Posturing against the life we are given
can be a help or a hindrance.
Should it be a help it will merely be to
win ‘the game’ by a smile or bravado.
Should it be a hindrance, it can ignore
the truth and beauty in the world.
“The utmost form of respect is to give sincerely of your presence.”
~ Mollie Marti, psychologist, lawyer, author
Suspicious of all
the voices in the world
like buttons of bright yellow
flowers that attract me
like moths to the flame.
And what happens to a moth
when it gets too close to the flame
~ pfffzzt! ~-
and it’s gone
like my intention
to keep my feet on the ground.
Listening to the birds
feeling sun and wind
hearing the laughter of children
is magic to my soul ~
those bright yellow suspicions
become beautiful little flowers
while I feel like a beautiful butterfly.
“Suspicion is very often a useless pain.”
~ Samuel Johnson, writer
(1709 - 1784)
Eager to get the taste of sweet cold,
I spoke to myself as a child
‘finish your work first’
The heat within my walls
almost as stifling as
the heat outdoors ~ the difference
between wind in the trees and
the hum of the air conditioner
is natural and welcome.
We all milled about in an
orderly fashion at the ice cream window;
clots of three or four friends coming for
the same cold treat that I sought.
Some took their decorated ice creams
to savour while sitting on benches,
or in the courtyard under trees.
With slowed eagerness to get home
I ‘finished my ice cream’ and
renewed my walk under the trees to home.
“I arise full of eagerness and energy,
knowing well what achievement lies ahead of me.”
~ Zane Grey
Rivers flow swiftly
 |
| Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan, Canada |
from the dawn of time,
carving channels
across the earth’s crust,
nourishing life within
and along their banks
joining with each other
ignorant of man’s boundaries
’til they reach other great rivers
all to become one with the timeless sea.
 |
| Potomac River, Maryland, U.S.A. |
“A river seems a magic thing. A magic,
moving, living part of the very earth itself.”
~ Laura Gilpin, photographer, poet
(1891 - 1979)
Rivers flow swiftly…….
Eager to get…….
Suspicious of all……
Posturing against the…….
Owing good fortune…..
Never knowing……..
Situations of many…….
Ideals dashed against….
Boldly standing on one’s……
Life long values…….
Entertaining belief…..
“I long to accomplish a great and noble task,
but it is my chief duty to accomplish
small tasks as if they were great and noble.”
~ Helen Keller
(1880 ~ 1968)
“They sat side by side”on the
top shelf of the cupboard,
empty, missing the little corks
that keep the salt and pepper
from a spill onto placemats.
Well over 100 years old,
I’ve kept them as though
made of the finest porcelain.
There is no special memory with them.
Perhaps the tiny little shakers
were meant for a breakfast tray,
along side a delicate vase
holding a single white daisy.
A gentle lady sits in her Victorian bedroom
with windows thrown wide to the morning sun
~ the little salt and pepper shakers ready
to brighten her morning eggs.
“Fantasy is one of the soul’s brighter porcelains.”
~ Pat Conroy, author of The Great Santini
(1945 ~ 2016)
Inspired by You, the Reader by Billy Collins
Sheltered by trees
surrounded by branches
blossoms untouched
by early evening rain.
“Build shelter against a rainy day.”
~ John Wooden, basketball player
(1910 - 2010)
