Today I need to play a poem
write a picture
paint a song.
Today I need to step outside
and let the world come to me.
#59
A Plan
A plan charts the map for the road trip
you’ve always wanted to make.
A plan put wheels on wishes,
distills fuel from day dreams, and
packs a lunch of hope and sandwiches.
A plan.
Gotta get a plan.
#58
Fad Foods
New superfoods appear each day
midst claims of health and slender waists
that can be yours if you eat them
no matter how vile they may taste.
Once it was oat bran and now it’s kale
acai berries I can’t pronounce.
Some I tried and some I found
I couldn’t put inside my mouth.
But then there was the red wine craze
and dark chocolate anti-oxidants,
Those I’ll keep even if
I have to buy some stretchy pants.
I’m tired of worrying about food
of feeling guilty if I cheat
and actually enjoy a meal.
Now I just close my eyes and eat.
#57
Grouse
There’s a grouse outside my window
perched in the poplar tree
Taking cover from the rain
beneath the yellowing leaves.
He stumbles through the branches,
flutters and uses his beak
to steady his hop in his ascent
He’s almost as clumsy as me.
#56
I Am Like a Restrung Guitar
Unwound, unwound, unwound
with lowering moans and sighs the old dead strings
give up their place. A release
of tension. Freed from peg and anchor
they lie, silent on the floor.
New strings spring from enveloped coils;
leap out, eager to take their place,
to discover their voices.
Wound, wound, wound
with hopeful ascending trills
and the music is renewed
and renews.
It takes time and patience,
constantly re-tuning to reach the right notes,
but new strings are willing to stretch,
willing to take the tension
just so they can sing.
I am that guitar.
I have new strings.
Sing with me.
#55
Big Bang Bread
There were only supposed to be twelve spiral arms
of cinnamon and raisins.
Then my doughy universe began
to expand, in a big bang boom it bloomed over
the top of the pan and the distance between
raisins increased exponentially,
like far-flung stars hurtling apart until
the heat overwhelmed the live, growing yeast
of creation and baked them into place.
And that is why, instead of a dozen
cinnamon rolls, we have an enormous,
if sparsely populated,
loaf of raisin bread.
Big Bang Bread.
It’s not a theory anymore.
#54
Velcro Toes
Squirrels must have Velcro toes
the way they climb the trees.
And the way they climb back down,
nose first, is a mystery to me.
They jump full speed from branch to branch
with a chattering Tarzan yell.
And they just moved into my attic, sigh…
Damn their furry little butts to ….
#53
Human Nature
We either imitate nature or
insulate ourselves from her.
We live in warm caves with potted plants
and wood panelling on the walls.
We fence our yards to keep out wild animals
and share our homes with the descendants of
wolves and lions.
All of us nicely domesticated.
We tell our children stories of clever mice
who wear clothes and can speak
and then we bait the mouse traps.
You can take the human out of nature but
you can’t take nature out of the human.
#52
Veterans’ Haiku
Honour dead soldiers
by caring for the live ones
who come home broken.
#51
All Things
All things do not come,
neither to the one who waits
nor to the one who seeks.
All things do not care
how patient or
how curious you are.
All things are just things
after all.
#50
Linda Studley 