A fog
Of should-have’s
Rolling in
My body rested
But beware
Those rocky chores
Along the shore
Keep them at bay
Until late
Morning’s clearing
-a.r.
Circus Stays
•October 3, 2014 • 2 CommentsWhat is it that keeps me pinned
While holding back the rain and wind
Thick ropes tethering tent to earth
Pulled straight, my tugging tarpaulin
What is it that keeps me tame
Performing every show the same
Dressed and dazzling under lights
My wild then shoved back in its cage
What is it that keeps me trapped
My face made up, my body wrapped
Twisting tumbling towards the ground
Feigning my faith that ropes don’t snap
What is it that keeps me on
Directing rings, attention drawn
Calling out their names and games
But pulling stakes before the dawn
What is it that brings us back
And keeps us traveling down this track
From one tiny town to next?
The prickled flesh during the act
-a.r.
Painting: The Circus by Georges Seurat
Inspired by someone, and started, a year ago. It didn’t work then so I let it lay dormant.
It came back today and asked for life…today I had it to give.
Fall (again)
•October 2, 2014 • 3 CommentsI am letting go of leaves
Or are they letting go of me
I watch their downward drifting
Rocking back and forth by breeze
Cradled quiet on their journey
A silent lullaby
I hang with each one in the air
Once soft and green now brown and dry
I choose to watch their falling
My nature aches to be reminded
How very short a season lasts
Born sycamore instead of pine
I was made to shed this skin
Grey rolls of cardboard slipping slight
Leaning with the wind I have a look
At pieces scattered left and right
I shake the weight of my bare branches
Absorb the fading warmth and light
I was not made to endure changes
While remaining straight and green
From root to tip, where blackbirds grip
The travel of the earth, I feel it
-A.R.
Painting: Study of a Sycamore Branch by Drusilla Montemayor
Taking Flight
•October 1, 2014 • 2 CommentsGeese once again
Echo and ascend
I can never tell
If they simply usher seasons
Or portend,
A warning bell
-a.r.
Photograph by Meredith Bell, DreamerFineArts on Etsy.com
This Edge
•September 30, 2014 • Leave a CommentSupport
Like stepping-stones
Simply got me to this edge
My choice now to turn and hedge
Or jump, free fall, with fear and all
Into that descending mist
Disguised, and hissing
Gentle pools or jagged rocks below
Either way I choose to go
Embraced by soft splashing
Or quick-hit crunching
Fleshy floating, bone and stone
Either way this leap is mine
And I’ll be flying for a time
-a.r.
Painting: Oparkaa Waterfall by Linda Phelps
(reposted for my daughter and for her bravery today)
Muse
•September 29, 2014 • Leave a CommentA muse appears in many forms
From beautiful to beastly
The art we bear equally so
From hellish born to priestly
–a.r.
The Good and Evil Angels, by William Blake
Throwing Stones
•September 28, 2014 • 3 CommentsDropping of bombs and destruction of bones
Armies, and mobs, and the throwing of stones
Will not change with war or religious stagnation
But with power of mind opened through education
Blinding our eyes, sitting blissful in silence
Ignoring their plight is permission for violence
The screams of the helpless left dying alone
Those chickens up-roosted will visit our homes
Blood on our hands leaves us nothing but stains
Repeating our past drops us drowning in chains
Safia, Samira, Colleen, and the girls
Michael, Trayvon, and John, gone from our world
Dividing our dreams between us, us, and them
Ignoring the truth that the veil hangs so thin
Will keep some of us happy, and dumb, and to blame
While we slip off the precipice, smiling in vain
-A.R.
Painting: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil by George Kocar
Spinning with the World
•September 27, 2014 • 2 CommentsI saw a string of spider’s silk
Sway in the morning sun
She must have worked all eve on it
Her work barely begun
She spun her web by shade of night
While cooler breezes blew
Her work destroyed by morning light
I wonder if she knew
Perhaps she’s spinning with the world
Sleeps full in daylight then
When hunger rises with the moon
She’ll weave her trap again
-a.r.
Painting: Spider by Moonlight by Matrix Meditations, Etsy.com
Season of (Re)Enchantment
•September 25, 2014 • Leave a CommentI am opening windows
Singing and clearing clutter
Saving space for possibility
I am dusting surfaces
Noticing the cobwebs
Letting life keep spinning
I am changing batteries
Dancing and lighting candles
Borrowing time for brewing
I am readying my rooms
Unpacking decorations
Leaving a place for magic
In the making
-a.r.
The Crystal Ball by John William Waterhouse
Because it is that time of year again.
Mindful In Tatters
•September 18, 2014 • 1 CommentSome part of me
Is always manic
Maniacally too much
Having some
But wanting more
It always costs me
Something
Balance of imbalance
I have found
No way around it
It is merely a matter
Of my reigning in
Which loose end
While the next is left
Mindfully in tatters
-a.r.
Bipolar by Dr. Taha H. Malasi
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