Faith

In this time 

Of terror, illness,

And fear 

Faith is sought 

Wrung from

Souls drenched 

From the trenches 

Faith is bought 

Hold to the healing

Golden light

Filling our bodies 

With what is bright 

Faith is caught 

And hope 

Of reunion 

With those flown on

Faith is wrought. 

Spring

Deceptive spring - so prone

To imbalance - and yet - 

So alluring between her volatile 

Spells of vernal passion. 

All forgive her bouts 

Of tornadic rage,

Or icy spells

Of frost

For the charms 

Of her budding warmth. 

Enraptured,

Captured 

Overlooking creation 

Sacrificed to mood. 

And yet - 

People have always been

Drawn to sacrifice. 

Look at Easter. 

Flowers, morels, fiddleheads - 

Poison flourishing in equal measure. 

All fine-tuning for the dance 

That is Spring, 

Seeking inclusivity,

Despite complexity,

Of which new life is friend

Or foe. 

With such sticky and pollinated

Beauty sings the Earth. 

Violence

Mother would look at cliff sides 

And say, “Violent upheavals

Of the earth.”

How primeval.   

Violence is key to creation

As well as destruction. 

Lava, fire, cataclysmic 

Birth pains forming

Each soaring mountain range. 

Glaciers grinding - oceans 

Whipped to savage glee - 

Rearrangement in cacophony. 

Labor, amniotic fluid - 

Bone, sinew, a beating heart

A push, a cry - then life, anew. 

“I’m afraid I rather crave violence.” Jo March.

Freedom

True freedom is bliss

But it comes with a cost

For often it’s found

When something is lost.

Liberation granted,

Freedom gained

There is a ransom

For fulfillment attained.

But it also lives

As a state of mind

When life is heavy

And circumstance binds.

Embrace it solely

In gratitude -

In freedom defined

By attitude.

Equity

Justice - as fairness

     For inequality 

Is inclusion

Initiated by souls

     Who see 

Past uniformity

And exclusion. 

A gift

     Of opportunity 

Can raise

The downtrodden

     In hope

Apart from loping

Existence.

Beyond “just trying to live.”

Justice

Prescription of fate,

Considered equitable, 

Meted for notable

Exceptions, 

Doled to uphold

A cause -

Recompense

Dispensed. 

Justice comes

Timely for some 

Delayed for others -

A pause -

In reckoning. 

 

Temptation

Temptation comes beguiling,

Luxurious, and smiling –

Fragrant, delicious

Enticing – beware

     the icing on the cake. 

Beautiful temptation

Why do you come

     with negative connotations -

A vixen set on destruction,

A serpent, seeking a fall -

I’d prefer to take of your call

Dripping, in self fulfillment,

     prone to excess. 

Yet, who’s to say the universe

     can’t create abundance from scarcity?

Evil

Stinging venom

Poison in plants

Lashing emotions 

Hurtful rants

Deliberate acts

Of malicious design

Seem to defame 

Ruin and malign

Evil destroys

What is cherished

Persisting until

All has perished -

But hope. 

“Evil” is “devil” without the “d”

A purposeful, I’d think, similarity. 

A Storm

There are seasons to storms

And lessons learned - 

Folklore to follow

For harvests earned. 

“Thunder in February

     means frost in April,”

Said my Uncle Robert

     on his 88th birthday, 

Teaching me the signs. 

My mother would say,

     “It’s thundering down in the thicket.”

A gentle rumble,

Almost humble,

Can awaken us from sleep. 

Weather breeders

Build,

White clouds looming,

Too quiet and perfect,

Pent to release in darkness,

Booming. 

Hidden wrath

Tempestuous wail

Roaring wind

Scattering hail

Do you think we don’t know

You are there

Rending the sky

For cooler air?

Artwork by S. Mitchell