Sleep

Eyes closed shut the mind

No more thought

Turn it off

Not with prescriptions

or chamomile tea

Rather meditate and pray

Forget your day

Mistakes you made

or what was said

Let it go

Into beloved

Sleep

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dVerse prompt on sleep

Garnet

Hidden in a matrix of schist

When rock is broken

It bleeds red
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dVerse prompt on your birthstone

Reunion

Remember

Going down the hallway

A class perhaps we shared

Or sitting in the lunchroom

Unbridled for just awhile

As the hallway clock ticked out

Its steady rhythm of time

Moving forward

We scattered at the sound of the bell

And went our ways
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quadrille Monday at dVerse written on a Tuesday and reunions can be somewhat spicey

Did You?

questions from Winslow, Arizona and the song by Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey “Take It Easy”

  
Did you ever 

stand on the corner

in Winslow, Arizona?

Did you ever

have seven women

on your mind?

Did you ever

let your wheels

drive you crazy?

Did you ever

try to understand

and take a stand?

Did you ever 

have a world of trouble

on your mind?

Did you ever

win or did you 

lose?

Did you ever

let yourself be saved

and take it easy?
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dVerse prompt to write a poem of questions

Keep It Simple

Today I am not flying to Houston but rather I am going to Iowa, the place where I was born. The heartland, the grass plains now in field corn ready to harvest. A simple place where the elms have died out and the Fox have bought back a part of their land and run a casino. I am not flying thru Denver where the airport built on sacred land but rather thru Vegas, the hub of gambling and entertainment, the vision of an eccentric.

My hometown has changed. Where there use to be three grocery stores now there is one. There are still a number of bars that line one street and no shoe store anymore. I remember Buster Brown in the shop window and a number of dress shops. Now there is one. My sister and I walk all day reminiscing childhood, the town’s dramas and a dad who drank too much.  There is already too much extravagance in the world. Time to keep it simple.

Seasons move so fast

We are caught in the middle

How to surrender

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dVerse prompt haibun Monday and explain why you write the way you do

Petroglyph Picasso Postcard Series

Petroglyph Picasso
marks of his time with palette
pyramid lights
a different red bull

Petroglyph Picasso
mark of our time
dismembered disjointed shapes
wanting to be whole

Petroglyph Picasso
Oh to sit for a portrait with the master
take this cup
leave the table and dance!

Joy of the master’s studio
blank slate or finished canvas
lines take shape
black and white or color
begin a new work

Petroglyph Picasso
pitcher and the poet pours out
a stream of water let go
that no longer fills the vessel
like stone that needs no remembrance
or the folly of the etcher

Petroglyph Picasso
woman reading
thought of beginning middle and end
history fiction or current event
mind encapsulated in this moment

Petroglyph Picasso
mark of his time
the eye that saw war
the eye that saw peace
mouth ready to speak art

Petroglyph Picasso
a ring of suspense
who will die a violent death
a horse the bull or the matador

Petroglyph Picasso
shapes cut stone like
in still life with fans
moves the air regardless of time

Petroglyph Picasso
portrait of our time
confusion and the crucifixion
crying out with limbs
hands set in prayer

shapes cut like stone
seat of still life
Left behind by the master
Petroglyph Picasso

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compilation of poems August Poetry Postçard Fest

Rain Rein Reign

We feel the rain all day

go out in the wet forest to listen 

for one joyous bird song 

there is only the sound of water drops 

on the canopy of trees and the creatures 

are held in rein from their singing

clouds melt to blue

as a melody springs from branches

and the sun will reign again

_______________________________________

dVerse prompt on rain, rein and reign

Road Trip Postcards

remember the Wild West
how to roll your own
two stand together

beautiful Texas
wish you were here
come back when wild flowers bloom

two horns sharp long horns
heavy burden
worth the weight

in the desert thorns grow
hard ground blue sky
find protection hold firm

ace and jack play the odds
sound of chips
roll the dice

friends to creatures
never alone
lessons from Smokey

just remember only you
don’t wait for someone else
to stop the fire only you

or let your fire burn
the only you fire
burn bright fire

glory to GOD and the canyon
maker of heaven and earth
and the canyon

“straight up land” said the Paiute
rock and erosion layers
of color and time

we drove for days
we drove the route through Texas
New Mexico Arizona Utah

past Navaho Nation
find sovereignty
in going the distance

___________________

short poems written on postcards

Concrete Art

  

Concrete in the veins

Announce the hard facts of day

Leaves fall to the ground
__________________

Leaf created by nature, concrete and me

Alchemy in the Garden

  
Transformed from a small wrinkled seed set in soil at springtime 

I hold the beets by their rat tails after yanking them out of the bed

They do not squeak or squeal as I hose them off for my dinner pot

Filled with docility and content to roast in the oven at a high degree

Except the one that got away by rolling downhill as I lost my grip

Then poof by magic it sprouted legs with blood red fur it ran

It ran to the woods without looking back and I never saw it again
___________________

dVerse prompt on magic and an edict to lighten up