A Bizarre Eulogy

I recognize the work this marker did,
Helping to color all the dino-cats,
With its quite useful hue of grayish-green.
So sad since I that hue’s decline have seen:
I’ll miss that marker, but it’s work is done.

At least it’s been used up, did not dry out,
Fulfilled its purpose, a good marker-life.
For people perhaps that could be a guide,
To find their purpose and to live it well —
To do what one was born for, fear aside.

The picture I colored that inspired me to write this poem, a tribute to my dying marker

I endeavored to write in blank verse for this one. Linking with DVerse OLN, before DVerse goes on summer break. 🙂 

A Better Transgression

At DVerse, yesterday’s Poetics prompt was about peer pressure. Although I wanted to write a longer and more personal piece, that’s not happening yet, and it might be too personal for this blog, anyway (“too personal for this blog??” Who knew there was such a thing?). Instead, here is a five-line poem I wrote last night, based on a Bible verse that was in my reading.

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Conform not to the culture which surrounds:
To find one’s way, transgressing o’er its bounds
May be the better choice, to remain true
To what a human ought to be and do.
Integrity will furnish solid ground.

 

A sunflower beginning to open —
I took this photo about 2 years ago

This Summer Solstice

For DVerse’s Haibun Monday, for which the theme is the summer or winter (depending on which side of the equator you live on) solstice. I’m happy to write for this. 🙂

Will the sun stand still? I'm not ready for the days to start shortening, gradual as is may be. It's scary because I want to stay happy. This past week has been a medical miracle, a blessing, and/or a stroke of luck; but like the solstice it may only be brief. Mood, like time, moves like the waves at the beaches -- which I might like to visit soon.

scorching heat
walking -- grains of sand
salt water

Photo I took while driving (I was a passenger) in Hawaii, 8/2019

June Birthdays

For DVerse Poetics’s ekphrastic poetry prompt, inspired by the picture below, I’ve written a haibun:

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Yesterday, my grandma called my mom that the doe in her backyard, which she could see from her window, had just given birth. The doe was still licking the fawn, which was trying to stand up on its gangly, spindly legs. What a privilege to witness this beautiful, newborn life!

A short time later, Grandma called my mom back and said, “You’re not the only one who can have twins.”

life comes surprising,
an adorable duo
two fawns on the lawn

Carl Zimmermann, Deer in a Summer Meadow

Summertime, and the Living Was Easy

For DVerse’s Haibun Monday today, we are considering summer. I have been thinking lately that the summer season really should start before the summer solstice, maybe on June 1st. 🙂

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I remember the excitement of mid-June: class parties, signing yearbooks, summer break coming soon. Family vacations we used to take, big birthday parties with cake and other celebrations, Fourth-of-July fireworks. Completely carefree days. And then, the dread of another August ending. 

              

remember those days,
                 summertime the pinnacle 
                         of kids' existence

Costanza: May

A pleasant surprise: I was able to finish a Costanza poem for DVerse MTB today! I’d been looking forward to writing this but didn’t expect to finish before the link-up ended. 

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The calendar stands now in May,
And that's not new, but two-thirds done,
The speed of time can sometimes stun.

It is a cold and gloomy day
Going slowly and sadly by,
Yet saying it's bad is a lie. 

Some moments make a shining ray,
Belonging and connection true,
A warmth inside like hearty stew.

"This too will pass." Nothing can stay,
Unrest to peace, peace to unrest
Again, time after time a test.

May this ship find a placid bay
To end its sailing. After tides
Throw this boat up and down -- subside.

The calendar stands now in May,
It is a cold and gloomy day.
Some moments make a shining ray,
"This too will pass." Nothing can stay,
May this ship find a placid bay. 

Photo by Hernan Pauccara on Pexels.com

Fated

For Brian’s prompt this week about fate vs. free will, I wrote this cherita, also shared with DVerse OLN.

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Back in high school I realized: MOOD backwards

Is DOOM — and I found that fitting. Even then.
Buckle up. I loved roller coasters — as long as

They lay outside of me and not inside my mind.
I’ve felt fated to die, finding life difficult,
Yet even on steep, looping tracks keep breathing.

Photo by Daniel Reche on Pexels.com

Fire! :)

With today’s MVB prompt being “marshmallow,” I was inspired (I guess) to write this, for DVerse Poetics.

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The best marshmallow 
Is the kind lit on fire, 
Golden-brown is overrated
Patience not needed for
The most delicious s'more:

Sandwiched 'twixt two
Graham crackers with rich
Chocolate, its sugar melts into
A gooey mess, highlight
Of a happy summer's night. 

Ideal s’more preparation — Photo by Kindel Media on Pexels.com

The Good Life

Brian’s prompt for this week, which I am once again trying to complete on Thursday, is “the good life.” It was nice to reflect on what makes a good life — a good life does not have to be an easy life. It was also a timely reminder that I already have many aspects of “the good life.” 🙂 At the end of each day, before going to sleep, I thank God for many things, every good thing that I can remember from the day — and most days I have a litany. This poem is also for DVerse and is a cinq-cinquain.

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Breathe in:
Salty sea air,
Relaxing on the sand
Feeling the sun as the waves break —
Take breaks

Sometimes.
Other times life
Requires the daily grind,
Work giving oneself a purpose,
Reason

To wake
Each new morning,
Other than the coffee
(Although that always is a plus
For me) —

Even
In Eden ere
The first sin, Adam worked
As a gardener helping all life
To grow —

Reasons
To face each day,
A purpose found in life:
Actions to take, imprints to leave,
To love

Photo by Barnabas Davoti on Pexels.com

I think having a doggy would make “the good life” even better. 🙂

Something Inevitable

Today’s challenge for DVerse Poetics is to write on the topic of one or more of the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance). I’ll try not to focus on Depression, for once. 🙂 This seems to be quite a challenge for me, but as a writer, I am probably capable of it. The picture is one I took last year.

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I’ve been grieving for a long time. At 19 years old, an eating disorder took over my life, almost took my life. Then I spent 4 years recovering. Those are 4 years I’m never going to get back, 4 years when the rest of my peers graduated from college and got jobs, maybe even started families. I feel behind, like I’ll never catch up. Covid didn’t help anything — thanks to that, life became even more on hold. All my life seems to be made up of recovering from previous life.

I used to wonder how I developed an eating disorder in the first place. Now, after having done a ton of therapy and realizing the commonalities between me and other sufferers, I am more surprised that it didn’t happen earlier.

I’ve been briefly in the “acceptance” stage, believing that God has something else for me, that God is writing a beautiful story. Maybe He is, but that doesn’t stop me from stalking over to the “anger” stage. With a birthday coming up in only 6 weeks, I am seeing even more starkly what is lost and finding fewer and fewer ways to replace it.

“growth in everything?” —
see skeletal arms reaching,
a withered fig tree

Well, that was sadder than I intended. I failed my self-imposed “try not to cry” challenge.