage

The AC unit is still wrapped, waiting

April showers bring May flowers

April snow brings sighs.

PAD 30 The blank

The Snore

My snore

Shakes rafters

Calls to creatures

Drives hubby out of the room

But my childlike client

Likes to imitate my snore

And it makes me laugh

It makes the snore worth it

PAD 30 The Blank

The Last Day of the April Challenge

I approach it with some relief

A little sorrow, a pinch of grief

It’s fun to have poets with whom to play

I wish poem-a-day was here to stay 

PAD 29 metric

New Tricks

They say the metric system is simple as can be

Just learn the basic units, but it sounds so hard to me

And learning the prefixes can set my mind a-jumble

Putting it all together makes my confidence crumble

But my heart’s desire is to travel far and wide

And to learn the world’s science on the side

And at home to bake with liter and gram

So set to learn metric is what I am.  

PAD 29 metric

Meet Her

The poetess marks time with words.

She taps out all the stresses and

she smiles and autographs her books

for those who want to shake her hand.

PAD 29 metric

Catching Up

I remember when one of my elementary teachers

taught us about the metric system

and she said that someday the United States

would catch up with the rest of the world

and go to meters, liters and grams.

So I figured that when I became really old,

maybe twenty-five or thirty,

we’d be using the metric system.

Now, I’m about as old as Grandma was then

and we’re still speaking feet, quarts and pounds.

PAD 28 smell

Lilacs

To me, nothing smells better than lilacs.

Their fragrance reminds me of large bushes

growing in my Pennsylvania neighborhood

where I grew up, their smell signaling

the end of school and time to run barefoot

for the next three months, until school again.