gratefullyyourstoday

Saints Calling

All Saints Day arrives
The weather strangely warms
Our saints of old ride in
On a glorious, gusty
Fall breeze that bellows through the trees.

It will bring rain before
The day is through.

As mother earth turns her attention
Toward the winter solstice
We turn ours toward Thanksgiving,
Advent, Christmas
And the new year on its way.

One last mosquito bites
Asking us to remember summer
And what went before
that brings us to this gusty day.

JEHW
November 1, 2013

All Hallows Eve

All Hallows Eve is
Howling down my back. Calling
Sweet Grandmomma forth
To lead the ancestral parade.

Her austere beauty,
Her gratitude amid storms,
Her unswerving love
No matter the sins I bare,
Are the costume she wears.

Scarring the heebie-jeebies
Quite thoroughly out of me.

In the Wild

There is wild rose with her
Bright red rose hip
Decorating the forest for winter.

Once I tried to bring her home
And make her grow in my
Neat, domesticated garden.

But she withered away.
She knew what I didn’t yet understand.
Her beauty – and her heart
Belong in the wild wood.

JEHW
October 26, 2013

Whisper

The whisper of the first frost.
Divine Love calling Mother Earth
To rest and re-gather herself.

Does Love also call me
To do the same?

JEHW
October 24, 2013

Out of the Woods

If I could just see
The edge of the woods – the gentle
Field beyond – I might feel better.

That would let me know
That it is – just maybe –
Possible to crawl out of them.

JEHW
October 17, 2013

Shadow
I saw my shadow and realized
I don’t want to
Be hunched over
And crotchety –

An old woman leaking sadness,
And allergies
Like a fog all
Around me.

Where did that person come from?
Certainly she
Must not be me.
I must help her leave.

JEHW
October 9, 2013

Symphony

Like a gentle opening movement,

The rain begins.

Larger drops grow the percussion sound by

Dancing on the lake’s surface.

Leaves flutter like tingling bells

To the ground.

The little stream slowly fills and begins to flow

Like trilling cymbals.

In the distance mother birds

Tell their young ones to gather in,

Providing the flutes and horns.

Finally,

As this long, exhausting,

Sleepless week of seeing red –

Red flags,

Frustrating red rage,

Bright red stop signs –

draws to a close;

I welcome nature’s call to rest,

And enjoy her symphony.

JEHW

October 19, 2013

I Need a Message!

This morning I asked Divine Love,

“Why?  Why for so many years

No Jesus to come and help us know

That You are here?”

“Why this nothing?!”

“No Buddha, No Mohamed?

Not even a good prophet;

Some touch stone to help

Us hang on?”

And then, this very evening,

A child that I encountered – simply, frankly,

Unquestioningly – announced

That Love has spoken,

“To let you know that I am here.”

Hum, what shall I make of that,

Divine Love?

Guess you got me on that one.

            JEHW

            September 11, 2013

Just a note about Divine Love: Sometimes I feel that I am too corrupted by all the connotations that come with the name of God, so I find I have to use Divine Love as the way I remember who God is. 

And by the way, what I describe in this poem; it really happened.  So what do you make of that?

Though these musings may at first seem a bit gloomy, they are not meant to be.  They represent pieces of a present (and never ending) search for self. 

JEHW, September 2013

Falling Down

A house falling down

Around me, with only one

Hammer and nail to fix it.

That is how it feels

To be in this world sometimes,

Trying hard to make it better.

                                                                                                   A Harbinger

                                                                                                   A harbinger on

                                                                                                   Her way here, full to the brim

                                                                                                   Of whirling, twirling ideas.

                                                                                                   She brings a message.

                                                                                                   Better get clear about who

                                                                                                   I really am, to hear it right. 

Empty

Empty.

Nothing to offer.

Can’t hear, can’t see, can’t feel

Anything.  Can I be patient with this

Empty?

blue moon brings with her

an early taste of autumn

fog clings to the lake

the surrounding forest stills

one tiny yellow leaf falls

finally this fierce

move-making, body-using, heart-

breaking, change-forcing

summer begins to let go

giving way to something new

            jehw

            8/26/13

(tanka format)

Last

Blue moon

Of August

Brings with her an

Early taste of fall, fog clings to the now

Cooling surface of the lake, woods quiets

First tiny leaf

Flutters down.

Welcome

Change.

JEHW

8/26/13

(tetractys format)

In my poetry class we are learning different structures for our writing.  These two poems use the same experience interpreted in the two distinct formats of tanka and tetractys.