Ash Wednesday

For Frank’s current haikai challenge, I wrote a haibun about Ash Wednesday.

The ashes that are used to mark the foreheads of the faithful, as a sign of repentance, grief yet hope, are the ashes from the burnt palm branches from the previous year’s Palm Sunday. Since Palm Sunday was cancelled for the public last Lent, I wonder which branches were burned. They were burned along with the hope of certain earthly pleasures — a reminder that this was never meant to be anyone’s true home.

Symbol-filled ashes:
Journey to destination
Because life is Lent

Me, on Ash Wednesday 2017

Joy Not Stolen

A décima for this week’s challenge: STEAL in the B rhyme spot. I wrote this one yesterday, on Valentine’s Day. I honestly thought that I would feel at least moderately sad yesterday, but it was actually one of the happiest days in a while. 🙂

A Difficult Decision

Draw a simple chart:
Pros in one column
Cons in the opposite,
Worlds apart,
Yet warring in the brain.

The pros are numerous:
Rising like tiny
Bubbles in a glass
Of champagne —
Real pain
Of the cons carries
So
Much
Weight.

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Today I’m loving my rosary and the online group I pray with. That has nothing to do with the poem, but it is what stopped me from going to bed at 3 in the afternoon — that’s what time we pray in the group.

Not my photo nor my rosary, but it looks cool.

Photo by Daniel Reche on Pexels.com

Sonnet: Dove of Peace

In this post from last week, I shared a picture and 2 poems inspired by it, wondering if I would start a series by reusing some of the lines to write different forms of poetry. Well, here is the next installment of the series: a Shakespearean sonnet (hoping to try a Petrarchian sonnet soon)! Shared with the Writers’ Pantry at Poets and Storytellers United.

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The dove of peace brings healing in its wings,
The shining sun comes not so far behind –
A confluence of pinkish hues it beings,
The easier some happiness to find.
The dove of peace reveals itself to men
Although it often seems to’ve been delayed:
It can be shy, and finds its welcome when
True prayers of trust, like little stars arrayed,
Light up the people’s dark thoughts’ sky. Those stars
Provide much comfort when they’re born and rise,
Against despair and woeful words which mar –
With peace past understanding as the prize.
Thenceforth can many faith-filled flowers grow,
No matter which direction the winds blow.

Best Discovery

This is for MLMM’s Saturday Mix. Our challenge today (or yesterday) is to use these pairs of opposites: save / spend and shallow / deep.

A Way to Alleviate Pain

This was written for the current Weekly Scribblings, as well as DVerse MTB for today. I hope this poem is especially sonorous. 🙂 For the Weekly Scribblings prompt, they provided a haiku, and I was inspired especially by the phrase, “an old rosary carved of human bone.”

Rising Levels of the Sea of Stress

This was inspired by FOWC: Alleviate and MLMM’s Tale Weaver: Underwater, not to mention the huge amount of stress that, probably, almost everyone is under right now!

Precious and Priceless

This décima is for Ronovan Writes’s challenge. It also is linked with FOWC: Intangible and “What’s the Price?” at Poets and Storytellers United.

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Intangible love, inner bliss:
Possibly each life’s major goal,
Enlivening the weary soul,
Precious treasure, it is priceless.

What a tragedy to miss this:
Incomplete sans companionship,
To lift people up when moods dip.
Incomparable is a friend,
Worth more than what many checks send,
Precious — a desert water-sip.

Butterflies and Spacemen

This is my (late) offering for the Sunday Muse, which I often attempt to write for but which I’ve only posted for once or twice. This week’s image is below:

Monarch butterflies symbolize rebirth:
Kings seeking asylum from
The insanity of Earth,
Refugees to the Moon.

I pray, and kneel, arms
Strong in God’s holy refuge:
Maybe Luna can welcome me too,
I’d be the butterflies’ subject.

Vers Beaucoup

This poem today is for the Saturday Mix at MLMM, and we are supposed to write a vers beaucoup. Follow the link to learn about this form. I am not sure if I was supposed to write more than one stanza, or if one stanza is sufficient. In any case, here is mine, and I anticipate writing more in this form. I thought that all of those rhymes would sound kind of silly and forced, but it’s fun. Je vais écrire beaucoup de “vers beaucoup.” 🙂 Also linking to the Writers’ Pantry.

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May God speak to the weak ones who seek
Him, so bleak hearts become more welcome
To the awesome. May He hear, to make fear
Disappear, to protect what world rejects.

Here is a second one:

All the earth, sing the worth of new birth
Into mirth: from the trees to the seas
And the breeze, animals and all peoples,
Despair repulse — to bless brings happiness.

Photo by Hernan Pauccara on Pexels.com