Frozen #WritePhoto #lovepoetry

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Photo Credit: Sue Vincent

Frozen

In the midst of a world that appears frozen

follow the purple path within

Know that beyond the shadows holding darkness

there is always a source of light

reflecting truth. Waiting to melt the way

as it softens the heart that would stay cold

Indifference is the face of fear grown tired

Used to the battered landscape, the eyes refuse to see

the false hold. And so we remain frozen together

in stasis, an inert body wanting to be held

until the fever burns once again

into love

 

For Sue Vincent’s weekly #WritePhoto prompt. Click here to participate

 

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Gardens of Roses #poetry #grandmothers #roses

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Gardens of Roses

My grandmother visits me in the garden

as I cut dead limbs from the azalea

I can smell her soap and perfume

The love I once longed for

opens the pores on my arms

She knows there are roses

newly planted. The dirt turned over brown

wraps their roots in memoriam. In the hidden

chambers of my ears I hear her voice

calling “Leethie” and we smile

together through time

Despair #Poetry #hope #despair

 

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Despair

Last night I watched a ship disappear

one life, followed by another, until the last

was swallowed by water lidded with ice

nothing left behind but despair

They say pay attention to colors

in dreams, the screen before me looming

in shades of gray and white while I stood

a part of the spectrum of rainbow light with my son

in the shadows. This lesson on despair

sinking before us and I feeling only

hope

 

Baba Ghanoush #poetry #foodpoetry

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Photo Credit: Pixabay

Baba Ghanoush 

 

I barely slept, although sleep gave me dreams as proof

before I crept downstairs and slipped

into the haze of slow time. Sometimes the body’s rush is ceased

by the unseen hand. Acceptance the only release. Late

yesterday, the deer returned in a pair to eat fallen apples

but the dog ran through my distraction of the cat

who watched without movement. Stilled in time

Before breakfast, I opened the door to pull weeds

thinking of how fast they grow and take over

space. When I ate late, the waffle was cold

and I left the table feeling undefined

noting the softened eggplants on the counter

One the color of the hidden eye

the other mottled by the crown. I brought the pair outside

turned the grill’s surface into a flame, and roasted

their skins black, peeling after the insides liquified

thinking of caterpillars and butterflies, I pulsed

their remains with tahini, smashed cloves of garlic,

the juice of half a lemon, and pink salt from a faraway sea

until the house smelled of baba ghanoush and my thoughts

turned once again to night and shade and whether you can have

too much darkness, and how the sun in excess

blinds the eyes to sight

The Vast Unbroken #Span #WritePhoto #yogapoetry

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Photo Credit: Sue Vincent

You travel swiftly in this river

called life. Rushing over rocks

pulling your weight around sharp

corners, creating the froth

of exertion. Yet

your span is infinite

in stillness and

when the flow becomes

a harmony to the rhythm

within. One vast body

boundless. A life without

edges, blending all matter

soothes the sides of resistance

with the awakened pulse

it is both the bridge

and the current

For Sue Vincent’s weekly #WritePhoto prompt #Span.

 

 

#Unfolding #writephoto prompt #poetry #yogapoetry

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Photo Credit: Sue Vincent

The mind fixes on a barren landscape

Bleak division

Life waiting at the border

Dreaming of becoming

A self

The feet hesitate to break

Untrodden uniformity

One step leaves an imprint

The eyes tell the truth

Of how far they dare to gaze

While the heart feels the tug of the hills

The unknown reachable only

By separation

For Sue Vincent’s weekly #writephoto prompt challenge. If you’d like to participate, please click here

#writephoto

 

The Current of Life #poetry #yogapoems

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Photo Credit: Pexels.com

Life continually humbles

Throwing me backward into the current

To tumble among rocks

Where am reminded that I am a collection

Of molecules adhered into a body

To experience unity, even though

The mind reaches for division

Parting the elements with thoughts

Breaking cohesion with beliefs of otherness

But when I am swept backward

Back into the current that is life

I am reminded of Truth

The essence of things broken down

Into origins. That I am a body flowing

With molecules holding hydrogen to oxygen

Bound to carbon stolen from a life before me

Realizing, I have borrowed this collected body

So that I might experience life gathered together

Before its bonds are broken, then gathered, once again

Into the ever-flowing current

Aborted Life

inspired by the 10/27/12 death of an Irish woman after she was denied an abortion of her dying fetus
In the land of green
and fairies, a beautiful
daughter

follows her fetus
from a poisoned
body

judgement will not
open palms and
save

a martyr before
death, her soul
carries

the weight
of 4 thousand
women

The Big Pushback

“The Big Pushback”

an Erasure poem adapted from an Associated Press article by Ramit Plushnick-Masti

Oil has lived
with cattle
across the Texas landscape
nurtured by
pipelines snaking through
the ground

It has snatched land
most egregious
like an arrogant foreigner,
unworthy

“We’ve fought wars for it.”

condemning land is not
unusual

A 78-year old
great-grandmother
whose late husband worked in oil
spent a night in jail after tres-
passing on her 425-acre farm

cleanup is still incomplete.

Spirit Song

Channeled Spirit Song
In the sea of shadows, find the oar, find the oar
In the dark of night, find your flame, find your flame
In the tumble of thought, find your truth, find your truth
In the beam of hate, find love, find love
In the fear of tomorrow, find today, find today
In the shame of yesterday, find peace, find peace
In the light of morning find your joy, find your joy
In every moment find your gift, find your gift