A single year’s length
has deprived me of the strength
seventy-four years built.
Like sand it has been seeping
from muscles knotted and bemused
by excess effort and misuse
and a lifetime of abuse
by Amazonian female dreams
of living by independent means.
Of course, all is not lost
and I need not count the cost
since enough strength remains
to tend what I must
before this lovely body
bites the dust.
Filed under POETRY
(series of Haiku garden thoughts)
The garden shed holds
tools, not fame, within its frame.
Garden dreams inside.
Rabbit’s family
burrows beneath happily.
Loves to race ‘round shed.
Vines climb the sides.
Flowers peep around corners.
Well-protected shed.
Shed hides in shadow.
Garden glories brightly glow.
Shed is true hero.
Filed under POETRY
Seeds have pointed ends
and sharp edges
browned and dried at rest.
Planted by strong winds
into dark soil opened
by seeds’ thin crest.
Growth and change
know no easy kindness;
strive in fierce battles to persist.
Await mere chance to emerge in sunshine
through storms and rain
from under soil’s harsh duress.
Noblesse oblige is well and good.
It fertilizes earth to grow the seed.
But it is seed which has stood
the test of winter’s snow
to make a healthy garden grow.
Strong agents of change protect
the tender plants we sow.
How do you pin down a dream?
Or, bind a mind so tight
all hope takes flight?
I do not see why you would;
even if you could.
When hopes and dreams are lost
we all pay a terrible cost.
No gated house, no security alarm
protects every place of possible harm.
The threats and fears you plant
grow into weeds that choke
the life out of every community,
disrupt any sense of unity
to hold a country together
to fight its true enemy.
Too late we discover the truth.
We finally remember and see
the enemy we cry as uncouth
is actually you and me.
So, let us set every dream free,
embrace hope and reach for the stars.
Let us remember for once and for all,
all that we could be, and who we really are.
Easter’s rise shines with light
and we delight
that Earth’s demise
seems far away,
if only for today.
Resurrection reminds us
that Earth’s clean breath
may be renewed
and rise again, too, with the sun
as the Son breathes life
into each of us to begin anew.
To be Creation
within and without.
To enjoin all nations
as Saviors of all life.
To set aside strife
and come down from our cross.
To roll away stones heavy with fear.
To rise up after such passion.
To embrace Life and one another.
To embrace each as sister and brother.
To know we are safe in Earth’s embrace
of life among the stars.
To shine. To shine. To shine.
To make His love yours and mine.
Happy Easter !
Filed under POETRY
Holy Saturday is here.
The quietest day of the year.
The feel of the tomb presses near.
All whom we treasure most dear
tremble in solemn fear,
waiting uncertain, near tears,
for all to be made clear.
Filed under POETRY
Dribble, dribble, pass, shoot.
Passing the ball is an art, laying up the shot
in, on and off the court
of public opinion and more.
No matter the cost just take the shot and score.
Passing dark skin is forbidden,
discouraged and shamefully hidden.
White privilege need not even ask
to take an unearned pass,
without question and no need to even ask.
The white right to pass is supreme
in the legislature of Tennessee.
Black men readily removed without compunction
by white men bent on their colleagues’ destruction.
Black men dared to act as their equal
in their advocacy on behalf of the people.
White legislators creating a sequel
to enslavement, Jim Crow and voter suppression.
They saw no need for quiet discretion.
They simply gave the white woman a pass,
one for which she did not ask.
Their message was clear.
Republicans cheer,
“This is how we show Black men their place.”
Confident supremacy with no sense of disgrace.
Filed under POETRY
Winds so fierce even
clouds avoid the twists and turns
of a world destroyed.
Filed under POETRY
Some words are too heavy to write.
Their weight bears too much pain
To stay alive on the page,
nor offer any light.
Thus, the poet keeps them
out of sight.
To ink such words upon a page
might fill a fragile world
with hopeless and destructive rage.
Such is the darkened fate
of the chronically ill forced to hide,
all energy drained and waiting
for life to open wide,
and poetry find its way again
in a new and open light.
Filed under POETRY
There are no words.
Not even thoughts nor prayers
can escape beyond the grief.
Three nine year old Nashville children
could not hold the line
we asked and trained them to do.
The line has grown and stretched
and wrapped itself around
Columbine, Margory Stoneman Douglas,
Uvalde, Sandy Hook, Amish school,
Pulse, Binghampton, Carthage nursing home,
University of Texas tower, University of Virginia,
Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois University
Washington Navy Yard, Fort Hood one and two,
San Bernardino, Edmund Post Office,
San Ysidro Mc Donald’s, LA dance studio,
El Paso and Virginia Walmarts, Planned Parenthood,
Birmingham church potluck, Living Church of God,
Sacramento and Texas First Baptist Church,
Tree of Life synagogue, Sikh Temple,
Buffalo and Boulder supermarkets, IHOP
Molson Coors and Hartford Beer,
Fed X, UPS, Xerox, Lockheed Martin.
The list goes on and on stretching ever longer
the lines we should never cross
until lines wrap our feet and ankles
no longer able to march in the streets.
Until lines wrap our hands and fists
no longer able to wrap them around a pen to write new law,
nor lift them in the air with promise to end what we saw.
Until lines wrap around around our heads and stuff our mouths
no longer able to speak out loud, only muffled groans of despair.
There are no words.
There are no words.
There are no words.
But, words have never been enough.
Filed under POETRY
annarino writes 