Poems

In the Hall of the Disappearing Creatures

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

<Prompt 30:  Last One.  Write a Disappearing Poem> An interesting piece of synchronicity: someone declared today (Nov. 30) to be the International Day of Remembrance for Lost Species.

One black rhino falls on the Savannah.
Deep in shadowed jungles,
the Formosan clouded leopard
winks out of time.
Poor old Lonesome George,
the last Pinta Island Tortoise,
slowly ages to stone.  And gone.
Celia, the last Pyrenean Ibex, taking
one last breath beneath a quivering acacia
on a windswept, sunset plain.

The Japanese river otter.  The Liverpool Pigeon.
The Eastern cougar.  Javan Tiger.  Golden Toad.

The Ivory-Billed. . .don’t say it.
The Ivory. . .no, not yet.
Keep that door open yet a little longer.
Listen for the wheep and cluck
deep in the swamp.  Watch
for that flash of white through the mosses.

2013 November 210
From the State Museum of PA

Gratitude List:
1.  Hope
2.  Warmth
3.  Light
4.  Art
5.  This moment.

May we walk in Beauty.

Commercial

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

<Prompt 29: Write a Commercial Poem> Oy.  I’m tired.  Here’s a toss-off:

Face it.  You’re not good enough,
not clean enough, not nice enough,
not beautiful.

You need more stuff to fill you up,
to ease your grief, to fit your need,
to fill the hole.

Don’t you feel that blinding ache,
relentless need, the restless urge,
desire’s pull?

Just buy more stuff, just do your part
to keep the Corporation in the black,
to meet our goals.

Gratitude List:
1. Venus!  She is so big and bright she makes me want to grab my frankincense, saddle up the camels and slouch off to Bethlehem with the other rough beasts.
2. Day trip to the State Museum of PA.  We got a membership to all the state museums for half price, and free parking for the day, to boot.  It was wonderful and educational.
3. The Bird People of the Susquehannocks.  Carved as glyphs into the rocks into the middle of the river, wings spread and soaring.  Carved standing into shell and bone, wings folded, beaked faces watchful.
4. Reading Anne of Green Gables to the boys.
5. You.  Have I said that yet? I am so very grateful for you.

May we walk in Beauty.

All is Well

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

<Prompt 28: Write a Bird Poem>

Laughter hovers like a bird
in the listening air around us.
Chuckles like feathers
float around the room,
and all is well for this breath.
And for this one.

The air crackles and rustles
with the winged ones watching.
And all is well.
All is well for this moment.


Gratitude List:
1.  You.  Just You.
2.  Because how knowing you makes me be a better me.
3.  Because you make me see colors and hear sounds and taste flavors that I wouldn’t have understood without you.
4.  Because you make sense of things that I can’t make sense of.
5.  Because you ask the right questions, and don’t always have the answers, but sometimes you do.

May we walk together in Beauty.

Mt. Pisgah

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

<Prompt 27: Write a Local Poem>

It may feel like a secret,
like a spider hidden in shadow
in the corner by the bookcase,

but I see how your heart opens
again, like a flower, like the view
when the trees have shed

their summer dresses
and the view from Mt. Pisgah
opens toward the River.

The riot of green, then autumn,
though lush and rich, has hidden
the heart from the valley below,

and now, when the trunks stand bare,
the truth of the valley
is laid out before you.

 

Gratitude List:
1.  Secret messages
2.  Rafiki’s Maandazis
3.  Conversations with strangers
4.  Pope Francis
5.  Hyssop and rose tea

May we walk in Beauty.

Always Free

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

<Prompt 26: Write a (Blank) Free, or Free (Blank) Poem, or both>

The poem that I wrote yesterday was in a Spanish form called shadorma.  Six lines, 3/5/3/3/7/5.  Today’s poem is also a shadorma.  I love the name.

You are free
to tell your story
as you please.
Always you
are free to shift the plot or
wander off the page.

2013 November 158 2013 November 149
The 1719 Hans Herr House and The Longhouse recreation

Gratitude List:
1.  Naps!  Especially this part: While I was napping on the couch, Joss found a blanket and carefully covered me up, then found another and fell asleep with it on the floor beside me.  When we woke up and I thanked him for taking such good care of his Mama, he walked over to me and kissed my hand.
2.  Parent-teacher conference.  Really, we have lucked out (seriously lucked out) with an amazing teacher for Ellis’s first year.  She likes his smile.  And his careful deliberation in his work.  And she loves to teach.
3.  Two people in my circles who have been on ventilators are breathing on their own, both waking up.  Thanks for all your prayers.  Recovery may be long and arduous, but the first bout of anxious waiting is coming to an end for their loved ones.
4.  Crossword puzzles
5.  Wool sweaters and hot tea

May we walk in Beauty.

No Angels

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

<Prompt 25: Take a poem written during this month and remix it.>  This will be a new and very concise version of November 16.

No angels
on ladders this time.
Only this:
One old man
wrestling me in the darkness,
telling me my name.

 

Gratitude List:
1.  Ethiopian Food yesterday and the warmth and stimulation of the conversation around the table.  I am still warmed today.
2.  Watching these shiny youngsters grow and change.
3.  Hand and wrist warmers
4.  Clean floors.  The house can be sort of untidy, and I can have ten projects up in the air, but if my floors have been vacuumed, then I feel like something is accomplished.
5.  Homemade pizza.

May we walk in Beauty.

Wherever You Stand

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / 2 Comments

<Poetry Prompt 24: Write a poem that responds to a statement or quote>

“Wherever you stand, be the soul of that place.” ~ Rumi

Be the spark, the knowingness,
the mother of the moment,
be the dream, the home, and the hope.

Wherever you stand, be the stone
and the wind.  Yes, be the wind
in the trees of the soul of a place.

Wherever you stand, be a memory,
a hope of the future remembering
how
once
we all lived together in peace.

Gratitude List:
1.  CaringBridge.com –A wonderful communication tool to keep friends and communities updated on the health of someone who is in critical need of prayer and caring.
2.  Stories of forgiveness, of grace, of communities and people choosing the higher path.  Perhaps when I feel the need of vengeance, I can be inspired to instead follow in their steps.
3.  Watching Ellis become absorbed in minute crafting details.
4.  Candles and prayer
5.  Cornmeal mush

May we walk in Beauty.

I Shouldn’t Be Here

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

<Prompt 23: Write a Poem: “I Shouldn’t Be Here”>

Today we took the children to the Hans Herr House and took the tour through the Longhouse.  The Longhouse at the Herr House was recreated as closely as possible to the remains of one unearthed in Washington Boro, where we used to farm.

So this is on my mind as I look at this poem prompt tonight.  I am stealing my friend Natasha’s ceremonial refrain for the ending of the poem.

I Shouldn’t Be Here

And neither, perhaps, should you.  Or you.
How shall I place this shame in context?

It wasn’t my pigs who brought the plague
that wiped out the thousand Caddoan villages
along the Mississippi.  Nor my gold-lust
that cut off the hands and the tongues
of those who would not yield me tribute.

I did not rush in with the unrighteous mob
when the Paxtang Boys tore down the doors
and killed the last Conestoga villagers.

How have we come to speak so glibly of genocide?

They had no concept, see, of land ownership,
and our own greed had built into a towering need.

They helped us live, you know,
when our own were starving.
We could not have been so bad,
if they helped us then.
And we have immortalized them
with gratitude, so that makes up
a little of the difference.

I shouldn’t be here, but I am,
here in history, here in this place.
And beneath my feet, the bones
of the People Who Came Before.

What can I offer as a token,
as my plea for forgiveness?

A small piece of quartz tossed
into the River which fed them,
Three seeds in the soil
which grew their livelihood:
a bean, a corn kernel, a gourd.
A feather tossed into the wind,
like the eagles who flew above
the myriad villages of the People.

I am sorry.
Please forgive me.

Gratitude List:
1.  A lovely afternoon of learning with friends, honoring the People Who Came Before.
2.  The faery oak tree on the corner of Water and James in Lancaster.
3.  The sentinel dawn redwoods on Ducktown Road.
4.  Popcorn
5.  Center

May we walk in Beauty.

Ideogram

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

<Prompt 22: Use at least three of the following words in a poem: ideogram, remora, casket, eclipse, selfie, wretch>

Four o’clock in the morning
and sleep has dwindled away
like the last drops of late rain

and that remora of remorse
attaches itself so tenderly
to the soft underbelly of the heart

feeding on you, feeding you,
leaving morning’s mark on the soul
like an ideogram for eclipse.

 

Gratitude List:
1.  Fabric, texture, textile
2.  Puzzles
3.  Gingerbread and applesauce
4.  Rain
5.  Sharing story

May we walk in Beauty.

Look For the Secret Message

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / 2 Comments

<Prompt 21: Write a Secret Message Poem> It’s a little late, and I am a little tired, so this one is a little easy, I believe.  Reply to this post if you want me to crack the code for you.

You know what I mean. You
are waiting for the answer, but
a different question wants asking.  The
gift of the moment is the task you set,
The answer will come at the moment the
Universe deems you ready.  This
has its requirements: patience, a heart
given the urge to open, and a mind tuned
to curiosity.  You may discover the question
itself is the answer you seek.

 

Gratitude List:
1.  That Gratitude Lost was simply a typo, easily deleted.
2.  Two snails to befriend the fish.  The boys call them Cleaner One and Cleaner Two, though Joss first called them Basil and Wheatgrass for the plants that grow at the top of the tank, and I prefer those names.  How can it be so entertaining to watch snails?  It is.
3.  The meaning behind the meaning.
4.  No bad news.
5.  Big wide circles of prayer.

So much love.