Poetic Asides Poetic Bloomings 23-2 appointment

 Divine Appointment

 

When we met we knew

our lives were changed

for the better.

Poetic Asides Poetic Bloomings 23-1 appointment

 Bears, Children and Space Aliens

 

I have an appointment

in a forest

at a Nature Center

to help four classes

of fifth graders

write a poem.

 

I must be a little nervous

because I dreamed

that a bear came up

and we all stood

on a picnic table

to make ourselves

look bigger.

It worked.

The bear went away.

 

Then a spaceship landed.

We adults went in

and the aliens

wanted to buy

the children

to eat them.

Of course we refused.

 

No matter how class

turns out today,

I know it’s got to be

better than that.

 

Poetic Asides Poetic Bloomings 22-3 nature

 Clearly Seen

 

A poem

A song

A painting

A dance

Says a lot

about the artist.

 

A tree

An animal

An ocean

A mountain

Says a lot

about the Creator.

 

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. Romans 1:20

Poetic Asides Poetic Bloomings 22-2

 Spring Activities

Rain patters washing the air and promising green

to grasses, and leaves of flowers and trees.

Brooks bubble with new enthusiasm.

Tulips burst open aflame in orange and red.

Yellow daffodils bow demurely

and tall pines sing and sway in the wind.

Apple blossoms surpass any expensive perfume.

Butterflies dance about like tiny ballerinas

Birds go about their industry of nest building.

Goat kids bounce about as if they’re on springs.

Human kids laugh and fly kites in the meadow.

New lambs and calves scamper in the fields.

Fish and frogs in the pond rejoice in their freedom.

Fluffy clouds float by in a pale blue sky.

Poetic Asides Poetic Bloomings 22-1 nature

 Colorado forest

Tall pines swaying

Wafting fragrance

Swaying, displaying

Trails

Children hiking, discovering

Poetic Asides Poetic Bloomings 21-3 blank me

Oh, Me! Tow Me!

 

My only car that I have ever liked.

We’ve driven over hundred thousand miles.

But lately, number of its troubles spiked.

And this has added to my daily trials.

 

It makes me dream of cars in many styles.

I hate to say goodbye to Prius friend.

But think its time is coming to an end.

poetic Asides Poetic Bloomings 21-2 blank me

 Don’t Follow Me

 

Don’t follow me, because I often lose my way.

I aim in the right direction, but find myself off track.

Despite my best intentions, I often go astray.

At times, I’m adrift like a sail boat with no wind.

Nevertheless, I keep going come what may.

At times, I have to double back.

 

Maybe I too often listen to what others say,

Thinking that it’s knowledge that I lack

I look for black and white, but find mere gray

And like the blind man’s friends, wonder who had sinned.

My lifeline has always been to pray.

But it doesn’t take long for things to go out of whack.

 

However, it’s the process day to day.

To learn to tighten up the slack.

Up and down, like spiritual ballet.

Take a guess at what to do then rescind.

To work hard, but have fun and play.

There’s pros and cons of not running with the pack.

Poetic Bloomings Poetic Asides 21-1 Blank Me

 Blank Me

 

I am blank.

Stuck.

No news.

No views.

No inspiration.

No images dancing around in my head.

Poets all around me

paint their brilliance in words.

And here I am,

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Prayer

I Trust You

 

I will keep

pressing in.

I will take prayer

seriously

and will not lose heart.

I trust You

to take care

of my problems

which cause me

so much grief.

I trust You

to make things clear

and give

me direction

for my life.

I trust You to give

me my heart’s desires.

I trust You

to intervene

in the lives

of the wounded.

I trust You to remove blinders

from unbelievers’ hearts.

I trust You 

to do a new work

on the earth. 

I trust You

to help

us be ready

when You come

suddenly

in the clouds.

Poetic Asides Poetic Bloomings 20-4 love

 Love

 

L ord Jesus left Heaven

O pened the way for us to go there

V alliant against the

E nemy, sin and death.

Bussokusekika

 In the Dust

(bussokusekika)

 

In the moment here

In my living room writing

Like calm before storm

Soon will be a caregiver

Cleaning up a lady’s home

While my house sits in the dust

Poetic Asides Poetic Bloomings 20-3 love

 Love

 

Drawing, compelling, magnetic

Driving, exciting,

Expectations

 

Giving, serving, enduring

Persevering, sacrificing

Bonding completely

Contentment

 

 

 

 

Poetic Asides Poetic Bloomings 20-2 love

 Love’s Beginning

 

New day dawns

Sun shines in brilliance

Shadows leave

Eyes open

Birds inspire with their tunes

Energy quickens

 

 

Poetic Asides Poetic Bloomings 20-1 love

 First Date

 

Not a date

A ride home

from church

Then a lunch

Then the talking

Then the kissing

Then back to church

A visit with friends

Supper of burgers

A walk in the park

More talking

More kissing

Another ride home

Home late

Worried sis

Two years later

Married

Forty-one

years later

still married.

Still talking

Still kissing.

Love

more like

a reservoir

than a

downpour.

 

 

Poetic Asides Poetic Bloomings 19-3 animal

 The Sloth Race

 

If hubby, sloth and I would race,

I’m not sure who would win.

One of the two with furry face

Or me with a weak grin.

 

Hubby and I are moving slow

The sloth moves inch by inch.

It’s good that we’ve nowhere to go.

For sloth, would be a cinch.

 

So glad that we’re not in a race.

I’ll go and take a snooze.

Between the sloth, hubby and I,

We humans would so lose.

Poetic Asides Poetic Bloomings 19-2 animal

 Neighbor Dog

 

My neighbors moved

I miss they’re big black dog

Them, not so much

Poetic Asides Poetic Bloomings 19-1 animal

 Three Grandkitties

 

Would be nice to have a grandkid.

But I have three grandkitties.

They look like a matched set,

all orange and white.

They have different “catanalities.”

One bites toes

One likes to snuggle

The other likes to hide

I enjoy the cats when I go visit.

But not quite the same as having grandchildren.

But for now,

until my son and daughter get with the program,

they’ll have to do.

Poetic Asides Poetic Bloomings 18-3 ekphrastic

 

Twilight Romance and a Row Boat

 

He and she in formal attire

Dancing on the end of the dock

Looking lovingly into each other’s eyes

Lights twinkling in the dusk

A violin player enhancing the mood

How romantic!

But I have my eye on the row boat

with thoughts of adventure.

 

Twilight Romance by Steve Henderson

Poetic Asides Poetic Bloomings 18-2 ekphrastic

 Sea Breeze Trail Painting

 

In the Voyage of Dawn Treader, Edmond

And Lucy gazed at painting on the wall.

They thought of Narnia and all the fun,

Adventure, talking animals and all.

 

The painting was of a Narnian ship.

The two’s experiences rushed to mind,

Of their old friends and their magical trip,

Of personalities, quirky but kind.

 

But Eustace thought their tales were make believe,

Until the ship and sea began to move.

They felt the wind and they began to leave.

That Narnia was real, this sure did prove.

 

I see trail, flowers, palm trees, boats and sea.

Oh, how I wish that would happen to me!

Poetic Bloomings Poetic Asides 18-1 ekphrastic

 La Vague

 

Naked lady, by the ocean,

you’re looking a little blue-

greyish like the sea and sky.

I bet you’d like a coat about now.

I’m encouraged to see your poochy belly.

It gives the painting some sense of realism.

So nice to see you had the fortitude to smile.

 

.

La Vague Painting by William Adolphe Bouguereou

Poetic Asides Poetic Bloomings 17-3 waiting

 Mary and Martha in Me

 

I sit at Jesus’s feet like Mary

and then the Martha in me

comes along and asks,

don’t you have work to do?

 

I wait on Him at sunrise.

He is my hope, delight and adventure.

I listen for His voice. I set about

being the person He designed me to be.

 

I’ll do my part for friends and family.

I’ll cook, clean, do caregiving, run errands.

But I’ll also pray, walk, dance, sing, paint, write.

I won’t feel bad about using my time this way.

 

No matter what I do, I live for Him.

Poetic Asides Poetic Bloomings 17-2 waiting

 We’ll Know

 

There’ll come a time

when guesswork’s gone,

and then we will

be moving on.

 

No more wondering

what life’s about.

We’ll know for sure,

without a doubt.

 

While we’re waiting

for that final day.

Let’s live, be kind,

laugh, sing and pray.

Poetic Asides Poetic Blooming 17-1 Wait

 Ways to Wait 

 

All people wait in different ways

A mom-to-be has busy days

The prep for baby fills her plate

In different ways, all people wait

 

Some sit and wait like for a bus

They bide their time or may discuss

Whether or not the bus is late

Like for a bus, some sit and wait

 

A waiter waits alert to serve

He meets the needs with strength and nerve

He perseveres as job dictates

Alert to serve, a waiter waits

 

But some forget that they’re to wait

They fuss and fume, scold and berate

They blame and take and fight and fret  

Yes, they’re to wait, but some forget

Poetic Asides / Poetic Bloomings 16-3 City

 Jerusalem

 

Jerusalem still lies ahead for me

Pandemic cancelled my exciting trip

I dreamed of Wailing Wall and the  Dead Sea

And Via Dolorosa I won’t skip

 

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Yad Vashem museum

The Jordan River

The Garden Tomb

 

The city where old Bible stories live

Where you can walk where Jesus taught and healed

 A place significant in history

Jerusalem still lies ahead for me

Poetic Asides/ Poetic Bloomings 16-2 city

 The Stars

 

The stars look down from a billboard in Times Square

Pedestrians pass by not knowing that they’re there

How proud stars must be for their giant faces to be seen

May as well be content with their faces on the screen

Poetic Asides/ Poetic Bloomings 16-1 City

 City Jumble

 

I recently put a jigsaw puzzle together

of New York City’s Times Square—

edge to edge sky scrapers, billboards,

scurrying people, creeping cars and taxies,

traffic lights, signs, various flags

and two scrawny trees bravely holding

their ground, what little they had.

 

I put the puzzle away, glad,

that was the only city scene

I had to look at. I get to look at

small town Colorado with modest houses,

mountains, mesas, open spaces,

aspens, cedars and junipers

and the blue, blue, Colorado blue sky.  

Poetic Asides/ Poetic Bloomings 15-3 Blank Story

 My Embarrassing Jet Ski Story

My daughter and I went on a cruise in the Caribbean.

One of our excursions was to go jet skiing.

It was great fun, but I was slower than the rest.

I kept thinking about my cousin, who unfortunately,

had died because he and a friend got too close on jet skis.

So when our leader slowed down for me,

I slowed down even more, trying not to get too close.

When we got in, the whole tender boat full of people

was waiting on us to go back to the ship.

One of those sorry-guys-oh-well moments.

Poetic Asides/ Poetic Bloomings 15-2 Blank Story

 The Bridge Story

 

I grew up in the woods and hills of Pennsylvania.

We cousins and neighbors had our adventures

all over the area and especially in an abandoned park

which my parents used to run. We built our clubhouse

in a building where swimmers used to change clothes.

 

There was a little stream running through.

We dammed it up and made a fishing hole

and threw a long board over it for a bridge.

My aunt was afraid that our five-year-old cousin

would fall in. So we made two more bridges.

 

If she fell from them, she’d only get her feet wet.

But there she came showing off her new dress.

Bounce, bounce, bounce across the long bridge

and fell into the fishing hole just like my aunt had said.

So we fished out our cousin and took down the bridge.

Poetic Asides/ Poetic Bloomings 15-1 Blank Story

 First Flight in a Small Plane Story

 

I had never flown in a small plane

so when my daughter and I

took  a road trip to the northwest,

we scheduled a flight over desert canyons

near Vernal, Utah. Though she

was prone to air sickness, she was game

 and had her Dramamine with her.

 

However, we had a chance to go early

so we did. She didn’t take her pills

until right before we took off. We flew

over the red desert canyons and the pilot

told us stories about the area. I marveled

at the thin metal between us and 2,000 feet.

Lori got sick, but he had his supply of barf bags.

 

When our flight was over

Lori crawled into the back of the van

where we had our bed made up.

I asked her how to get out of there.

She pointed to the parking lot exit

and passed out. The Dramamine

had finally taken effect. I followed

the sun and found the highway.

Off we went for more adventures.

 

 

Poetic Asides/ Poetic Bloomings 14-3 in the moment

 Dusk

Here in my sun room

Or soon to be my moon room

But there’s cloud cover

Still have to put up back fence

Neighbor dogs notice me here

Bark with enthusiasm

Poetic asides/ Poetic bloomings 14-2 in the moment

 Quiet Afternoon

I’m sitting in my green comfy chair. The sun shines in from the west. The wind whistles through the south window. My lower back complains about the grocery shopping I just did and the half hour walk before that. My tummy rumbles an hour early. My eyelids want to close.  At times the voices of my dreams sound as clear as the whistling wind. Cell phone sits silently then dings. Family texts across the miles, Ireland, Nebraska, Ohio, California, and Colorado. We lol when a sister accidently posts sleeping unicorn. I can relate to the unicorn. 

Quiet afternoon

Hunger pains and family chats

Interrupt my dreams