Blog Archives
Aphorisms
Write your name outside the box;
Help your neighbor mend her socks.
If you use your white paint first,
Things will go from worse to worst.
Anything on page sixteen
Will remain, by Jove, unseen.
Sentences are like a thread
Leading to the living dead.
Letters written by one’s hand
Are most certain to withstand
All the ravages of time,
Quite unlike this awful rhyme.
Poems © 2018 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Sunday’s Whirligig #187
More Poetry Pantry #428 at Poets United
Ponder This
~~ ~~ 1 ~~ ~~
Why pretend that parents are wise beyond all telling?
I say this for the record: Something rotten I am smelling!
~~ ~~ 2 ~~ ~~
If police come knock, knock, knocking, and the census taker notes
That you are a foreign person, board your boat while it still floats!
~~ ~~ 3 ~~ ~~
In the poor, white cardboard shanties gold and silver may be found,
But take care, O treasure seeker, that the gold does not confound.
~~ ~~ 4 ~~ ~~
Do not ditch the native speaker,
You’ll be glad that she’s around
When the jungle vines come creeping,
And your own tongue can’t be found.
Who can make sense out of nonsense?
Who can make hell holy ground?
Only those who speak the language
Of the things that make no sound.
Poems © 2018 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Sunday’s Whirligig #177
More Poetry Pantry #418 at Poets United
Rustling
Sonoran Desert, Southern Arizona
just before sunrise
a rustling in the branches—
white dove lifts one wing
Haiku and photo © 2016 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More SkyWatch Friday
More Carpe Diem’s Summer Retreat 2016: “One with Nature”
The Probability
the probability
that she will be sleeping
when he comes
to bring her coffee
bleached white with powder
instead of cream
is great
he sees her lying there
in an impossible heap
of bones
her skin
stretched tight over her skull
and he wonders
if even as she sleeps
she can hear the birds singing
just outside the window
or the sound the bricks make
as they shift uneasily
in their bed of mortar
causing a startled raven
to slam against the house
Weird
Cattle Track Arts Compound, Scottsdale, Arizona
At the wooden house,
a weird white mannequin waits
to welcome each guest.
Poem and photo © 2016 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Ruby Tuesday Too
More Midweek Motif at Poets United: “Weird”
Peony
Teahouse, Japanese Friendship Garden, Phoenix, Arizona
in fragile white cups
hidden within the teahouse—
peony blossoms
Haiku and photo © 2015 by Magical Mystical Teacher
Destiny’s Tales
~~ 1 ~~
tangled in the tree
two crimson kites with white tails—
seven startled wrens
~~ 2 ~~
old paper, fresh words
torn envelope the canvas
for brushing haiku
~~ 3 ~~
a brown paper bag
clutched in a child’s fist holding
all of creation
~~ 4 ~~
addled gardener
dropping her gloves in the path
as the wild goose calls
~~ 5 ~~
In her new language
she sings of running naked
through the April rain.
~~ 6 ~~
hoisting new lumber
onto his bruised right shoulder—
the builder of dreams
~~ 7 ~~
caught in the headlights
of a passing patrol car—
fumbling teenagers
~~ 8 ~~
On green park benches
old women wearing purple
celebrate the sun.
~~ 9 ~~
Far from the suburbs
an old woman is striding
toward her destiny.
~~ 10 ~~
walking through the woods
on her way to somewhere else—
rumblings of thunder
~~ 11 ~~
To open the book
she needs only a moment
and a trembling hand.
© 2015 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Poetry Pantry #261
More Sunday’s Whirligig #16
Little Ditties
~~ 1 ~~
leaning on a stone
late into the afternoon—
Thoreau at Walden
~~ 2 ~~
even in the heat
setting a kettle to boil—
daily ritual
~~ 3 ~~
Startled by the cry
of a ripening cherry,
the old man stumbles.
~~ 4 ~~
a place of refuge
where only those dressed in white
find a welcome mat
~~ 5 ~~
everyone singing
a sequence of off-key notes—
the cacophony
~~ 6 ~~
murmuring a prayer
taken from an old straw hat
found in the gutter
~~ 7 ~~
hidden in darkness
a 14-carat gold ring
duller than a stone
~~ 8 ~~
outside the bedroom
something indiscernible
lurking in the dark
~~ 9 ~~
the can full of nails
wrapped round and round with a chain
everything rusting
~~ 10 ~~
after fire and flood
not even a single thought
of starting over
~~ 11 ~~
into the bookshop
one shoe off and one shoe on
for a reading fix
~~ 12 ~~
the other story
about the nifty gadget
no one can invent
© 2015 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Poetry Pantry #254
More Sunday’s Whirligig #9
Accent
Old adobe ranch house, Rancho Los Alamitos, Long Beach, California
the ranch house garden—
only a few white blossoms
to accent the red
~~ ~~ ~~
A rain of blossoms brings joy.
Text and photo © 2015 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Ruby Tuesday Too
More Six-Word Saturday
More Shadow Shot Sunday 2
More Carpe Diem: “Basho’s ‘White Blossoms'”
Key
Tile key inlaid in concrete, Roxaboxen Park, Yuma, Arizona
a magical key
unlocking secret gardens
where white roses bloom
Text and photo © 2015 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Carpe Diem
More Macro Monday 2
More Ruby Tuesday Too
