Thursday, May 31, 2018

PAD 20 from an earlier line


Still praying for grandkids
I’m suffering from grandkid envy
Kids, get with the program

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

PAD 20 from earlier line


Cease pounding on yourself with words
Treat yourself like a friend
Your words like hammer
Do you want to build a house?
Or beat your friend black and blue.

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

PAD 20 from an earlier line, rubaiyat


When Things Slow Down

When things slow down and we’ve more time
I’ll write some more in prose and rhyme
And travel off to parts unknown
Explore some mountains that we’ll climb

We marvel at how time has flown
And sickness our fine plans have thrown
Now time is taken in his care
And where we’re headed seems unknown

Somehow it just does not seem fair
A little more than we can bear
We thought we’d have such time to spare
At least we now have time for prayer

Monday, May 28, 2018

PAD 20 Using a line from a poem written earlier


Building a Better World

To build a better world, kindness is the glue,
not the watery wimpy type used in gradeschool,
but the kind a friend of mine used on a teacup
and had to go to the ER to remove it from her finger.

The kindness that binds people together,
inciting them to reach out and give selflessly.
The kindness that knows no strangers.
The kindness that goes the extra mile.

The two-part-epoxy-type of kindness
that is strong, flexible, and doesn’t let go
in harsh elements or abrasive situations.
That’s what will help build a better world.

Sunday, May 27, 2018

PAD 19 blank thread, Hir a Thoddaid


Rescue

The thread in her life became tangled
Her feelings were mish-mashed and mangled
Regardless of how her views angled
She began to feel hopelessly strangled
Then he came along and sang her his song
And he stirred up feelings newfangled

Saturday, May 26, 2018

PAD 19 blank thread, haibun


Dangling Thread

I hung on to the dangling thread of sanity. Moving forward knowing God was there to catch me, but thinking of the great distance to fall if He let me. But somehow when my world seemed to unravel the thread held. He didn’t let me fall.

Trusting God
Relying on faith but
Sight feels better

Friday, May 25, 2018

PAD 19 blank thread, Gwawdodyn


Red Thread

She stared at the red thread in her jeans
It embarrassed a girl in her teens
Her mother dead, left only red thread
She would find some in blue by all means

Thursday, May 24, 2018

PAD 18 temptation


Desires by Connie Peters
After "I Ask You" by Billy Collins
A Golden Shovel poem

Sometimes I wonder what
I would have if I could have anything. I picture it like a scene
from a movie. I would be thin and rich and riding along in my sports car. I would
be cruising by the ocean on a spring day. I
would have the radio turned up, not a care in the world. I would want
a companion or two, perhaps a different one every day from past friends to
my current relationships. I would be
happy and occupied in writing things I want to write and enveloped
in a life that’s fun and fulfilling. I’d go kayaking in
the ocean and have beach parties in the sand with guitars playing and more
delicious food than I could possibly eat. But better than
that would be living whatever life, knowing God designed me to do this.

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

PAD 18 temptation


Chocolate Calling

Chocolate calls
From the cupboard
Getting louder
And louder
Till I succumb

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

PAD 18 temptation


Thou Shall

It’s not so much doing the don’ts that tempt me,
but not doing the dos.
Sometimes I don’t feel like
Caring
Loving
Praying
Giving
Serving
Forgiving,
Persevering
Being Patient
           Kind
           Gentle
           Thankful    
Sometimes I’d just as soon hide away
and do nothing.
I have to rely on Jesus
like 12-steppers depend
on their “Higher Power.”

Monday, May 21, 2018

PAD 17 love


Haunts

I think of those boyfriends of the past,
how we spent so much time together.
Inseparable. Crazy about each other.
Seems odd how two people can be so close,
then so far apart.

I don’t know what their lives are like.
They are no longer a part of my life.
But they are still a part of me.
They each left a little piece of themselves
for me to carry around till the end of time.

Sunday, May 20, 2018

PAD 17 love shadorma


I love You
You are IT for me
Way, truth, light
Hope, joy, peace
Sending You hugs and kisses
Thank You, loving God.

Saturday, May 19, 2018

PAD 17 love


Not Peas and Carrots

We’ve loved each other for nearly forty years,
but we don’t go together like peas and carrots.
I like to travel, he likes to stay put.
I’m a writer, he doesn’t like to read.
I like to do things, he likes having done them.
I have dreams and plans, he goes with the flow.
We’ve gone through all our wedding vows;
good times or bad, sickness or health,
richer or poorer, better or worse or worser still.
We’re more like oil and vinegar, best when shaken.

Friday, May 18, 2018

PAD 16 Favorite


No-Bake Cookies

Chocolate peanut butter oatmeal cookies—No bake,
I do not make them for fear of eating myself sick.
I’ll bake other cookies, muffins or cake.
Chocolate peanut butter oatmeal cookies—No bake,
They’re so good they’re bad—No fake.
Eating them is one habit I couldn’t kick.
Chocolate peanut butter oatmeal cookies—No bake.
I do not make them for fear of eating myself sick.

Thursday, May 17, 2018

PAD 16 favorite


Favorite Names

My nephew’s wife is having a baby.
Family members are putting possible names in the hat.
Figuring they were cool up-to-date millennials,
I perused popular names for ideas.
I suggested Olivia, Jasmine, Elena, Mia, Jewel, Ruby and Emily.
My sister reminded me that they might have a boy.
Why didn’t I think of that? Prophetic? We’ll see in August.
So I picked Jaxon, Nathan, Levi, Jeremy, Xavier and Zachary.
Then she told me they are going for traditional names like
Joe, David, John, Mary, Ann and Sarah.
Oh, well. Still praying for grandkids.
Maybe someday I’ll hold a baby Xavier or Jasmine.

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

PAD 15 metaphor


Tightrope Walker

I am a tightrope walker
Trying to stay on the narrow way
But a clumsy clown

You are my balance.
You are my center of gravity.
You are my safety net.

Monday, May 14, 2018

PAD 15 metaphor


She was cellophane.
Simple, transparent, keeping things fresh.
Strong in some ways, easily torn in others.

Sunday, May 13, 2018

PAD 15 metaphor



I am a Fencepost

One man actually told another in my hearing,
“This is between you and me and the fencepost.”
I was the fencepost.

Strong, quiet, easily overlooked
Keeping out the predators
Keeping in what needs protection

Saturday, May 12, 2018

PAD 14 report


Vacation Report

Who: Two sisters
What: Will be traveling
When: May
Where: Scotland and Ireland
Why: Retirements celebration
How: By taking a deep breath and going for it.

Friday, May 11, 2018

PAD 14 Report Fibonacci


Bags
Town
Southwest-
Wyoming
Four hundred plus folks
I step on the gas as we pass
Afraid, for some reason, it will capture and keep me.


Thursday, May 10, 2018

PAD 14 report


My Sister to the Rescue

Yesterday, my sister awoke
to a busy day of travel plans,
helping her husband on a project
and making phone calls, when she heard a knock
on her door and opened it to her neighbor
saying an opossum was stuck in her fence.

She called the animal control warden
whom she assisted by moving a board
while he carefully caged the opossum,
a mama, as evidenced by her babies,
some in her pouch and one, on the ground,
which happily nursed when reunited with Mom.

Mom Opossum didn’t make a fuss,
apparently relieved to be rescued
from her uncomfortable predicament.
She was later released to a nearby woods.
Just when you think your to-do list is too full
an opossum gets stuck in your fence.

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

PAD 13 insect shadorma


Honeybees

As a kid
I would run barefoot
All summer
To my aunt’s
Through clover and step on bees
Then I’d be hopping

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

PAD 13 insects


Butterflies

It doesn’t seem right
that a butterfly is an insect.
It’s not creepy or crawly,
but more like a living flower.

How blessed you feel
when one lands on your shoulder,
unlike other bugs that send you
into a spastic dance or full retreat.

No, it just doesn’t seem right.

Monday, May 7, 2018

PAD 13 insect, epitaph


Fly Epitaph

Here lies a persistent fly that once buzzed about.
He couldn’t understand why I wanted him out.

Sunday, May 6, 2018

PAD 12 lament, elegy


Lamentation

I think of my parents,
aunts and uncles,
grandparents,
other aged ones
who already passed on
without relating
their stories.
I lament my lack
of curiosity.

Saturday, May 5, 2018

PAD 12 lament


Missing Uncle

I was twelve when you left,
one of my favorite uncles.
You were teaching me
to play guitar at the time.
I never have learned guitar.
I married a man who plays, though.
Sorry you didn’t get to meet him,
or my children or any of your
great nieces and nephews.
You fell in love with a married woman
and ran off with her.
I have my doubts that she was worth it.

Friday, May 4, 2018

PAD 12 lament


Too Congenial

In our thirty-eight years of marriage
I wondered what it would take
to get you to go to the doctor’s.
Now, I know. Two strokes later,
I’m so sorry I didn’t insist.

It may have involved
throwing a temper tantrum,
going on strike against you,
threatening to leave,
but now I wish I would have.

Taking your blood pressure,
hours of speech, occupational
physical therapies, doctor visits,
and monitoring medicines  
has become our daily life.

At times, I need to be more demanding.

Thursday, May 3, 2018

PAD 11 warning


Gambling Eternity

If you persist in unbelief be sure
that you’re okay with creation in all
its complexities from neutrinos
to galaxies just happened. You need to be
confident that the three hundred prophecies
Jesus fulfilled were mere coincidence,
that His predictions of the future being
fulfilled in the morning news is just a fluke.
Be certain that Jesus was just kidding when
He said, I am the way and the truth
and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through me” (John 14:6 NIV)
and that “For God so loved the world that he gave 
his one and only Son, that whoever believes 
in him shall not perish but have eternal life
(John 3:16 NIV) is pie in the sky. Because
you’re betting your eternity on it.