Blog Archives
Let Us Decorate in Silence
Posted by magicalmysticalteacher
Let us decorate in silence
While the wind chimes ring with glee;
Let us warm ourselves with whisky
Splashed in steaming cups of tea.
It is plain our house needs something
To revive its heart and soul;
Let us lift a glass in hope, dear,
Nibbling cake and jelly roll.
Far too long we’ve had too little
And our home has had no heat;
Let us eat some peanut brittle,
Then our joy will be complete.
Poem © 2019 by Magical Mystical Teacher
Posted in light verse, Poetry Pantry, Poets United, Rhyming poetry, Sunday's Whirligig
Tags: chimes, decorate, glass, heat, house, little, long, plain, ring, silence, tea, warm
Hue
Posted by magicalmysticalteacher

Inyo National Forest near Bishop, California
The mountain’s silence
ripens to a golden hue—
autumn afternoon.
Haiku and photo © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More SkyWatch Friday
More Midweek Motif at Poets United: “Silence”
Posted in 5-7-5, California, Midweek Motif, Poets United, Sky Watch Friday
Tranquil
Posted by magicalmysticalteacher

Autumn afternoon, Sonoran Desert, Southern Arizona
Tranquil afternoon—
a lizard’s flickering tongue
shatters the silence.
Haiku and photo © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Midweek Motif at Poets United: “Silence”
Posted in 5-7-5, autumn, haiku, Sonoran Desert, Southern Arizona
Silence
Posted by magicalmysticalteacher

Fence post, Sonoran Desert, Southern Arizona
Afternoon silence
settles into a knothole
on a weathered post.
Haiku and photo © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Macro Monday 2
More Midweek Motif at Poets United: “Silence”
Posted in 5-7-5, Arizona, Macro Monday 2, Midweek Motif, Poets United, Sonoran Desert, Southern Arizona
Causeway
Posted by magicalmysticalteacher

Causeway at El Charco del Ingenio, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, México
Walking the causeway,
silence carries me along,
silence and birdsong.
Haiku © 2016 and photo © 2012 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Blue Monday
More Haiku Horizons: “Carry”
Secrets
Posted by magicalmysticalteacher

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Southern California
valley of secrets—
nothing can match the silence
of wasted places
Text and photo © 2016 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Blue Monday
More Haiku Horizons: “Match”
Posted in 5-7-5, Anza-Borrego Desert, Blue Monday, California, Haiku Horizons, Southern California
Tags: Anza-Borrego Desert, match, places, secrets, silence, Southern California, valley, wasted
Sniffing
Posted by magicalmysticalteacher

Saguaro cactus at dawn, Sonoran Desert, Southern Arizona
sniffing the silence
around an old saguaro
just before sunrise
Haiku and photo © 2015 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More SkyWatch Friday
More Haiku Horizons: “Before”
More Haiku My Heart at Recuerda Mi Corazon
Strange Little Songs
Posted by magicalmysticalteacher

~~ 1 ~~
With plastic roses,
some of them scarlet, some white,
we freshen the graves.
~~ 2 ~~
a spicy salad—
picking at it in silence
with white plastic forks
~~ 3 ~~
a discarded tire
verses carved in the sidewall
honoring road trips
~~ 4 ~~
Discarded boxes—
seven refugees pretend
they have found new homes.
~~ 5 ~~
blind man’s violin
flying as though Marc Chagall
had lifted his brush
~~ 6 ~~
no one knows their names—
illegible inscriptions
on toppled tombstones
~~ 7 ~~
God wears out his shoes
and takes them to the temple
for some quick repairs.
~~ 8 ~~
demanding a song
from the bird that cannot sing—
demented woman
~~ 9 ~~
holding hot cocoa
in my left hand while scribbling
haiku with my right
~~ 10 ~~
two children use them
to play a game of marbles—
olives from the bowl
~~ 11 ~~
the stench of decay
rising from New Orleans streets
after Katrina
~~ 12 ~~
an old apple tree
bearing rusty jackknife scars—
Kevin loves Suzanne
Poems © 2015 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Sunday’s Whirligig #23
Cabin
Posted by magicalmysticalteacher

Abandoned house, Yuma County, Arizona
In the cabin walls
something purrs by day and night—
a leftover dream.
~~ ~~ ~~
In the cabin walls
nasty little creatures hide,
scrabbling in the dark.
~~ ~~ ~~
cabin by the way—
kneeling before the threshold
a weary pilgrim
~~ ~~ ~~
in the cabin walls
a desiccated silence
wheezing tales of woe
Text © 2015 and photo © 2013 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Poets United Midweek Motif: “Silence”
More Three Word Wednesday: “Kneel, Nasty, Purr”
More Carpe Diem: “Lolly’s ‘Wind Through the Gaps'”
Posted in 5-7-5, Arizona, Carpe Diem, Poets United Midweek Motif, Three Word Wednesday, Yuma County
Tags: kneel, nasty, purr, silence, Southern Arizona
Tattered Tales
Posted by magicalmysticalteacher

~~ 1 ~~
discarded boxes
sheltering homeless people
down by the river
~~ 2 ~~
journey into night—
your heart at the beginning
fluttering wildly
~~ 3 ~~
In a perfect world
there would be no mosquitoes,
neither rats nor lice.
~~ 4 ~~
an autumn morning—
walking a misty pathway
wet leaves underfoot
~~ 5 ~~
Everything depends
on rain, a red wheelbarrow
and some white chickens.
~~ 6 ~~
a long journey to
nowhere in particular
and then back again
~~ 7 ~~
Beyond the back fence
a world I have never seen
is waiting for me.
~~ 8 ~~
a short siesta
in the silence of her room—
insomniac’s dream
~~ 9 ~~
coffee for the guests
pouring again and again
until the last drop
~~ 10 ~~
rainy afternoon—
finding a place of refuge
in the library
~~ 11 ~~
finding a table
where we can talk till midnight
nursing our whisky
~~ 12 ~~
summer afternoon
the head of one sunflower
drooping toward the earth
© 2015 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Poetry Pantry #259
More Sunday’s Whirligig #14
Posted in 5-7-5, Sunday's Whirligig, The Poetry Pantry
Tags: again, beginning, beyond, everything, head, misty, nowhere, people, place, silence, talk, world
Categories
- (Silly) Haiku Wednesday
- 2-4-2
- 3-5-3
- 3-5-3-5-5
- 4-6-4
- 5-7-5
- 5-7-5-7-7
- A Prompt Each Day
- A Virgin a Day
- acrostic poems
- Adjei Agyei-Baah
- administrators
- Adrienne Rich
- Advent
- agave
- Ajo
- Ajo Mountains
- Alameda García de la Cadena
- Alberto Álvaro Ríos
- Alexey Andreyev
- Alhondiga de Ganaditas
- Alpine
- American history
- American presidents
- Amy Clampitt
- Anado McLauchlin
- Animas River
- Anza-Borrego Desert
- Apache County
- aphorism
- Arizona
- arroyo
- aster
- Atotonilco
- autumn
- Aztec
- Aztec Ruins
- back to school
- Baja California
- Baja California Norte
- Balboa Park
- Bandelier National Monument
- bandera
- Basho
- Beavertail cactus
- Benjamin Alire Sáenz
- bereavement
- Bible
- billboard
- birthday
- bitterness
- blessings
- Blog Blast for Peace
- blossom
- Blue Monday
- blues
- Bob Atkinson
- Bonelli House
- books
- Border Field State Park
- Breyten Breytenbach
- brittlebush
- Buson
- Cabrillo National Monument
- Cache la Poudre River
- cactus
- Calif.
- California
- California buckwheat
- Canada
- Carl Sandburg
- Carpe Diem
- Carry on Tuesday
- caterpillar
- cathedral
- Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi
- Cézanne
- cemetery
- Cerro de la Bufa
- change
- Chinatown
- Chiyo-Ni
- Cholla cactus
- Cholula
- Christ Child
- Christ Church Cathedral
- Christmas
- chuparosa
- church
- Cieneguita
- Circle of Love for Spadoman
- civility
- classroom
- classroom management
- Clifton
- clowns
- cobblestones
- Coconino County
- Coconino National Forest
- collegiality
- Colorado
- comprehension
- conscientious objection
- consequences
- Counted verse
- County Dublin
- couplets
- CPR
- creosote bush
- cut-and-pasted poems
- dandelion
- dawn
- daybreak
- death
- decisions
- defiance
- desert
- desert agave
- desert willow
- Dia de Bloglandia
- Dia de Los Muertos
- Diamond Head
- diamondback rattlesnake
- dilemma
- disciple
- distillation
- dodoitsu
- Donald Hall
- door
- Dorland Mountain Arts Colony
- Down syndrome
- Dublin
- dusk
- earthquake
- Ein Stück Himmel
- El Charco del Ingenio
- elderly
- encouraging words
- end of school year
- end of summer
- Ernest Hemingway
- erode
- Escondido
- evaluation
- evening sky
- Ewa
- Ezra Pound
- Fairy Duster
- faith
- fall
- family
- Farmington
- Father's Day
- Fay Aoyagi
- Fábrica La Aurora
- fence
- figurative language
- first aid
- first days of school
- First of the Month
- First-year teacher
- Flagstaff
- Floral Friday Fotos
- flowers
- Fort Collins
- Fotokalender
- found poems
- fountain
- free form haiku
- freebies
- freestyle
- Friday's Fences
- frost
- Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery
- full moon
- Fuyuko Tomita
- Gabriel García Márquez
- Galway Kinnell
- garden
- gardening
- gifts
- Gila Bend
- Glasnevin Museum
- Glendale
- Globe Mallow
- grades
- grading
- grandmother
- Granite Mountain Hotshots
- Guachimontones
- Guadalajara
- Guadalupe
- Guadalupe Mountains National Park
- Guanajuato
- guidance
- Guinness
- haibun
- haiga
- haiku
- Haiku Bones
- Haiku Friday
- Haiku Heights
- Haiku Horizons
- Haiku My Heart
- Haiku My Heart Friday
- Haiku Rebecca's Heart
- Haiku the Heart of Joe Spadoman
- Haiti
- Halloween
- Hando
- harvest
- Hawaii
- heart
- hedgehog cactus
- Hi Jolly Cemetery
- hidden
- Highlight Sunday
- highly qualified teachers
- hillside
- Himmelsk
- holy
- holy ground
- homecoming
- honeybee
- Honolulu
- hope
- Horsetooth Reservoir
- Howth
- Hubbell Trading Post
- Huichol
- humor
- Hump Day Haiku
- I Heart Macro
- idiocy
- Iio Sogi
- illiteracy
- imagery
- Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area
- in-service
- indigo bush
- indolence
- insomnia
- IOOF Cemetery
- iPhone
- Ireland
- iris
- ironwood
- irony
- Issa
- Jack Kerouac
- Jalisco
- James Connolly
- Jane Kenyon
- Jane Reichhold
- Japanese Friendship Garden
- Japanese Literature Challenge 3
- Japanese poetry
- Jardín Juárez
- Jerry Kilbride
- Jesus
- Jim Kacian
- job hunt
- John Stevenson
- Joseph Wood Krutch
- journey
- joy
- Kaibab National Forest
- Kala Ramesh
- Kamishibai
- Kentucky
- kid talk
- kidspeak
- Kikaku
- Kikusha-Ni
- Kilmainham Gaol
- kindness
- King James Version
- Kingman
- Kofa National Wildlife Refuge
- koi
- Kuan Yin Temple
- Kyoshi Takahama
- La Calaca Love
- La Cieneguita
- La Virgen de Guadalupe
- Laie
- Lake Skinner
- language arts
- Latin
- laughter
- leadership
- learning
- Lee Gurga
- Lent
- lesson plans
- lessons
- Lexington
- Life in Pictures
- light verse
- lighthouse
- limerick
- listening
- Long Beach
- longevity
- Looking at the Sky on Friday
- Los Algodones
- lullaby
- Luna
- Luna Cemetery
- Macro Flowers Saturday
- Macro Monday
- Macro Monday 2
- Makaha
- Malecón
- Mandagstema
- Margaret Chula
- Maricopa County
- market
- Mary Cassatt
- Masaoka Shiki
- Maya Angelou
- Mellow Yellow Monday
- Memorial Day
- mentors
- mercado
- merit pay
- mesquite
- Messy Little Details
- metaphors
- Mexico
- Mexico Mondays
- Michoacán
- middle school
- Midweek Motif
- Miguel Hidalgo
- Mina el Edén
- Mindlovemisery's Menagerie
- Mission Quite Possible
- Mission San Antonio de Pala
- Mission San Juan Capistrano
- Mission San Xavier del Bac
- mnemonics
- Monday Mellow Yellows
- Monday Poetry Train Revisited
- Monday Wordle
- Monday WRites
- Mondays with Mary
- Morelia
- morning glory
- Mornings with Mary
- Moses
- Mrs. Scribe's Poetry Slam
- Mundo Cuervo
- Murrieta
- Museo de Guadalupe
- Museo Zacatecano
- my digital photos
- my dodoitsu
- my haiku
- my light verse
- my limerick
- my poetry
- my senryu
- my tanka
- NaHaiWriMo
- NaiSaiKu
- Nanakuli
- Naomi Shihab Nye
- NaPoWriMo
- National Botanic Gardens
- national monumnet
- Navajo National Monument
- NCLB
- Nevada
- New Mexico
- New Testament
- New Year
- Northern Arizona
- Northern California
- Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe
- nun
- O. Mabson Southard
- Oahu
- observe
- ocotillo
- old age
- Old Point Loma Lighthouse
- Old Testament
- One Shot Wednesday
- One Single Impression
- OneWord
- Onitsura
- Oregon
- Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
- Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission
- Our World Tuesday
- Painted Rock Petroglyph Site
- Pala
- Palacio de Gobierno
- Palo verde tree
- Panama
- Pantry of Prose
- parades
- patience
- peace
- Pearl Harbor
- Pecos National Historical Park
- Peggy Willis Lyles
- Phoenix
- Photo Time
- Pi-Ku
- PicStory
- pigeons
- Pima County
- Pinal County
- Pipe Spring National Monument
- poet
- Poetic Bloomings
- poetry
- Poetry Jam
- Poetry Pantry
- Poetry Picnic
- Poetry Tow Truck
- Poetry Train
- Poets & Storytellers United
- Poets United
- Poets United Midweek Motif
- Point Loma
- politics
- Polynesian Cultural Center
- Post Your Poems Day
- Postcards from Paradise
- Postcards from the Edge
- pray
- Pray-As-You-Go
- praying
- Prescott
- Prickly Poppy
- profanity
- prose
- Proverbs
- Psalm Challenge
- Psalms
- pubs
- Puebla
- Puerto Nuevo
- Puerto Vallarta
- Punchbowl
- Quartzsite
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Rancho Los Alamitos
- random rhymes
- re-teaching
- reading
- Real Toads
- Recuerda Mi Corazon
- recycling
- Red Hot Mondays
- REDnesday
- Rednesday Wednesday
- reflections
- relationships
- Rhyming poetry
- Richard Shelton
- Richard Wright
- Riverside Art Museum
- Robert B. Parker
- Robert Bly
- Robert Frost
- Robert Hass
- Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden
- Robinson Jeffers
- rooftops
- rose
- Roxaboxen Park
- Ruby Tuesday
- Ruby Tuesday 2
- Ruby Tuesday Too
- Sacred Heart Church
- safety
- saguaro cactus
- Saguaro National Park
- salt cedar
- San Andrés Cholula
- San Diego
- San Diego County
- San Felipe Dogweed
- San Juan County
- San Miguel de Allende
- San Sebastian
- San Sebastián del Oeste
- Sandycove
- Sanguinetti House
- Santa Fe
- Santa Fe National Cemetery
- Santa Margarita River Trail
- Santa Rosa Plateau
- Santo Niño de Atocha
- Santoka Taneda
- Santuario de Atotonilco
- Santuario de Chimayo
- Scenic Weekends
- school
- scorpion
- Scottsdale
- Scripture
- Scripture for the day
- Seattle
- Sedona
- seedtime
- senryu
- Sensational Haiku Wednesday
- September Heights
- September Heights 2013
- seventh grade
- Shadow Shot Sunday
- Shadow Shot Sunday 2
- shadows
- Share the Joy
- Share the Joy Thursday
- Shiba Sonome
- Shiki
- Shine the Divine
- Short Story Slam
- Shu Ting
- similes
- singing
- Six-Word Saturday
- Sky Watch Friday
- SkyFriday
- snake
- snow
- Soen Nakagawa
- Sonoran Desert
- Southern Arizona
- Southern California
- Southern Mojave Desert
- special education
- special education teacher
- spider
- St. John's Catholic Cemetery
- St. Thomas Indian Mission
- stairs
- Stanley Kunitz
- stones
- storytelling
- Straight Out of the Camera Sunday
- strawberry cactus
- strengths
- student art
- students
- Stumbling Towards Ecstasy
- success
- suicide
- Sumitaku Kenshin
- summer
- summer school
- Sunday Scribblings
- Sunday Scribblings 2
- Sunday's Whirligig
- sundown
- sunflowers
- sunrise
- sunset
- Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument
- surviving
- Tackle It Tuesday
- Takarai Kikaku
- tamarisk
- tan renga
- tanka
- teacher
- teaching
- Teddy Bear Cholla
- teleférico
- Temecula
- temple
- Templo de Fátima
- Templo de Guadalupito
- Tequila
- tests
- Teuchitlán
- Texas
- thankfulness
- thanks
- thanksgiving
- The April Heights 2012
- The April Heights 2013
- The Art of Remembering
- The Haiku Challenge 2012
- The Height of Haiku Challenge
- The One-Minute Writer
- The Poetry Pantry
- The Purple Treehouse
- The Sunday Whirl
- The Think Tank Thursday
- The Thursday Think Tank
- The Whirligig
- thinking
- Three Word Wednesday
- Thursday 13
- Thursday Challenge
- Thursday Poets' Rally
- Thursday Think Tank
- Tijuana Estuary
- Time Glass
- Tina's PicStory
- tired
- Tlaquepaque
- Tomas Tranströmer
- Tonalá
- travel
- Travel Photo Mondays
- true tale
- tsunami
- Tucson
- turf wars
- turtle
- tutoring
- Twelve Days of Mary
- Twelve Days of Mother Love
- twilight
- Uncategorized
- understanding
- unfinished work
- Unicorn plant
- USS Arizona
- Utah
- Valles Caldera National Preserve
- Vancouver Island
- Verse First
- Village Jazz Series
- Virgin
- vision
- vocabulary
- Waianae
- Walt Whitman
- war
- Watery Wednesday
- wayside shrine
- We Write Poems
- weariness
- Wednesday Waters
- weeds
- Weekday Photos
- Weekend Mailbox
- Weekend Reflections
- Wellton Memorial Cemetery
- Wendell Berry
- whimsy
- whisper
- White Sands National Monument
- White-lined Sphinx
- wilderness
- Wilderness Gardens Preserve
- wildflowers
- William Butler Yeats
- Winchester
- wine country
- winter
- Winterhaven
- wisdom
- Wixáritari
- Wonder Wednesday
- Wordless Wednesday
- work
- World War II
- Writers' Pantry
- writing
- Wupatki National Monument
- Yamanoue no Okura
- Yarnell Hill Fire
- Yavapai County
- Yokohama Bay
- Yozakura
- Yu Chang
- yucca
- Yuma
- Yuma Conservation Garden
- Yuma County
- Yuma East Wetlands
- Yuma Pioneer Cemetery
- Yuma Quartermaster Depot
- Zacatecas
- Zapopan