05 Aug 2019
by lynn__
in haibun, question poem, Uncategorized
Tags: abortion, culture, death, hate, violence
Awful week of three senseless public shootings by U.S. citizens at garlic festival in Gilroy CA, Walmart shopping center in El Paso TX, and popular nightclub neighborhood in Dayton OH.
We wonder why domestic terrorists perpetrate violence against unsuspecting victims? Why should innocent people die while enjoying their life? Why is our society spiraling down into a culture of hate and mayhem?
Why is it legal for mothers (whose nature is nurture) to pay doctors (whose profession is healing) to dismember their preborn infants? Why do fathers abandon or abuse their own children after conceiving them? Why do we insist our lives are superior and consider other lives expendable? Why not choose to love and protect one another, starting with our family?
Perhaps there is some connection here, an unnatural progression from selfishness, disrespect, broken relationships and alienation into a macabre culture of death. The shooters are guilty of crimes against humanity but we are all culpable.
killing on home turf
abortion births death culture
all victims bleed red
04 Aug 2019
by lynn__
in free verse, question poem, scripture
Tags: God, hallowed, holy, name, trouble
Hallowed be your name?
be set apart, made holy
to know God, to make him known
but we are an unholy people
hollow/hollowed out, hurt/ hurting
we’ve brought shame on your name
we have put out the bright signal fires
even dousing them with tepid water
yet, when life’s trouble terrifies us
we again take your name on our lips
cry for help in hopeless places
look for you in unfamiliar faces
you hear, you answer, you come
dispel our soul darkness
heal our heart wounds
wake us to our real life
Hallowed be your name!
31 Jul 2019
by lynn__
in Uncategorized
There are good reasons for sweating in bed;
the thermostat is not one.
castlegarsource.com
An “American sentence”: pithy poem of 17 syllables.
29 Jul 2019
by lynn__
in quadrille, rhyming verse
Tags: bananas, freckles, kids, speckles, toads, trout
kids have ‘em on their noses
toads have ‘em on their toes-es
bananas get ‘em when yummy ripe
trout wear ‘em with tummy stripe
speckles of sunlight shine upon leaves
treckles of water dripping from eaves
when all’s said and done
freckles are fun!
charlotte sun
No changing freckles and no editing this poem 🙂 It’s a quadrille with exactly 44 words for Mish’s prompt at dVerse poets pub tonight.
27 Jul 2019
by lynn__
in Uncategorized
Tags: barn, birds, corn, crickets, lightning bugs, moon, stars
Listen to silent barn; cattle chores
finished when farmer turns out light
as darkness falls.
Listen to busy crickets, fiddle
incessantly from damp ditch grass
as darkness falls.
Listen to tall corn grow, stretching
and squeaking to whorled height
as darkness falls.
Listen to lightning bug wings
chirr while rising to spark new mate
as darkness falls.
Listen to killdeer warn their
nestlings to huddle in feather bed
as darkness falls.
Listen to far stars, singing ancient
alien lullaby with grandmother moon
as darkness falls.
A pastoral poem in six tercets, patterned after Jane Kenyon’s “Let Evening Come” and linked to Kim’s mini challenge at Imaginary Garden with Real Toads.
25 Jul 2019
by lynn__
in fusion haiku, troiku
Tags: camp, hikers, mountain, picnic, skies, sun, willow
Create a fusion haiku from these 2 classics, then write a troiku for CDHK…
blue autumn skies
folded into mountains
purple shadow
© Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)
such a hot day
my shadow needs to cool down
under the willow
© Kyoshi Takahama (1874-1958)
my “fusion” haiku:
cloudless sapphire skies
sun casts shadows of heatwave
mountain willow shade
© lynn__
my “troiku” series:
cloudless sapphire skies
left camp early to climb peak
perfect summer day
sun casting shadows
of hikers on rocky path
break into a sweat
mountain willow shade
rest to unpack picnic lunch
inhale alpine air
23 Jul 2019
by lynn__
in free verse
Tags: calf, foal, infant, live, monarch, movement, seed
salmon flash upstream
an urgency to breed
eggs float underwater
seed coat splits open
sprout pierces into light
leaf nodes bulge green
ripe chrysalis rips gently
wet monarch emerges
stretches sticky wings
moment of conception
multiple cell divisions
quickening in her womb
strong uterine contractions
now little hooves appear
cow licks fresh calf
mare wickers softly
new foal stands wobbly
searching for teat
chubby babe rolls over
sits up with support
takes first steps to daddy
Linking to dVerse poetics where Amaya invites us to write about movement…
23 Jul 2019
by lynn__
in classical haiku
Tags: autumn, branch, crow, flies
Chevrefeuille at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai offers us a beautiful haiku by renowned Japanese poet Matsuo Basho to “photoshop” (tweak) a little. Here’s my attempt:
kare eda ni karasu no tomarikeri aki no kure
on a bare branch
a crow has stopped
autumn dusk
© Basho (Tr. Stephen Wolfe)
bare tree branch sways with
dark crow’s weighty silhouette
autumn flies away
© lynn__
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