Relief on a Spring Day

Glistening ice on 

curbs and sidewalks

crumbling snow against 

curbs…..and sidewalks 

run off crossing corners

drains hidden beneath ice pack

sun warm and bright ~

relief on a spring day.

“Spring is far more than just a changing 

of seasons; it’s a rebirth of the spirit”

~ Toni Sorenson, author

Heated Relief

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

Welcome Relief

This is the best kind of relief. 

To breath deeply of cool, fresh air. 

To walk slowly on forgotten summer 

sidewalks laminated with snow, 

savouring each step. Pausing to raise 

my eyes to see through arching 

barren branches to the crystal blue sky. 

This is the best kind of relief.

“This is the best kind of love, I thought,

without recompense, without gifts, 

or unkind words, without suspicion,

or silence on the telephone.”

~  Billy Collins, Aimless Love

Author’s note: today’s poetry inspired by Aimless Love by Billy Collins

Nesting

Tensions that fly into the back of my brain wing their way down to my heart and my belly 

where the small brown birds have built their nests. Nests built from the scattered debris of a 

day, or maybe a week or even longer. Removing the little flock of birds seems cruel when 

they’ve become so comfortable. 

But they are messy ~ dropping their feathers and never 

cleaning out their nests. I'm sorry to see 

them go because they are good company, 

even if they can't sing. So with each breath, 

one of them flies away till I am left empty. 

Then I'll open the space to robins and canaries 

and interview them for their songs.

“I feel empty, not because of sadness, but because 

of relief, all the tension flowing out of me.”

~ Veronica Roth, novelist

One Summer Afternoon

A pleasant line up in t-shirts and shorts at the Ice Cream window for swirled mango or strawberry ice cream cones; chocolate/orange

swirls, frosty milkshakes, or my sundae of vanilla ice cream with thick gooey salted caramel sauce. One at a time we took our frozen sweet relief to the little courtyard where elm trees, tall and gnarled, shaded us all in the thick humid air; tables of singles reading books, young couples unaware of the heat, children wanting more; the breeze off somewhere else, maybe down a back alley or cooling itself at the lake; melting ice cream confections ~ a sweet taste of cold.

“Cause a little bit of summer is what the whole year is about.”

~ John Mayer, Wildfire

Lost and Found

The lost has been found. Just a small notebook with scribblings and numbers, wanderings, doodles and lists of books to be read, movies to see, dates of phone calls received. Everything to be lost to the dustbin of time and memory. But, darn it! I expect it to be in a certain place when I want it. There were still several blank pages left in it. What if even one of those things was important?! 

A phone call to the last place I saw it. Reaching out to one more person. And then ~ a last look in my carry all. All the pockets. The little notebook slid into my hand like it was expecting me. A sigh of relief and phone calls returned. And so my day began.

“and what is lost that can’t be found.”

~ Alix E. Harrow, The Once and Future Witches

Exhausted!

Laughing and playing gives 

relief that no amount of sleep can offer

until laughing and playing 

provides its own exquisite exhaustion.

“Laughter feels like our flotation device - - 

it won’t pull us out of the storm, 

but it might carry us through if we can just hang on.”

~ Emery Lord, Open Road Summer

Paw Prints and Yellow Snow

My eyes to the treetops 

white with frost and rime

backed by brilliant blue sky 

and drifts of gauzy cloud........

But I really should watch 

where I’m going so

eyes to the sidewalk 

and threat of ice........

banks of snow, yet to see the 

gravel of spring, regularly anointed 

by the many neighbourhood dogs,

sniffing and lifting a leg in relief.

“Don’t eat the yellow snow.”

~ Frank Zappa

To Know

I have felt small ~ 

but not insignificant

I have felt alone ~

but seldom lonely

I have felt deep melancholy ~
healing begins in the deep.

I have felt vulnerable ~

but recognize my strength.

I have felt afraid ~

but appreciate my fear.

I have felt all my feelings ~

and know that I am human.

“The emotion that can break your heart is 

sometimes the very one that heals it.”

~ Nicholas Sparks

Raising the Bar

The COVID bar is raised ~

edging higher while

our smiling faces peer

cautiously through 

anxious fences of community.

“Life has got all those twists and turns. 

You’ve got to hold on tight and off you go.”

~ Nicole Kidman

*Response to the climbing COVID cases.

Bits of Housework

As much as I complain 

about not liking housework

I talk more about liking the space of

clean, neat and orderly, so

I drift through my home 

keeping things in order ~

Now the dust - that’s another issue.

I just let it lie quietly until 

finger prints are too obvious

It’s  a quick swipe though…………

But I digress ~ a stray cup left on the coffee table, a napkin out of place, crumpled and rumpled ~ picking little bits of thread and lint, curling them into balls of nothing, running the vacuum cleaner over the floor, 

washing drips of something brown from the cupboard

Bits of housework are no trouble ~ 

clearing disorder rippling through an aura of calm

by washing the stray piece of china and put it away

put the untidy napkin in the laundry ~ maintain order.

When I have created that space,

that void, I fill it up with 

stories, musings and song, 

laughter, food and music,

sometimes even tears of frustration ~

all is my life being lived.

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

~ Søren Kierkegaard

Not Really that Old!

Birthday - 2020

When I am at my table writing, I am

a child, a teenager, a young woman

Except when I am reflected in the mirror

~ I am really not that old!

When I clean my glasses 

I can see the world clearly.

Except when I look through their panes

 ~ I am really not that old!

“One day you will look back and see that 

all along you were blooming.”

~ Morgan Harper Nichols

Tree Art

 

What is it?

      A monkey’s mouth?

      A coiled snake?

      A hand puppet?

I guess trees are not just for shade and bark is not just bark.

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”

~ Henry David Thoreau