A cinquain is a five line poem with first line as title and final line restates it. Syllable count: 2-4-6-8-2.
calving
farmer midwife
gets up at night to check
first time heifers need help birthing
spring push
photo by lynn
cinquain in pain
10 Apr 2018 1 Comment
in cinquain Tags: calving, farmer, midwife, pain, push, spring
self-destruction
21 May 2016 1 Comment
in diamond shape, etheree Tags: forgive, pain, suicide, tragedy
!
no
blaming
suicide
gun explosion
young father missing
community feels shock
evil darkens human thought
– tragedy’s harsh realities –
one cannot undo desperate choice
maybe she will leave so he leaves her first
—
do not assume the mistakes of others
such could happen to any of us
relationships turn on an edge
hold fragile hearts tenderly
commit to love thru pain
forgive each again
God help us all
redemption
healing
yes
?
This poetry form, an “etheree”, consists of 10 lines of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 syllables. Etheree verse can also be reversed and written 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Sadly, suicide is irreversible.
seems only the best are taken
28 Mar 2015 4 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: best, courage, grief, pain, saints
To honor Rallyn Van Beek, Betty Mennega, Kara Tippets, Phyllis Meerdink, and Ed Zomermaand; whose loss is grieved, whose memory is treasured, whose faith is rewarded!
pilgrims on a journey
through lonely valley
of uncertain, unchosen
battles of aging, cancer,
treatments, injury and pain.
how to understand it?
how to go on? one step by
wobbly step, one tough day to next;
Spirit lifts struggling saints
in present hard grief to
glimpse higher vision.
their suffering redeemed by
the Father for holy purpose as
spirits grow ever stronger
with time, faith and courage.
dying is simply a
passageway to paradise,
true rest, complete healing;
they know the Prince of Peace
who calls and carries them home.
photo: “Rose of Sharon” (crown anemone) in “Promised Land” (Israel)
when words fail
06 Jun 2014 12 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: death, disaster, fail, pain, suffering, words
Words can speak life
into a person’s soul
but sometimes words
are only silent syllables,
empty vowels mouthed
between lame consonants
not knowing where to spit.
In raw personal disaster,
how can anyone find words
that won’t do more damage
to an already fragile psyche?
Shame, blame, trite phrases
prove how small irretrievable
words only multiply misery.
Words elude both tongue
and pen when faced with a
child’s death by miscarriage,
accident, suicide; Language
languishes in presence of
slow painful suffering by
cancer, AIDS, dementia.
Who has an answer when words fail?
a poem in my pocket 
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