Category Archives: Poets United
War
Cholla cactus blossoms at daybreak, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Southern Arizona
You’d think that a cactus would welcome the light.
Instead, it was fighting with all of its might
The vanishing darkness, the lengthening day—
How strange was the battle I saw by the way!
The battle continues, or so I am told;
The stones and the sands repeat stories of old.
The warring goes on between darkness and light,
With cactuses getting caught up in the fight.
Poem and photo © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Ruby Tuesday Too
More Midweek Motif at Poets United: “War and Peace”
The middle child
The middle child,
feeling lost and upset,
goes for treatment
one day a week.
In the waiting room,
her older brother
chants nursery rhymes
and tells stories
in a vain attempt
to comfort her.
“Wait till you see the lunches
they serve at school next week,”
he says.
“Seven kinds of ice cream!”
But the disconsolate middle child
cares nothing for ice cream lunches.
All she wants is to rise up
out of her wheelchair
and walk.
Poem and photo © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Sunday’s Whirligig #117
More Poetry Pantry #359 at Poets United
More Sunday’s Whirligig #117
More Poetry Pantry #359 at Poets United
Playing her part
Sunset, Puerto Nuevo, Baja California Norte, México
She quiets her mind and opens her arms,
Embracing the ocean and stars;
Even the planets draw near as she breathes
And blesses both Venus and Mars.
Yoga sustains her day in and day out,
A peace settles over her soul;
She’s playing her part, although it is small,
Her part in the glorious whole.
Poem © 2017 and photo © 2014 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Midweek Motif at Poets United: “Yoga”
Angel
A father bends
to help his little girl
who has skinned her knee
while running.
Somehow her legs gave way
and she stumbled in the gravel
at the sidewalk’s end.
He kisses the wound
again and again, murmuring,
“It’s all right, angel, it’s all right.”
Smiling back at him
through tears, she says,
“Thank you, Daddy.
You’re an angel too.”
Then the big angel spreads his wings
and carries his little angel home.
Poem and photo © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More SkyWatch Friday
More Sunday’s Whirligig #116
More Poetry Pantry #358 at Poets United
More SkyWatch Friday
More Sunday’s Whirligig #116
More Poetry Pantry #358 at Poets United
An Everyday Place
Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden, Yuma, Arizona
There’s magic about an everyday place,
There’s magic afoot—it’s true!
Just open your eyes and take a good look
At things that you thought you knew.
The sky, for instance, see how it’s glowing
Brilliantly, bitingly, blue?
The sidewalk you’ve traveled day after day—
That leaf at your feet, it’s new!
And isn’t that stone, the one to the right,
Flushing a different hue
Now that you pause for a much closer look?
O happy magic to you!
Poem and photo © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More SkyWatch Friday
More Midweek Motif at Poets United: “Seeking the Extraordinary in the Ordinary”
Common
Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden, Yuma, Arizona
common marigolds
looking uncommonly bright
after last night’s rain
Haiku and photo © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Macro Monday 2
More Midweek Motif at Poets United: “Seeking the Extraordinary in the Ordinary”
Ordinary
A duck pauses for a rest at Yuma Conservation Garden, Yuma, Arizona
An ordinary duck
On an ordinary day
Doing ordinary things
In an ordinary way.
But take another look
At that ordinary duck:
I think it’s quite amazing
That he’s not built like a truck!
Poem and photo © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Midweek Motif at Poets United: “Seeking the Extraordinary in the Ordinary”
Scintillating music
Cactus needles, Yuma Conservation Garden, Yuma, Arizona
scintillating music
carries her into most nights
with a flagrant disregard
for what her neighbors think
a leap of faith
that’s how she found her way
and it dawns on her
each time she prays late at night
that the spill that might have happened
did not
the end that might have come
did not
the leap that might have killed her
did not
she knows she owes everything
to that leap
and is not nonchalant
but
grateful
Poem and photo © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Macro Monday 2
More Sunday’s Whirligig #115
More Poetry Pantry #357 at Poets United
More Macro Monday 2
More Sunday’s Whirligig #115
More Poetry Pantry #357 at Poets United
Far away from the ocean
A lone ironwood tree stands out against the sky, Sonoran Desert, Southern Arizona
Far away from the ocean,
Surrounded by desert sands,
Swathed in the midday silence,
A stalwart tree still stands.
Gulls and plovers are absent,
But cougars still snarl and scream
Here in this land where oceans
Are only a fleeting dream.
Poem and photo © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More SkyWatch Friday
More Midweek Motif at Poets United: “Oceans”
Oceans of sand
Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, Southern California
Oceans and oceans of sand
As far as the eye can see!
Oceans and oceans of sand
From here to eternity!
Can you see the waves billow,
And can you hear the waves roar?
Oceans and oceans of sand,
Far from the watery shore!
Poem © 2017 and photo © 2015 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Midweek Motif at Poets United: “Oceans”
