Maya and Joseph on a date...

Today at  dversepoets.com  Bjorn has us writing  haibun, which begins with prose and closes with a short poem that has a definite impact on the subject matter or haiku.  I chose to write about two people I greatly admire.




First, a quote from the esteemed Joseph Campbell, writer and scholar -

“Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life. It is a waste to be asking the question when you are the answer.” 
― Joseph Campbell





Prose I wrote this morning paraphrasing a lot of what this man says -

As testament to the newly born soul,
contrary to Western way  of thinking,

we have no further to look than ourselves

for answers to the riddles of all time

To the world we bring innocent pleasure;

as we grow we learn conniving and bitter traits

If one looks to myths of time,

we see commonalities unmistakably

resurrected repeatedly.

They in turn point to countless treasures within our being

These gifts are clues for reasons we exist,

and define our meaning; ultimately

we are to give them viability,

breath, express their beauty and variety,

their good

Our challenge is to use all resources

for the sole artful expression of life

through love.

We do this to give meaning to the world

Next, a short poem I wrote for all of us dreamers about the two of them together-

Maya and Joseph, icons of our time,
join each other in  heaven to dine
Compliments all around on each other's work
Her smile is wide as she enjoys dessert
Illuminating their conversation,
topic of modes of living all over the earth -
Memeing away long hours with stories 
many of us have never heard
Their hearts whole and giving,
their minds full of knowledge;
I'd like to drink in all the information,
hide behind a hedge
I can imagine it happening sometime soon,
somewhere over a rainbow,
clicking their wine glasses 
and donned in....halos 



And my haiku -

Spirits united
T'would be grand to know the way
Follow their footprints


Quote of Maya Angelou -
"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song."

 _Maya Angelou

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ..,.




HOPEFPULLY IN STYLE, CLASS, AN;D GRACE?dversepoets.com

Tea and the clouds...

Sparked imagination- 
antennae up,
feeling for pernicious signs,
clues to the weather 
Will clouds be white, 
grey, cotton candy or a
penny- copper color?
Large ones hanging like curtains,
in funny car shapes- 
She put tea and muffins 
on a small table, with 2
small chairs 

Continually changing 
clouds, manifestations of 
animals or persona 
Would it be Jesus,
the messiah she read about,
that steps from behind the
parting clouds doors,
appearing not in recent 
epochal time, 
to speak in allegory 
of our greedy ways?
...maybe Mr. Rogers,
or a granny 

A stained glass chime 
tinkling,
she saw shadows dancing 
on  luminous 
white porcelain plates
in the sun;
more than mere shapes
 of billowing toys
or formations 
of dogs and sheep
even spheres and orbs
She sees through the prisms of her eyes 
from where she lay on her back,
in the cool grass- 
looking up 

Vitiligo-  like clouds 
filled in the forever blue with
familiar warmth,
 a gradual
shifting of the guard
Clouds gathered
 in an artful display 
and suddenly appears 
a giant-sized, kind, 
gentle face...
She invited him to sit beside her....
and
.......he held her hand...
drank her tea- 
and worshipped her small kisses 






The prompt today, to use the following. 12 words in a poem:    messiah,luminous,plate, shadow , persona, epochal, pernicious,  allegory, vitiglio , warmth, door, glass.  My PC has crashed so am painstakingly using my cell phone.  I'll try to get all posts read but comments will be brief or have to wait...hope for sun.
 thanks.

Lifelong friends...

Karin at dversepoets.com       asks us to write slant poems today; also called
 half rhymes, there are words that sound alike but don't quite rhyme for a bit of surprise 
or variety.  Yeats was a master.



Lifelong friends found their way 
to my doorstep recently

We had lost track for more than a decade, 
familiar faces, voices dear

Touching again that special place

tucked inside my heart

since we first met in '68,
and their old pickup decked out
 with zebra art,
 black and white striped paint

Young marrieds with babies,
sharing walks with strollers to the zoo;

 and time passed after we moved away
Some Christmas cards in the mail,
then, suddenly, a wedding or two 

Now no longer in our prime,
now we laugh, talk and cry
a tear or two
It's humbling when lives cross again; 

guess it's true what's said of time 

So if your thoughts can travel 
through the wind across space,

 conscious desires can be channeled -
 soon to arrive at your gate

 

The nature of things...

dversepoets.com
Kelvin and Victoria have introduced his own poetry form,  Tilus, (macro poetry) which is divided into two parts: the first part is composed of two lines following a 6-3 syllable count; the second part, a one-syllable word to close and/or complete the subject layered in the first part NS must contain 10 in overall syllable count. The main focus is the world of nature but I added a couple of fun ones as well.  My contributions:






Eagle overhead, wish

I could "swoosh!",

too

Secluded in hedges,

grape swallow -

safe

Ubiquitous poems

of moonlight -

love

Green solar collector

spongy cells -

fronds

T'was an open and shut 
case of clams -

steamed

Who said life is a bowl of cherries?

Today is Poetics day over at dversepoets.com   and we are given a choice of 4 questions to write about. They are:
 Who are you and whom do you love? What else are you, that no one has seen before? Describe a morning you woke without fear. What lingers when all is said and done?
         This was written as a stream of consciousness, my answer to the last question.



Who said "Life is like a bowl of cherries?"  And what was their rationale?

To me, it is a day like yesterday, 
a perfect day with sunshine,
blue sky, a soft breeze;
it's skipping a rock,
birds singing,
flowers in bloom,
and a friend to go walking with 
Three days before there was rain,
when gray clouds suddenly parted
with a downpour of hail
Tiny white crystal balls 
bouncing like mini rubber balls, 
so high,  maybe three times again

They appeared to enjoy their time,
some bounding off at an angle;
others rolled down roofs,
traveled a bit more,
stopping at the grass,
Most gathered in crevices or 
became a temporary white coverlet,
wetting the ground, then melting
And when the sky cleared, 
the sun staged a summery feel
of thriving and enduring

Perhaps too simplistic,
but when all is said and done, 
we are caught in life, 
it seems to me,
between storms and paradise
One day exquisite things happen,
the next day can be lonely and cold.
Yet this earth holds so much more
Under a giant magnifying glass 
we appear as colonies of billions of ants,
 with tiny homes and cars,  
the tiniest of books on our shelves -
yet with incredibly complicated lives

There is the unseen world 
that is felt and dreamed,
full of meaningful thoughts, prayers
All flows into a beautiful common sea
of human talent and gifts,
for the betterment of said physical world
What we learn and with new ideas, 
we recycle,  as nature or God would have it.
Moreover, the art, music, and technologies, 
created with so much joy and pain, 
cannot result in nothingness -
can NOT be in vain

To this my point and now to say:
we are energy unleashed in human form
But sometime we must leave, 
taking with us what lives inside
It's value is from a sacred place,
the center of the heart of everything, 
a safety net of love, 
where nothing is forgotten or lost
Like a fiddler dancing happily on the roof,

so the hail dances in it's glory,

both playing until they run out of steam
Engaging, then impacting the earth,
but never really gone
Hail becomes water, evaporates, 
but can put on quite a show .


 Life is just a bowl of cherries; 
Don't make it serious; 
Life's too mysterious. 
You work, you save, you worry so, 
But you can't take your dough when you go, go, go. 
So keep repeating it's the berries; 
The strongest oak must fall. 
The sweet things in life 
To you were just loaned, 
So how can you lose what you've never owned? 
Life is just a bowl of cherries, 
So live and laugh at it all.  

Original song written for a movie in 1931 with Ethel Merman.   Also, there was a phrase in the 17th century, "Life is but a cherry-fair", but that meant "Life is very short."

Daisy Mae today...

                    










Claudia at dversepoets.com  asks us to write a poem with dialog....quite the challenge.  This was something I wrote a long time ago and had only 9 views, so maybe now more will read it.;)

   Yokum family - Daisy Mae & The Smoos
         

She seldom complained,
one of her countless virtues 
Li'l Abner took her for granted 

Daisy Mae is blond, 

not dumb; she has a brain,

voluptuous without being bad 

"Daisy, them peas need to be planted." 

Today, this is how she might respond:

"Well, Abner, today I'm goin' shoppin',
get me a nice dress,
a job, too!  I'm sick and tired
 a' wearin' the same blouse everyday!"
"Now Daisy," Li'l Abner says, "don't fret -
you gotta stay on the farm. 
Don't leave!."
"'..sides, I cain't afford it anyway."
She was determined, 
sold her blond locks,
bought new clothes and shoes.
"And I ain't goin' bareboot no more!
 Gotta get one a those laptops!"
She was more the wiser now,
"Abner, you just pig headed;
why, I gotta be respected, 
earn equal pay 
for equal work!
'swhat Gloria Steinem say!"

In this modern day,
being sexy is allowed
and she can use her skills and talent.
Not a Martha Stewart, 
but not a Beverly Hillbilly either
No more did she want to be like
the "winnen folk" in Dogpatch
Men would woo her properly.
But any fool can plainly see
her love was meant for only Li'l Abner,
yet, her worthless true love 
showed little interest in her,  
romantically 

Daisy's mother, Mammy Yokem,
speaks her peace:
"She won you in a foot race,
on Sadie Hawkins Day!  Ain't you got
no sense, Abner?  All you do is wile
your time away,
out in them hills,
and she do all  the work!"
Abner responded, "ah- I know she trick me 
into matrimony, 
I was a busy huntin' and making whiskey!

If I had my drothers", he said,
"guess I don't want her to go,
She can sure cook up a storm!"
Mammy took her pipe out of her mouth,
"Sonny, she do things 'naturly'...
and be "bootiful" at the same time,
...you don't know what you got 
till you 'bout to lose it!!"

Daisy Mae told them both -
"No mo' pigs runnin' free,
I'se gonna be successful!
my boss is gonna respect me, 
not make me do all the work!
Suddenly, a puzzled look came over her face.
"But...if I was livin' like that,
I'd have to leave li'l Honest Abe
home all day; oh, my poor baby!
 Why, then my life 
would be incomplete!"
Abner smiles, "Daisy Mae,
is you gonna stay?  
...you real life is with us,
cuz we have the most amoozin 
but confoozin life!"
"Ok, Abner," cried Daisy Mae,
"let's leave well enough alone
an go back to what we was doin?!"
She hugged him and he hugged her back 
harder than ever before.


So if you are interested in reading more
about the Yokums and the Smoo family,
turn to your newspaper cartoons, 
and "CORN-tinue" to read -

Haiku for trees...

A few haiku today for today's "tree" theme.  Much has been written
about them over time.  Visit dversepoets.com  to read what else is submitted today..

Willow weep for me

  wipe dry my tears in the wind

  so no more be shed 

Strongholds of safety

mighty oak, cedar, and fir
toothpicks in lava

Deep forest secrets
gather moss for safekeeping
fall on fauna's ears

A nest with a view

eagles spy their midday meal

 capture and return

Tree pollen settles

powders my nose yellow green

Allergies abound

Shadow of an owl
 within his arbor abode
wise eyes turn around

And for my friends who come to the feeder in the maple tree:

Sip sugar water
energy for propellers
Hummingbird yoga

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      .