To Pastor Anne – Mentor

Kite of Spirit-wind
the mention of Zambia lifts you
into currents of memory –
dancing, singing, preaching –
class ascends with you
the kite’s tail.

Breeze swoops you
in a prophetic direction:
“You have dreams,
abandon cynicism
let God have His way.”
We trail behind
not sure where this is going.
You reassure us, laughing:
“You’re in for the ride of your life!”

We descend,
spend last moments aloft
in prayer
then thump
onto earth again

drive home, eat lunch,
get back to work
dream of being kites ourselves
swooping, soaring
living dangerously
at Wind’s mercy.

©  Violet Nesdoly

Rain

Chatter-complains onto umbrellas and tin roofs
gurgles grief through drain holes and downspouts
tantrum dances in puddles, scars the creek
swells the brown stream to a swift anger.

All day my heavy sky weeps inconsolable
for families of thirty-some Moscow strangers
and a sweet brother held hostage
by cancer in a Saskatchewan farmhouse.

© 2011 by Violet Nesdoly

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This is today – a few raw lines for

Shoe closet

WARDROBE OF SHOES

Runners and Mary Janes
oxfords and flats
flip flops and sandals
with matching straw hats

that’s what you’ll find
in my wardrobe of shoes
cushy and wide
or my feet sing the blues.

I long for platforms
stilettos and mules
slingbacks and dress pumps
with sparkly heels

but my old feet are fussy
immune to each fad
and if they’re not comfy
they treat me bad!

© 2011 by Violet Nesdoly, all rights reserved

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Last week Miss Rumphius posted a shoe prompt. I wrote something light and typed it in her comments, so today I put up that ditty here. I’m also linking it to the “In and Around Mondays” meme, where the invitation reads:

On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by…) you. Feel free to write any which way… compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place. Would you like to try? Write something ‘in place’ and add your link below.

Visit this week’s “On, In and Around Mondays” meme at the Seedlings In Stone Blog (and link your own “In and Around Monday” writings!)

I hope you’ve liked visiting my shoe closet! To help with that sense of place, I took a picture — much to my shoes’ collective dismay.

Winter

 

Sun rises southeast
early morning skies glow peach
leaves are breakfast flakes

Sun stares in my eyes
outlines bold on winter floors
crisp boxes of light

Rises in dazzle
flashes wicked black-ice wink
Far-off sirens wail

Southeast moon hangs low
ghostly lantern in the sky
Porch light’s on all day

Early afternoon
hums with planes, smells dryer sheets
dusk by 4 o’clock

Morning hoary walk
colors muted by night’s frost
world looks sugar-glazed

Skies deluge gray rain
some despairing call it SADs
downpour lasts all night

Glow white, red, green, gold
twigs of alder, beech and oak
blossom through the night

Peach cobbler and tea
laughing friends beside the fire
outsmart winter wind

Leaves in bronze hedgerows
decompose in Michaud Park
under headstone sky

Are the mallards warm?
Waddle clumsy on the ice
huddle twos and threes

Breakfast chickadees
summersault pine twigs, while I
munch oranges and toast

Flakes of winter light
figure skaters drift and pair
Charcoal fades to white

©  2011 by Violet Nesdoly

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This is an extended haiku. Each word  from the original haiku (first stanza) begins a stanza. Each stanza is in itself a haiku, containing approximately seventeen syllables.