Blog Archives
Small Doses
Wanderer, painter, or potter—which role is the best for me?
A clay pot follows the end of a straw into the roiling sea.
All who are guilty cause chaos; things without names cannot be;
Mercy comes in small doses to sinners who sin without glee:
Number them, mercy’s particles, number them One, Two, and Three!
From darkness create something of light and savor the mystery.
Poem © 2019 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Sunday’s Whirligig #232
More Poetry Pantry #494 at Poets United
It’s Winter, My Love
A desert family enjoys the cool December weather in this mosaic on a wall in Ajo, Arizona.
It’s winter, my love, keep playing the bones!
Stars o’er the valley are singing to stones.
Keep yourself limber, and shrug off the cold.
Summon your courage, and learn to be bold—
Bold in the barnyard, and bold in the dome,
Bold when you’re far, far away from your home.
I’ll end my song here, and hope that you find
That most folks are true, and loving, and kind.
Poem © 2018 by Magical Mystical Teacher
Seven Riffs on Leaves
Cottonwood leaf in autumn, Apache County, Arizona.
~~ ~~ 1 ~~ ~~
A hole in the fence:
Will I be able to see
the oak leaves falling?
~~ ~~ 2 ~~ ~~
on the dusty end
of my workshop’s topmost shelf:
three leaves from the oak
~~ ~~ 3 ~~ ~~
How strange the patterns
made by ginkgo leaves falling
into the gutter!
~~ ~~ 4 ~~ ~~
Under the plum tree
a cardboard box fills with leaves—
how tattered they look!
~~ ~~ 5 ~~ ~~
Near the tube station
we slog through wet autumn leaves,
eager to be home.
~~ ~~ 6 ~~ ~~
wherever I turn
in the last days of autumn:
sodden maple leaves
~~ ~~ 7 ~~ ~~
pieces of old dreams
some of them with falling leaves
some of them with stones
Haiku © 2018 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Sunday’s Whirligig #183
More Poetry Pantry #424 at Poets United
If You Are Not a Reader
If you wait until the end comes, friend—
the end of the world, I mean—
to pick up a book and read,
you will never find out
how love and lust,
though cousins, differ,
and why one is far superior to the other.
Luck may sometimes nudge you in the right direction,
toward love and not toward lust,
but how lucky can you be if you are not a reader?
Poem © 2018 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Sunday’s Whirligig #165
More Midweek Motif at Poets United: “Lust”
More Sunday’s Whirligig #165
More Midweek Motif at Poets United: “Lust”
Until
Giant palo verde tree in bloom, Sonoran Desert, Southern Arizona
How many blossoms,
how many starlit evenings
until the world ends?
Haiku and photo © 2018 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More SkyWatch Friday
More Haiku My Heart at Recuerda Mi Corazon
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
Flight
Virgin of Guadalupe on a headstone, Wellton Memorial Cemetery, Wellton, Arizona
At the journey’s end
one more weary soul takes flight—
autumn turns to ash.
Haiku and photo © 2016 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Midweek Motif at Poets United: “Aviation”
More Twelve Days of Mary at Recuerda Mi Corazon
Mysteries
Palo verde trees, planted to enhance a landscape, Southern Arizona
Shadowy mysteries emerge at day’s end.
Text and photo © 2016 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Six-Word Saturday
More Shadow Shot Sunday 2
January Whirl
~~ 1 ~~
casting my anchor
in some faraway harbor—
perhaps Rotterdam
~~ 2 ~~
winter’s first full moon
keeping her awake for hours
in her lumpy bed
~~ 3 ~~
a buffeting wind—
three fragile little sparrows
fight to stay aloft
~~ 4 ~~
raising her wineglass
at her lonely sojourn’s end
among the living
~~ 5 ~~
first dream of the year
mulberry tree near the gate
heavy with new fruit
~~ 6 ~~
sudden gust of wind—
three facts fly out the window
landing in the street
~~ 7 ~~
action, inaction—
even the undertaker
stops to eye the wound
~~ 8 ~~
breaking the needle
so she will not be able
to get her next fix
~~ 9 ~~
a scathing letter
sent from a neighboring state
ten cents postage due
~~ 10 ~~
her favorite team
tasting defeat once again—
winter’s first full moon
~~ 11 ~~
willing to risk all
for the sake of one blossom—
gardener in spring
~~ 12 ~~
hit with aftershocks
from shifting tectonic plates
an old house crumbles
© 2016 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More The Sunday Whirl, Wordle 235
Stripping Flesh from Bones
~~ 1 ~~
What am I to do
with this blank sheet of paper
and an empty pen?
~~ 2 ~~
A dream at midnight—
someone mumbling Basho’s name
imitates a frog.
~~ 3 ~~
three clay pots—
white chrysanthemums
in full bloom
~~ 4 ~~
three stolen plums
stuffed in his left pocket
to eat later
~~ 5 ~~
wild roses
blooming on roadsides
in Georgia
~~ 6 ~~
She speaks in tongues
that no one understands
except her god.
~~ 7 ~~
lying down to sleep
in different beds each night—
her long loneliness
~~ 8 ~~
powers of darkness
gathering near the hedgerow
disguised as egrets
~~ 9 ~~
As the signpost burns,
I take off my tattered shoes
to walk barefoot home.
~~ 10 ~~
at my journey’s end
laying down my faithful staff
to take up a cross
~~ 11 ~~
stripping flesh from bones
through every kind of weather—
Dr. Death at work
~~ 12 ~~
Beginnings are hard—
ask the chick trapped in the shell
or the child in school.
© 2015 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Poetry Pantry #244
More The Sunday Whirl, Wordle 204
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