Blog Archives
Intimations of Mortality
What you’ve stolen fades away,
Nothing made of gold can stay;
All your silver turns to brass,
All your diamonds into glass.
Look at your reflection fair
In the mirror hanging there;
Peer again, though, and you’ll see
You’re laced with mortality.
Cruel payment’s coming due;
You will have to pay it, too.
All the games you like to play?
Death will snatch them clean away!
Until then, however, know
That you’re free to come and go,
Doing what you like to do—
But on Judgment Day, you’re through!
More The Whirligig #275
More Writers’ Pantry #29 at Poets and Storytellers United
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
Look at the women
Look at the women
in their enormous jackets.
Some are writing
and some are drawing
on this crisp autumn morning.
They have stories to tell,
some short and some long,
in words or in charcoal.
You see them here
and elsewhere,
and think:
I will tell my story too.
Even if it falls flat,
it will be worth the effort.
More Sunday’s Whirligig #129
More Poetry Pantry #371 at Poets United
Pains and Pleasures
Each breath-of-a-poem begins with a line taken from The Surrender Tree by Margarita Engle.
~~ 1 ~~
shaded by mangos
two old men going for broke
telling more tall tales
~~ 2 ~~
fragrant white flowers—
a glint of midday sunlight
sharpening their scent
~~ 3 ~~
hands of the women
lifted in ecstatic praise
to the rising sun
~~ 4 ~~
deep in the forest
where mossy old trees sway—
a whiff of danger
~~ 5 ~~
the ears of a horse
disappearing at sundown—
midwinter madness
~~ 6 ~~
a hat on a stick—
one look and ravenous crows
flee to the next field
~~ 7 ~~
on hidden beaches
the fierce and oppressive hush
of desolation
~~ 8 ~~
the darting of bats
bears witness to succulent
insects in the air
~~ 9 ~~
protected by words
that keep every woe at bay—
two praying women
~~ 10 ~~
chocolate and coffee—
our guilty Sunday pleasures
an hour before Mass
Poems © 2016 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Poetry Pantry
More Sunday’s Whirligig #43
Curtain
Waterfall, Japanese Friendship Garden, Phoenix, Arizona
silvery curtain—
parting the shimmering folds
for a closer look
Text and photo © 2015 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Our World Tuesday
More Carpe Diem: “Adjei’s ‘Silvery Curtain'”
