Change

Change - limited - 

Enlivens

Change - sudden - 

Traumatizes  

It is imminent

With every breath

And cell design 

Change 

     can be a choice

OR NOT

Unbidden or desired

Unsought or wrought

A variation of taste,

     culture, or scenery

New vistas to behold!

A Tree

The crooked tree

Stands with glee

Before the morning sunrise.

Unaware of deformity,

With no thought of disparity,

It sings me on my morning commute. 

The crook in all our natures 

Created when saplings 

Has no bearing on the length

Of our branches 

Or the depth

Of our roots. 

It rather gives an endearing 

Quirk, a perk

In the green wood

To provide uniqueness. 

Home

This house...wasn't mine

The hearth was built

By another's design

But life has wrought 

More than I bought

Within these walls

Music, illness, laughter, tears,

Joys and sorrows, anger, fears,

Death, love.

Many seasons

By the fireside

Have altered this place

Where I reside

Pet companions, meadowlark's song

Draw me back wherever I roam

To know the bliss of this, my home.

Perfection

Beauty is perfection,

And not just surface show,

But that which flowers

Through your eyes

And stirs the soul to grow.

Perfection is attainable,

Forego dismissive thought.

Wherever there's contentment

Perfection has been wrought.

Serendipity

Serendipity 

    is a magical word

Like "bibbity-bobbity-boo,"

Do you believe 

In this fortuitous 

    intertwining of events?

Relinquish cajoling

Reconsider controlling

Serendipity intervenes

    with fate

Surreptitiously - 

An unexpected breath

    from the Divine

To redefine

    our path.

    

Chance

Do you fancy

That chance

Is luck,

Or an outcome

Of pluck?

There is a triad

    of choice:

To give something a chance,

You must take a chance,

Then leave it to chance.

That's quite a complex

Enhancement of potential.

 

Time

 Backwards

Forward

Up, Down

Time

Wreaks its havoc

Seeks renown

Heals

Destroys

Remembers

Forgets

Marches on

Without regret,

Compassion,

Or fear

A Work of Art

 Ekphrasis, or...

A work of art

Can impart joy

To the creator

As well as the beholder

A brushstroke, a flair

Music soaring on air,

Sculpture, clay,

A poem a day...

All can raise

The soul from malaise.

There is appreciation 

In completion

As well as viewing ~ 

An accretion

To the soul.

Art by Kendra

The Sun

 The sun can be

    friend or foe

Pulsating light - 

    drought - blight

Or welcome after rain -    

    like hope.

You come and go

    as we revolve -

Rotate - evolve - 

    regress.

You light our path -

    reveal our wrath -

Grow radiant beauty

    and paint the

Coming and going

    of day.

You do not burn hotter now; it's we who have broken the promise of your protection.

The Moon

Today is Valentine's Day

And a half moon

Is setting

In a pink sky.

Like others,

I have asked,

"Why?" 

Of the moon.

"Soon," she says

With quietude and serenity.

There is gratitude

In the consistency of her presence

And sustained mystery.

A River

The Cherokee said that Nolichuckey

Means "dangerous waters." 

Broad expanse of muddled depth,

Obscuring what lies beneath, 

What is inherently yours,

And what have you claimed as your own - 

Things that don't belong to you - 

Monstrous fish, snapping turtles, lost boats, foraged bones...

What would we find if you were dry?

An alien landscape - both shallow and deep

With cliffs and craters like the landscape of a desert -

Unexplored, unknown - 

As unfamiliar as your treacherous bed of shifting sand.

You lie, deceptively serene.

Mountains

 "APP-UH-LATCH-A"

The mountains are a part 

    of everyday life here - 

A living presence - 

    family.

Their outline is as familiar

    as breath

Their steadfastness is as sure

    as death.

A flat horizon would have

    no meaning - 

No streams and rills 

    or rolling hills,

No staggering precipices

    of colorful autumn trees.

Life would be silent without these ~

    winds from the peaks,

    rippling creeks,

Or each distinctive call

    of bird or beast.

The mountains give strength

    with massive length

And the wisdom

    of creation.

Art by Kendra

Noise

 Noise is a blight

To senses serene

Circuits awry

As impulses teem

A vibrating mind

Of quaking commands

Cannot give 

What focus demands.

Absorption is naught

When a mind is fraught

With fight - flight - 

Or freeze. 

Give me reprieve

In silence. 

Art by Kendra