Tag Archives: dreams

COLD SLAP

Another night of fractured dreams

led me to the door where meaning lives

alone in the night sky

where dreams blew through 

on cold winds of sheeted snow.

Swift yet slow, snow assaulted daffodil

who raised her face up and up and up

until deflated by the stinging slap of snow.

Then, daffodil, without a frown, bent down low.

With the dawn the snow is gone.

Cold remains. Its heavy space 

tightening down the hope of grace

from sunny skies and warmer nights,

with gentling dreams of peace

and days of  love’s delight 

to make the world right.

Whence sleep can, once again,

make dreams whole.

LESSONS IN THE SPRING SNOW

They laugh aloud, the daffodils.

as snow falls, they turn up their faces

to catch a taste of cold.

Magnolia opens wide her blooms

no longer tight, and catches flakes

of snow on her pink face.

The herbs and perennials close ranks.

Sheltered by mulch they give thanks

for the gardener’s attention

to the Spring dissension 

among the four winds’ direction.

a morning walk among the brethren

of the garden and its domain

builds trust and faith and hope

in the resilience of plant life.

and promises despite the strife

of pestilence and war

human life will endure.

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AGING DREAMS

There were no stairs to climb

between four floors explored

in dreams repeated through the night.

Questions roamed with me and more,

excited by the unexpected chance

to replace an old dwelling with new,

under reconstruction which winds blew

through openings in walls.

The misplaced furnace unable to heat

such a large space blocked a place

to park a car. No garage. Its saving grace

was its place on a city street

where I could walk amid constant activity,

unlike the sedate pace of my current home.

The mortgage would be the same

I was assured. No years added

to its satisfaction date.

Did I want this new home built on the old?

Or this new body if Jung is to be believed?

Indecision and insistent queries gave me pause.

Better to draw an old body into new?

Or stay the course more ancient but more safe?

A question for the ages?

Or simply for the aging?

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BURNT OFFERINGS

Burnt offerings

from a mother dead

thirty years past

left smoking hot

on the stove top

in a dream confused

by vegetables wrapped

in stars

the sweet smell of meat

charred to sugar

potatoes sliced and crisped

arranged across the sky

amid the stars.

discovered after she

was ushered to the car

to begin her own journey

away from me

food left behind

to nurture a daughter

nearly blind

with grief for other mothers 

and daughters, and self.

Ancient lessons taught

in the dead of night

of the power of burnt offerings

I had thought were hers

but in truth

are mine.

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TAX SEASON

I love paying taxes. I do.

They help me connect to you.

and you, and you, and you.

I pay my share and trust my taxes

will outlast the needs we share.

They show how much I care

about city, county, country.

Taxes build strong community.

The shining necklace 

that connects us

is only so strong 

as its strongest link.

so, I do not shrink

from my duty to pay my taxes.

They are never late.

It is the forms I hate,

pages of numbers

that destroy my slumber.

Is it too early to rise?

Can the day not wait

until my words can untangle,

by numbers strangled,

inside my dreams

where truths scream

to be lightly told 

as dawn unfolds?

My dreams try to pass on

objects long gone

from emptied drawers:

wooden spaghetti fork,

aluminum sieve,

cotton cheesecloth.

All items one needs

to stir the pot as tangled food heats;

as tangled words strive to unfold

the stories hidden and untold.

And tools one needs to sift through

lies and deceits to give you truth.

Reading tax instructions in my sleep

makes me weep

at the destruction of poetry.

There is no tax symmetry.

Words flee the grasp of Publication 17.

Line by line of form 1040

blocks all ability and creativity,

destroying poems before they are born.

Tax season is the theft; not of cash,

but of dreams. Words are torn.

Tax season is a thief in the night

Tax season continues to steal even in daylight.

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DAWN

Dawn

The dawn!

The dawn!

How dare Sun

show his face.

I’ve learned to live

outside his grace,

to fend for myself,

to bend and scrape

a life beyond his space.

The ice has packed

my heart contained

in frozen lace

where it feels safe.

Now, Sun would melt

my dreams away. 

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NO TIME TO WASTE

Hours bestow the power

to dribble away

a perfectly fine day.

The mind has no budget.

The sets are free;

The actors free of equity.

The script entertains

every possibility,

until dusk drops the curtain

upon our play.

The hours of the night

require footlights

whose cost we often cannot pay.

Daylight hours are meant

to store treasure to purchase

all we have dreamt.

We rest most easily

and dream most peacefully

when day has been well spent.

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Night Pears

Where pigs fly

And trees walk

The earth churns

And dreams unfold

As nightmares.

What we know as truth

Unravels whole cloth

And comes undone

Baring our naked fears

As nightmares.

And thus, I dream of pears

And manchego cheese

Sliced by the knife of fear

Lower than the gut

Of mankind’s survival.

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The Portrait,By Louise Annarino,4-7-2013

The Portrait, By Louise Annarino,April 7,2013

Walking through the festival my eye was drawn toward remarkably vivid paintings of several persons whom I had seen while walking though the crowd. Each was gently holding an item in his or her hands,as if offering it to the onlookers,a gentle smile lighting each painted face. Each painting was different; each deeply stirring.

It was then a man approached to explain his wife was the artist as he pointed her out to me. She was busily painting the image of the man standing before her as he told the story behind his selection of the item and its importance in his life. I felt drawn to his story as his smile widen with each sentence, settling into the gentle smile I had noticed in the other paintings. The artist had a unique ability to capture the light within her subjects as they revealed themselves to her.

The artist hung the painting to dry alongside the others,and shook hands with her subject as he turned to re-enter the throng of festival-goers. Suddenly, she turned to me. “Let’s do your portrait. I shall come to your house tomorrow to paint you. Pick out an item you believe best allows me to paint the story of your life,”she said. She added that I could have more than one item. I agreed to be ready when she arrived the next day, inviting her and her husband to stay for dinner.

The next hours were spent looking around my apartment,rifling drawers and closets to discover the one item which would tell my story,define the purpose of my life,and leave a lasting impression after I was dead and gone. It was a difficult search.

I saw my high school diploma,my bachelor and master degrees and my law degree hanging on the wall; the corded tassels from each graduation cap hanging over door knobs.It occurred to me that these were portals to a life well-lived;but, not the life itself. The same could be said for the photos of my family and all of those whom I love, the last menu from my family’s restaurant and its photo which hang above my kitchen sink, the crucifix hanging in my living room above the statue of St. Francis of Assisi which I made so many years ago before faith had been so battered,the awards for racial awareness programs I had started, and political activism photos.

As I searched I discovered dozens of items I could have used. None was sufficient; some more photogenic and “paintable” than others. Interestingly, I came across items left by others in my care for storage and safekeeping. These surprised me most of all. I had no idea the limited space in my closets had been given over to the lives of so many others. Certainly, they could not be used in the painting.They did not tell my story.

By the time the dream ended, I had found nothing to hold in my hands, or too much. Clearly, I was not ready for the artist to begin painting. Thank goodness I awoke then. I do not know what I would have done should the artist have come to paint my final portrait. I am still searching for something to hold in my hands,something which will show the viewer what my life meant, who I was, what I had to offer. I am curious. What would you hold in your hands should the painter arrive to paint your portrait ?

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