Where’s a switch to flip so words
do flow, or maybe there’s a tap?
Words usually do more than
scribble here and scribble there.
Rather than search thesaurus or
dictionary for inspiration,
I’ll just close today’s chapter
and say Good Night.
“Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow,
that I shall say good night till it be morrow”
~ William Shakespeare
snow fell silently
at supper time.
“The snow fell as softly as a poet’s tears.”
~ Kevin Ansbro, author
It was an invitation to a birthday party one summer many years ago.
The prairie sky was deep blue with not a cloud in sight.
Mrs. Thompson ~
I think that was her name ~ lived on a farm between city and town. One year when I
was about 13, she gave me
piano lessons in her home.
I loved playing piano,
but not practicing. My teacher,
80 years young, greeted me with sparkling eyes,
a beautiful smile and a warm handshake.
‘I never knew if you practiced!’
Her eyes twinkled a bit brighter
‘You played so well by ear!’
“To play a wrong note is insignificant;
to play without passion is inexcusable.”
~ Ludwig van Beethoven
That’s not what I want,
Words that tripped through my head, so poetic and lovely, faded to stiff, stilted black curls when written on the page. That’s not what I want.
I want the insight of Maya Angelou, the dry humour of Billy Collins, the soul depths of Mary Oliver. I am but a fledgling poet of sorts. A hit and miss poet who dares
claim the title ‘poet’. But we all
learn our craft from a beginning
of shaping words, learning the
vocabulary of the soul, the heart
or fine wit. So one day my own
voice of poetry should mature.
“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”
~ Helen Keller
Nerves of steel wrap
themselves around
explosive emotions.
When barely controlled
hilarity, red-eyed anger
or deep grief
threaten to toss reason
to the wind, these nerves
of steel, forged in
an instant, disappear
as quickly when threat
of explosion is gone.
“After great pain, a formal feeling comes.
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like tombs.”
~ Emily Dickinson
Outsized ideas are full
of words and images,
tangled together,
a myriad of balloons
released into the morning air.
To pick one thread, one string;
to catch the most important one
can seem, at first, impossible.
Not to the scientists who see
the possibilities.
They each take hold of
any string and begin.
“Touch a scientist and you touch a child.”
~ Ray Bradbury
Suspicion pushes reason aside like any argument.
Nothing makes sense but
for the little sliver that does.
It’s grasping that tiny sliver;
to hang on is the tough part.
That little sliver is the love of a real life
and can push suspicion gently aside.
“Suspicion is a heavy armour and with its weight
it impedes more than it protects.”
~ Robert Burns
