a poem in my pocket

you are the gift!

06 Oct 2015 10 Comments

by lynn__ in free verse Tags: companionship, company, love, present

i’d like to think
companionship is gift
we give each other

mutual mutuality
congenial congeniality
a cup of tea and poetry

in the garden
beg God’s pardon
walked together three

traditions worthy
bring dear family in
closer company

grand alma mater’s
anthem sings loyal
camaraderie

as faith enables
hungry sinners join
around graced table

dare to cross borders
dare not burn bridges
open eyes to see

friendly faces in
surprising places
tap hearts deep spaces

to simply be present
(and mostly pleasant)
is love’s best present!

My gift to Abhra & friends at dVerse Poets and in observance of Random Acts of Poetry Day!

wakakusa yamayaki

04 Oct 2015 1 Comment

by lynn__ in tanka Tags: festival, fire, Japan

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:090124_wakakusa_yamayaki.jpg

day in peaceful park

tossing rice cracker to deer

night of mountain fire

japan’s yearly festival

dispute shrines or torch wild boar?

Festival review: www.fest300.com More haiku: Carpe Diem Haiku Kai

resurrection vision

27 Sep 2015 3 Comments

by lynn__ in haiku Tags: breath, phoenix, resurrection, valley

valley of dry bones

death exhaled, flesh takes new breath

like phoenix rising

photo credit: wikipedia

Connecting with constellation series at Carpe Diem’s Space Odyssey

when i die, as every leaf must

25 Sep 2015 15 Comments

by lynn__ in jisei, tanka Tags: death, fall, leaves

photo by lynn

If i die in fall

(due to my own clumsiness)

as dry leaves crackle

cry over cake, then laugh at

my swift entrance into JOY!

Joining Gayle at dVerse today on theme of Japanese death poems (jisei).

all’s fair in Wonderland

23 Sep 2015 4 Comments

by lynn__ in limerick Tags: Lewis, teacup

Inspired by prompt at Imaginary Garden with Real Toads.

i once read a poet named Carroll
who rolled readers’ minds in a barrel

we spun in a tea cup

until Alice fessed up

and Mad Hatter declared white hare sterile!

ID 30416302 © Joshua Daniels | Dreamstime.com

an adulterous woman

22 Sep 2015 14 Comments

by lynn__ in Uncategorized Tags: adultery, lioness, lust, snake

like a lioness with belladonna in her eyes

you prey stealthily

on fools’ weakness

calculate lust’s moment

stalk willing victims of

nights’ shade like shadow

hiss soft enticements as

fluidity of your presence

slithers cunningly into

traitorous embrace

aiming for the eyes

Anthony challenges dVerse poets to use 3 of his lines (italicized) in a poem.

lost in stellar translation

21 Sep 2015 5 Comments

by lynn__ in haibun Tags: Job, stars, unicorn

The idea of the unicorn mentioned in the Bible is intriguing. Job 39:9-11 reads, in early authorized Version: Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him? But later versions translate it as the wild ox. Some scholars think it may refer to a rhinoceros or buffalo. Whatever the real animal was, it must have been wild, horned, and powerful!

photo credit: Wikipedia

unicorn’s horn points
to starry back of hunter
watch out, Orion!

I got “lost” in time and missed linking to Carpe Diem Haiku Kai space odyssey with this one!

ears are not enough

21 Sep 2015 2 Comments

by lynn__ in Uncategorized

as his ears grow deaf
she wonders if he ever
listened to her heart

living with someone for life
hearing quiet loneliness

altar of alterations

19 Sep 2015 27 Comments

by lynn__ in Uncategorized Tags: altar, change, life, transform, trust

Change is the certainty of life —

we (un)certainly hold choice in our hands:

to fear strangeness of change,

to face love’s changing challenge;

to hide from (unfamiliar) monsters

to seek soul (familiar) opportunities

to shrink

to grow!

As we embrace each (minor) moment’s exchange,
we may become (major) catalysts for change:

watch butterflies emerge

encourage spirit’s surge

relieve evil’s scourge.

One must learn to trust the unchangeable One

who forms life

transforms change

conforms us

until his perfect (and perfecting) will be done.

a noble cedar

15 Sep 2015 6 Comments

by lynn__ in haibun Tags: cedar, kingdom, tree

“I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out. I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar. And under it will dwell every kind of bird; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest. And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord; I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.”

man on his mountain

bible’s holy poetree

lofty sovereign grace

(Ezekiel 17:22-24, ESV)

draco-nian measures

14 Sep 2015 2 Comments

by lynn__ in haibun Tags: camels, constellation, draco

The protecting Mother Camels is the name given by ancient Arabic nomadic tribes to an asterism in the constellation of Draco. Instead of the head of a dragon, the asterism was interpreted as a ring of mother camels surrounding a baby camel (the faint star in the middle), with another mother camel running to join them. The camels were seen to be protecting the baby from a line of charging hyenas. The nomads who own the camels are camped nearby, represented by a cooking tripod…

(source: Carpe Diem Haiku Kai‘s space odyssey)

baby camel cries

dromedary moms hear fear

credit: Wikipedia

high-kick hyenas

arabs draw camel stars where

greco-romans marked dragon