We Want to Harness Moonlight,

 

Chasing the moon by Catrin Welz-Stein….Surreal Art & Graphic Design. 

The earth is sliced into furrows that seeds may burst with life; even thus with our wounds.

 ~Henry Stanley Haskins

The laurels and the willows know the strength of a rainy day,

but my heart is still learning.

We want to harness moonlight,

and have the flowers of May always,

but we only truly appreciate the shine of a clear sky

when we have endured all the dreary days.

Life teaches like a professor that will give the lesson harsh yet sure.

It gathers us together the way you would garland upon a tree.

Makes us sit in the church like children to hear the sermon

whether we want to or not.

We will learn one way or the other from the slough or from the river’s harshest flow.

For the laurels and the willows know the strength of a rainy day,

 but my heart is still learning.

Linking with Shay's Word List "A. E. Housman #19" now at the Sunday Muse every 3rd weekend.

Come join us!

No Maps Needed

 "Forest Traffic" Digital Art by Pulkit Kudiwal

Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse #159

It is the humans that get truly lost

all on their own

headed steadfast ahead

it can happen in the forest

or down a city street

oh it can happen anywhere

they lose their way down a narrow path of plans

busy with a GPS full pockets and yet empty hands

it is the creatures great and small

that know where to look

who to follow

and when to stop.

for animals of the forest

 are never truly lost.

All the Poppies in California

Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse # 155 Thank you Shay for holding the fort down when it was my turn to do it.  You are amazing my friend! 

I lost a beautiful and precious flower long before I had the strength for letting go

so I became a hoarder of the sky

my eyes glued to the moon like sequins on a red dress

stars in my eyes I walked through all the fields of poppies only longing for blue birds out of my reach

I had an empty vase that all the poppies in California could not fill

certain regrets   burrow and  dig    and take away

leaving a soul always searching for more beyond the horizon

stuck between the couch and the wall like a paper airplane

thrown careless and hard

life gives and it takes away

and we either learn through falling

or we remain stuck

eventually I learned to get back up

to reach out my hands

not just for help

but also to let go

that is how birds learn to soar.

That Blinding Glare & Other Hazards

 Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse #152 hosted this week by the brilliantly talented, Shay!

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I learned more about economics from one South Dakota dust storm than I did in all my years in college. ~Hubert Humphrey

 

I have been blinded by more than the glare of the sun

and been sent spinning off treacherous winding roads

I have fallen down the steps further than I care to admit

that’s what too much whiskey and the wrong man can do…

next time I’m staying home and eating ice cream!

 

 

Learning How to Be

"A distant future"  photography by Raluca Caragea

Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse # 106
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"The body is a house of many windows: there we all sit, showing ourselves and crying on the passers-by to come and love us." ~Robert Louis Stevenson

We learn to be

Like birds learn to fly away

Nudged and shown by

The branches sway and break

But somewhere between the souring

And the rivers only dance

Wearing war paint hiding frowns

I put on the perfect mask

I became a reflection of what you were not

Yet part of everything you were

Like a photo within the glass

Capturing a moment that can be blurred

Your cry became my silence

Your fall my need to rise

It took me years to find my voice

For my own prayers and reasons why

So here I sit before the world

The person I have become at last

Yet all that I hold up to be seen now

Is still a reflection of my past.
*********

“My mother is a poem
I'll never be able to write,
though everything I write
is a poem to my mother.”
― Sharon Doubiago

For All The World To See

"The Sea Inside"  Painting by Samy Charnine

Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse # 105

“I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart: I am, I am, I am.”  ~Sylvia Plath

My heart was always in a fish bowl

for all the world to see

  you did not see it streaming down my face

for it flowed throughout my poetry

this world is a poetic ocean

deep with sorrow

yet filled with blessings inside a net

we swallow a whiskey bottle full of lies

to spit out a glass half empty of true regret

life can be like swimming lessons

with a teacher that cannot be found

that is how I learned to swim in tears

and hold my breath uttering not a sound

yet even in my silence

I learned how to be truly heard

painting feelings across the page

filled with the written word

for my heart was always in a fish bowl

for all the world to see

you did not see it streaming down my face

for it flowed throughout my poetry.  

Feast & Famine

Photography by Sarolta Ban
Click here for the website

Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse # 96
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Even our misfortunes are a part of our belongings. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry



Feast and famine
 are both folded
 sloppily side by side
 in my suitcase of life
I could take them out
iron the feast and 
try to throw out 
the famine
but
they both
would find a way...back into my baggage....they always do...somewhere down 
the road up ahead...something reminds me...of the taste of hunger
and I feel the weight...of its garment...against my belly...it is there
wanted or not
the lone wolf
standing before me
yet also a collection 
of keepsakes 
like hymns 
never forgotten
unseen blessings
each a song
I could never have 
written on my own
offerings of learning
that only  
a certain poverty
could teach
lessons
I never would have
 asked for
but each is a gift 
still filling
my heart
with a gentle 
strength.

©Carrie Van Horn 2020

Sweeping on a Windy Day

Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse # 91

Hosted by the brilliantly talented Fireblossom!

The image is a bottle tree and Shay tells us that in old southern tradition, hanging bottles from a tree is intended to catch or confuse negative spirits.  Thank you Shay for a fascinating prompt!! I may have gone off track a bit with mine, but my intentions were good. :-)


People gather bundles of sticks to build bridges they never cross. ~Author Unknown

I tried to gather leaves with a broom my father handed me

to sweep our outside patio on a windy day in 1973

I swept and swept in all directions

trying to contain all those leaves

but the wind held more power to coax them

than my 10-year-old hands

holding a broom could ever do

Looking back now

I see how I have done this in other areas of my life

trying to control something

that was out of my hands

holding the broom sweeping on a windy day

only to see all my worries scatter before me

like leaves in the wind

Sometimes you just have to let go of the broom

unless you are planning on riding it!

Note:  Yes, I think my Dad had a good sense of humor, or he was trying to keep me out of trouble.

Trying To Fill a Grand Canyon In My Heart

 Photography by Oladios

"I can't see the end of me."

Photo HERE 

Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse # 80

It would complete me if you would join us....well maybe not, but it would make me happy!

He who travels in search of something which he has not got, travels away from himself and grows old even in youth among old things. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson  

When I was 8 years old and looking at my world

 I would dream of perfect places

Living a life I wish I knew

Building a world only my eyes could see

Trying to fill a Grand Canyon in my heart

Years later when I was married and looking in the mirror

I tried to build a perfect place

That all the world could see

Living a life I wish I truly knew

Trying to fill a Grand Canyon in my heart

Now that I am older and looking beyond myself

I have learned that to find fulfillment

I must first be content and honest with who I am

To build a life of purpose that brings me joy

For trying to fill a Grand Canyon in my heart

Has only left me weary and unable to see

What was truly missing all along.

The Skin's Autobiography

Photo Credit

Linking with Beautiful Freaks Fest 2 Hosted by the lovely Magaly, Emma, and Rommy
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You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself. ~Alan Alda

I have learned to live here in this imperfect place

of gravel roads and dry spells

the curves of each continent 

have shifted and grown

in a sea of uncertainty

and they

serve as a reminder

that time etches away and in turn also gives back

winds of many seasons have blown through

leaving only silken curtains of grey

and eyes that view the world

 with a blurry yet perceptive focus

but let me be clear

I am comfortable here

 naked or in armor

it is all i have known and the practice 

of perseverance in shielding and truly letting go

have given me calluses in all the right places

I am tat-tooed in grace and scarred with lesson's travels

that tell stories my lips never will.

©Carrie Van Horn 2019