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Sanctum
La Virgen de Guadalupe in the bathroom of artist Anado McLauchlin, La Cieneguita, Guanajuato, México
Beauty shines in an inner sanctum.
Text © 2016 and photo © 2012 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Six-Word Saturday
More Shadow Shot Sunday 2
More Sunday Scribblings 2: “Inner”
More Twelve Days of Mary at Recuerda Mi Corazon
Whirling in the New Year
~~ 1 ~~
filling with shadows
little mountainside shelter
lays claim to the night
~~ 2 ~~
a stand of lime trees
dedicated to the bee
and all her helpers
~~ 3 ~~
burying the dead
after the revolution—
no one knows their names
~~ 4 ~~
flipping tortillas
abuela begins to sing
thanks to Corn Maiden
~~ 5 ~~
the sudden raging
of her old belief in God—
three harsh commandments
~~ 6 ~~
Smallpox and typhus—
she takes a turn for the worse,
while the angels stare.
~~ 7 ~~
nothing but cacti
featured in the rug’s design—
weaver’s little joke
~~ 8 ~~
Ethereal chimes
from seven little chapels
ring in the new year.
~~ 9 ~~
after ten winters
her resolve to move southward—
inexorable
~~ 10 ~~
gate to the orchard—
she comes each day at twilight
to shine the hinges
~~ 11 ~~
her survival kit—
time to review the contents
and add or subtract
~~ 12 ~~
the road into town
where he hopes to win a doll
at the carnival
© 2015 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Poetry Pantry #233
More The Sunday Whirl, Wordle 194
Suicide Note
She scribbles her suicide note with fervor,
envisioning birds and thorns, and her
arrival at a crossroads in the night.
She tells of a thread, stitching
rose and crocus and
chrysanthemum together in a
crazy-quilt of seasons out of joint.
She sings of a great horned owl
with the shine of moonlight
in its left eye, but not its right.
She curses the mud
from whose ravenous sucking
not even the strongest foot
can pull free. Then,
in mid-sentence
A Transcendental Whirl
Each vignette begins with a phrase culled from “Threnody” by the 19th-century Transcendentalist, Ralph Waldo Emerson.
~~ 1 ~~
nest of bending reeds
near the shore a secret place—
great blue herons hide
~~ 2 ~~
grass and scented weeds
cradling the children’s laughter
autumn afternoons
~~ 3 ~~
blade of autumn grain
stranger to distressing drought
welcoming the scythe
~~ 4 ~~
the wintry garden
holding carrots prisoner
till spring thaws should come
~~ 5 ~~
every pulsing sound
every thing that does not shine
pointing out the way
~~ 6 ~~
The stream runs on, but
one diamond is left behind—
rearguard for the light.
~~ 7 ~~
in books of solace
seeking her long-lost childhood
rhyme by tinkling rhyme
~~ 8 ~~
see my empty house
the shutters’ crazy angles
all the doors ajar
~~ 9 ~~
star by star his world
resolving into shadow
as each star blinks out
~~ 10 ~~
to make this wisdom
demands a seer acquainted
with the ways of stones
~~ 11 ~~
They cannot bind him,
though their bands be made of steel,
forged by elven hands.
~~ 12 ~~
spirit strikes the hour
martyr chained by faith and doubt
crackles in the flames
© 2014 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Poetry Pantry #223
More The Sunday Whirl, Wordle 183
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