January 21, 2019

I Am Calmer Than You

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I am immersed in panic buzzing

Am overwhelmed by to-dos not done

Calmer days ahead they assure me

Than(ks) but I’m making calm today’s goal

You remain waiting for peace to come.

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A Bumper Sticker Poem

Bumper Sticker Poems – a form I created, inspired by cento and golden shovel poetry, with the following guidelines:

  • Using a bumper sticker as inspiration use the words in the bumper sticker as the first word in each line of the poem
  • The theme of the poem may or may not have anything to do with the message of the sticker
  • Title should be the words of the bumper sticker
  • May or may not be rhymed
  • 9 syllable lines
  • Number of lines depends on number of words on the bumper sticker

November 26

Sunday Sounds

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The game is on in the background

The woodstove clicks warming the home

Soft padding as the kitty roams

Dominoes clatter marking next round

Loved ones chatter, glasses clinking

A great Sunday to my thinking.

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(A Spanish Sestet or Sextilla)

November 25

Sunday Games

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Playing games on Sunday afternoon

No one will win anytime soon

Twelve more rounds of this game to play

Keeping our dots incognito

Until our turn at dominoes

Family chatter causing delay

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(A Spanish Sestet or Sextilla)

November 20

Traditions

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Holidays roll around

Anticipated but always more quickly

Than you thought, and with them

Come an avalanche of rituals, customs, stories.

What is your tradition?

*

In all the chaos and stress

And all of the change-up of daily routine

What we do the same each year calms us in the chaos.

My calm is making cranberry orange bread from scratch

Hand chopping, hand mixing, warm and heart warming.

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(A Sonnetina Cinque)

June 22

The Longest Day

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With desire to view

The shortest night’s debut

We’re on the lake at twilight

From the seats of our boats

Time flying as we float

Sky shifts from washed-out to bright

A rainbow sans the arc

Daylight morphs into dark

We paddle into the night

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(A Balassi Stanza)

April 17

Necessity

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Yoga is so gentle

Deceiving

The body, challenging the mind

Much of it is mental

Believing

In the strength and calm to find

*

Holding poses for days

Centering

Shoulders with hips, brain with the heart

Gently resisting sways

Entering

A place where fitness melds with art

*

Muscles, mind, and spirit

Strengthening

Quiet peace overtakes unrest

Learning not to fear it

Lengthening

Spine, being kind, opening chest.

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(A Tri-Fall Poem)