A splash of white, a hint of pink,

a tender dash

of youthful green

have snuck into

this earnest sway of older browns

and darker greens.

Emboldened, new

yellow starts to

strut, leaving tired gray behind

in this always

changing dance of

winter into spring.

                                                                               JDG

When all the thinking we can do

is done and no

solution’s found,

where do we turn?

Sometimes it helps to go off line,

switch our focus,

fall asleep, let

something besides

our conscious mind work things out, find

a way to see

past reason’s path

to something new.

                                                        JDG

With two dogs, cats, and kids around

it’s hard to find

moments enough

of quietness.

But today, the great blue heron

and I drank our

fill as we stood,

he on one foot,

I on two, undisturbed by sight

or sound. Just we

two and the still

pond in between.

                                                   JDG

Today I tried an old fashioned

remedy – I

took to my bed

and wrapped myself

in sunlight and quiet. I read

no books, answered 

no phone, checked no

news. I drifted

through a day with few words, soothed, not

just by what I

took in, but by

all I did not.

                                                                  JDG

It was shortly after midnight

and the night sky

was blue as day.

Was this something

new? Does even the sky grow weary

of doing the

expected thing?

Did moon and stars

suggest a change of hue might bring

a surge of sight

to those awake

in that long night?

                                                                                JDG

Sorting through my out-of-sorts self,

beneath the drag

of a spring cough,

I find something

unexpected. Change has me by

the throat and won’t

let loose.  I can

go willingly

or be dragged along, but there is no

bargaining with

change. I resist.

And hence the cough.

                                                                  JDG

I watch as those wild balls of thought

ricochet and

set other balls

rolling too. Soon

the table’s a cacophony.

Feelings and thoughts

knock around as

I tell myself

I’m not the ball. Then this thought too,

now a ball, joins

all the others.

So goes the game.

                                                                 JDG

Sitting in the hair salon, I

wait, hoping for 

the best, fearing

the worst. “I want

red,” she said and stuck to her guns

even as I

and all my friends

tried to get her

to consider just a streak or

two. But only

full-out red would

do. She’s fourteen.

                                     JDG

Just last Saturday I wore no

coat. Today there’s

snow and so it

goes – first warm then

cold, a hokey pokey dance of

yes and no, on

and off, leaving

me to believe

right now, even Mother Nature, 

like so many

candidates, can’t

make up her mind.

                                      JDG

“What should I plant  and where? ” I asked,

eager to start

the landscaping

long delayed till

now. “Before we add, we need to

take away,” she

 said. “Only when

the essence is

 clearly seen, do we know where to

 start.”  – sage advice

for gardeners

of any kind.

                                         JDG