We're All Invited to the Wedding!
We're all invited
yet will we go?
We're all desired
yet do we know?
We're all beloved
yet do we see?
Are we all unbelieving
when told love is free?
53. A poem taken from the headlines of the daily news. ( 4pts)
98 + 4 = 102 of 150
hearing these words and
starting a journey of
embracing adventure and
being embraced by Otherness
traveling
eating
studying and
working
living outside the familiar
seeing all anew
making a way
inviting others to follow
allowing for frequent
welcoming and fare-welling
returning, ever
turning a grateful heart
Home-ward
43. A poem about advice given to you by a parent. ( 4pts)
94 + 4 = 98 of 150
This poem by Billy Collins had me laughing
15. A post about the poets and poems you admire or have influenced you. ( 4 pts)
90 + 4 = 94 of 150
My favourite poem is the following by George MacDonald in his book Chapter 33
"At the Back of the North Wind"
It informs how I want to see people... with deep acceptance and compassion.
Not everyone received as warm a welcome when they were born...
I desire every heart hear the truth of this.
Diamond's Song
Where did you come from, baby dear?
Out of the everywhere into here.
Where did you get your eyes so blue?
Out of the sky as I came through.
What makes the light in them sparkle and spin?
Some of the starry spikes left in.
Where did you get that little tear?
I found it waiting when I got here.
What makes your forehead so smooth and high?
A soft hand stroked it as I went by.
What makes your cheek like a warm white rose?
I saw something better than any one knows.
Whence that three-cornered smile of bliss?
Three angels gave me at once a kiss.
Where did you get this pearly ear?
God spoke, and it came out to hear.
Where did you get those arms and hands?
Love made itself into hooks and bands.
Feet, whence did you come, you darling things?
From the same box as the cherubs' wings.
How did they all just come to be you?
God thought about me, and so I grew.
But how did you come to us, you dear?
God thought about you, and so I am here.
15. A post about the poets and poems you admire or have influenced you. ( 4 pts)
86 pts. + 4 pts. = 90 pts. of 150 pts.
There is something in the light
Making brilliant the earth
Is this the gold of fools
Is it the season's change in April
Is it wanton to desire anything new
Are eyes turning toward her or her truth
This place made precious by truth
This moment bejeweled by light
Are things brilliantly becoming new
A refreshing of both heaven and earth
Much to embrace and behold in April
Will lessons be learned by her fools
In disregard of nature's abundance the fool
grabs at power denying the beauty of truth
not knowing all will be revealed in April's
ever returning radiance and light
giving way to regenerated perceptions of earth
Returning to the past, supported by all things new
Embracing powerlessness and seeing loss anew
The way becomes a straight path for a fool
All one is given is gratefully returned to the earth
The gift of simplicity becomes a bold truth
shining brighter than sunlight
Even the glorious illuminating light of April
With all her effervescent joy April
is able to invite both those old and new
to see her world bathed in possibility's light
Enchanting both the wizened one and fool
Allowing them to hope in the goodness of truth
glimpsing their gratitude for and the gift of earth
Transformed minds motivating earth
tending hands all for the love of April
An invitation to honor the heart of truth
taking those things lost and making all things new
the love of sages undoing the fool
the wisdom of ages revealing light
Light of love breath again into earth
Allow the fool of clay to be undone by beauty, April
call for all things new to pay homage to Truth
11. A sestina.(5pts)
30. An Earth Day poem ( 3pts)
49. A poem entitled “Light in April.” (3pts)
74 pts. + 11 pts. = 85 pts. of 150 pts.
In celebrating her 60th and my 40th
a bitter sweetness marked this adventure
It was a familiar route for them
Yet I was driving south for the first time
They had often traveled this way
Her navigating for her captain
I'd traveled with them in my childhood
to that magical kingdom of bright promises
Winter's grays broken by
Snowbirds' love of sun
While the road was well marked
We were both lost in our own ways
Her in her grief over a husband
Me in my grief over a father
A memory-laden pilgrimage
to a place of desert respite
14. A poem about a road trip. (3pts)
52. A poem about being lost. ( 4pts)
67 pts. + 7 pts. = 74 pts. of 150 pts.
As an election approaches
Words like "sticks and stones" are used
harming hope
destroying discussion
censuring civility
inflaming fear
Attacks are made on credibility, on choices made by mere mortals
Must a leader be more than human?
Must a public servant be more than the public served?
If one is unable to protect and provide rightly
is that reason enough to murder one's reputation
assassinating their ideas and ideals before family, friends and fellow patriots?
Does pointing at the brokeness of another make for the wholeness of a nation?
Forgotten are the problems government has skills to solve
Human beings helping human beings thrive
As I look in the mirror with forgiving and compassionate eyes
Let me also look outward to those who seek to lead
none of them better or worse at the task than I might be
Let our votes, not our cruelty, be the "sticks and stones" we cast
building from these base things, a bright and safe future
one that shelters hearts, minds, lives
Let's use less murderous words.
Let's leave a different legacy.
Let our language
encourage the hopeless
develop deepened discussions
calming the fearful
providing for the vulnerable and
protecting the hope of children
19. A poem entitled “Murder.” ( 4pts)
34. A political poem ( 4pts)
59 pts. + 8 pts. = 67pts. of 150 pts.
Drawing on memories adds fragrance
Flavoured by inviting many
Occasions enlivening
Hoping, cooking, serving
Humming hive kitchen
To taste of Love
Peaceful smiles
With song
Home
45. A poem about cooking. ( 3pts)
46. A poem which has meaning when read from the bottom up as well as the top down. ( 5pts)
48. An Etheree ( 4pts)
47 pts. + 12 pts. = 59 pts. of 150 pts.
We leave pebbles of remembrance when we speak
Will those who follow want to pick up or set down our ideas
A poem is a cairn of another's making
A story told by a teacher, perhaps an oracle
A coach in the ways of life
When told of "the places I would go"
I was reminded of the places I had been
And a good poem does that, remind
It also asks that we build a cairn
Laying down the burdens of the past
Embracing the promises of a future
Leaving a monument for others to follow
Because poems have strength, incantatory power
My feet have followed their call
Many languages make up the cairn of gratitude
Thank you
Tusen Takk (a thousand thanks)
どうもありがとう (dōmo arigatō)
धन्यवाद (dhanyavād)
Спасибо (Spasiba)
謝謝 [谢谢] (xièxie)
ឣរគុណ (aw kohn)
Poetry, this poem
pointing hopefully forward
Reminding all the limitations of words
yet the limitlessness of gratitude
23. A poem about a monument. ( 3pts)
24. A metapoem. ( 3pts)
27. A poem incorporating another language. ( 4pts)
28. A poem based on a story you were read or told as a child. ( 4pts)
33 pts. + 14 pts. = 47 pts. of 150 pts.
Otherness has long made one a target of violence
Outsiders have long known fear, mistrust and suspicion
Originality makes even family ostracize those opposite
The Golden Rule seems to provide for a new "Theory of Otherness"
serving the common good practically
doing for others what we would want done
joining hearts in healing ways
The all powerful Lion and ever vulnerable Lamb
revealing the need for the threads of Love then seeing the
mending the torn places within and between souls, minds and nations
The Golden Rule is like a brightly shining thread
rather than a metallic measure
where Mercy and Justice tie the knot then begin
weaving compassion into the frayed fabric of short lives
creating shelter where wholeness is possible
inviting both lions and lambs to the same place
bringing all together at a table of justice and peace
37. A poem in which an animal is an omen/ harbinger of something. ( 3pts)
42. A poem which contains 8 words which begin with “O” ( 4pts)
26 + 7 = 33 pts to date shooting for 150
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