my ax for words

 

“Over-explanation separates us from astonishment.”-Eugene Ionesco

Tuesday poem

note: I just read the poem “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop quoted in the article Living With Cancer: Practicing Loss by SUSAN GUBAR APRIL 24, 2014, New York Times.

One Art
by Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.

—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

What did you say?

Mundane task of every day
to make a living
you cup your arms
to measure weight of struggle
“branches of the whole tree
wildly spreading shoots”.
God is in the particulars
and “comes to us
disguised as our life.”
You bow seeking silence.

Saturday in the vineyards

On some mornings
dreamers and early risers
travel in flames and floating baskets
of hot air balloons
over a landscape of hills
covered in whiteness,
vineyards in early bloom.

Cyclists attired in solemn black
or patches of colors,
dot the roads,
a pilgrimage of solitude

Travelers in their own
separate worlds living
a dream of spring.

twilight

feeder in the yard
somewhere in the fading light
and two hummingbirds

 

Thursday’s solitude

“Life comes in clusters,clusters of solitude…”- quoted from Journal of a Solitude by Mary Sarton.

 

Wednesday morning

little part of sunlight
little moment in life
hot air balloon

note: hot air baloons above Napa Valley,CA

 

 

“wondrous mystery”

“To be given life
would have been sufficient.”
But I’m also given time
help fix my neighbor’s leaky roof
remove someone else slivers,
share someone else tears,
delight in irises, chrysanthemums,
and I can love,
offer my hands
in gratitude.

 

 

Monday after Easter

He is dead.
He is risen.
“difficult and easy”
to dance and to cry
“don’t eliminate,
but allow
each other”.
“Living in God”.

note: adapted from : Life is Hard And “My Yoke is Easy”, Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation, https://cac.org

Good Friday

butterflies spread their wings
forest darkened
angels wept.

 

photo: Lenten rose