Side to side:
no real progress there
just the proverbial shifting of deck chairs
on a sinking ship.
Up:
I have climbed my share
of mountains, but the climb was always followed
by the steep descent.
Down:
‘Up’ in reverse.
Reverse:
A gear I’ve been stuck in
occasionally that always caused more pain
than it alleviated.
Forward:
Really the only choice,
with it’s share of pain and heartache and yet with
the potential for joy.
#128
Sometimes life wobbles
Like reflections on water
Seen better with closed eyes.
#126
Favourite colour?
The colour that has returned
to your smiling face
Our lives flow onward
Control is an illusion
There is only now.
#124
Your heart beats again
and I feel mine beating too
heartstrings tugged too hard
#123
I’d like to live an aimless life of purpose
I’d like to travel without leaving home
I’d like to do a lot of things
as long as none of them have strings.
I’d like to meet new people if they’d just leave me alone.
I think I’ll set a goal and then ignore it
Then not bother learning something new
I’ll pack a bag and then forget it
If fate wants to decide I’ll let it
The only thing I’m not ambivalent about is you.
#122
This marks one third of the way through my allotted “A Poem a Day for a Year”. How do I feel about that? Actually I’m rather ambivalent about it!
“There” is about placement,
“over here, over there.”
“Their” is possessive
“that is yours, this is theirs.”
“They’re” is a contraction
where the apostrophe
replaced the letter “a” because
“They’re” means “They are”, you see.
Very much like “you’re”,
which really means “you are”
not like “your,” possessive,
“my bicycle, your car.”
And then we get to where and were,
to switch them is infernal.
“Where” belongs with “Here and There”
“Were” is “Was”, just plural.
“Then” stands for a place in time
“I’ll go home then, you’ll see.”
“Than” requires comparison
“He’s much taller than me.”
Thank you for your tolerance
of my semantic raving.
But English is my native tongue
and I think that it’s worth saving.
#120
Spring has sprung the winter pris’ner
from winter’s frigid jail cell. Isn’er
green a sweet refreshing shift
from white on white on…you get the drift.
Spring springs forth in crocus cups
and people have more giddy up
to go and tidy up their lawn
(where, winter long, the dogs have gone)
Spring’s outpourings lie in puddles,
drowning worms, the vernal flood’ll
trickle creepsily into basements
Measuring stuff with displacement.
Spring is full of fits and starts
that gladden and sadden and gladden your heart.
you’re so confused that in the end
Even squelchy mud seems like a friend,
a harbinger of things to come
like hammock time and maybe some
perfect days when sun and breeze are
in perfect balance and the freezer’s
full of fudgicles and T-bone steaks
for barbeques beside the lake.
Yes Spring has sprung and all we hankered for.
We’ll enjoy and prob’ly never thank her for.
#120
“Where” is a variable with a value that fluctuates and which
is dependent upon “Who” for its identity.
“Who” is the constant; the immutable permanent;
the common denominator.
If “Where” becomes the constant and “Who” the variable,
“Who” may diminish and chaos may occur.
Some human equations are so constructed that “When”
may appear to be a constant.
But these are exceptional cases
where the value of “Who” is augmented.
“Where” is, and will always be, the variable,
it just may not vary for a long time and when it does,
it may do so with no consideration
for the constant “Who”.
#119
…apparently this is what happens when you try to write when you’re still asleep (and when math was not your strongest subject at school!)…
We are a planet of human islands
loosely joined by tenuous fibres of love and pain.
Each of us is alone within our own skin except for fleeting
moments when we share ourselves
and we don’t share often.
Sharing is not something we come to easily.
Neither is empathy or compassion but we are getting better at it.
We are a planet of human contradictions
alternately capable of kindness and cruelty,
enlightenment and atrocity.
On a grand global scale or on a personal basis
we grapple with good and evil.
Perhaps one cannot exist without the other
but most of us want to believe
that some form of good will eventually triumph.
We are a planet where humanity is the dominant species;
not necessarily something to be proud of since
no one gets to the top without a little bloodshed.
If you still want to visit, know that some of us will welcome
peaceful overtures, and some will want to shoot first
and ask questions later, and some won’t even want to bother
asking questions.
Please make your travel plans accordingly.
#118
Linda Studley 