a poem in my pocket

I thank Greg, from Potholes in the Road of Life, who invited me to share favorite quotes.  I offer three quotes (with my own photography) in honor of our Constitution and nation, still  indivisible under God, who has blessed us these many years. 

Thank God for my farmer
he chose me as his wife

I’m grateful for children
faithful sons, counting five

Daughters by marriage
and grandkids, gifts of life

Thank God for his goodness,
sends each season in time

Heart grateful for Jesus,
broken poet’s best rhyme!

one’s personal history
is collection of stories;
some you live through,
others you listen to
but all family stories
are part of our metal,
hammered and shaped
by past into present…

townspeople reckon
village blacksmith as
skilled craftsman and
“real good worker” but
self-respect can slide
like hot iron horseshoe
when own brood of
children run barefoot.

villagers whisper
behind callous hands
“it’s a real shame”
he drinks too much,
(and too often) so when
smithy dies penniless,
they bury him in back
corner of town cemetery.

lone unmarked grave
swallowed by prairie sod
yet remembered by God
and my grandpa, who
(as re-told by my father)
later paid for a small flat
stone to honor passing
of a hard-wrought life.

I’m sharing a “cascading” haiku written by the creative host at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai who regularly shares a challenge or haiku prompt with his readers.  I also admire Van Gogh’s paintings so my own haiku (below) is inspired by both!

hopeful new day
available in yellowish
a great sunflower

a great sunflower
desirable to bright sunlight
bows its head to earth

bows its head to earth
a possible new flower opens
promising dreams

© Chèvrefeuille

vincent’s bold flowers

still life radiates sunshine

dying exudes warmth

Sunflowers by Van Gogh

like a

deer in

headlights,

i’m dazed,

amazed,

rendered

immobile

by sensory

overload

at writers’

conference.

a bit wary,

needing

time to

pause at

this cabin

in the trees

to ponder,

chewing cud

of green ideas;

feeling content,

as lone firefly

blinks and

soft darkness

settles in.