What we thought was a maze became
a labyrinth
as openings
appeared where first
we saw dead-ends. This winding path
to center and
back again is
walked step by step
not with clarity but with trust
that the journey
itself will bring
us what we need.
JDG
The warm salve of apology
can’t take away
that first piercing
pain, but it can
soothe the lingering hurt and help
healing begin.
Sometimes there’s no
immediate
relief, but further infection
can be stopped and
restoration
slowly begin.
JDG
I learned much from you, my brother,
about freedom
on that day when
we were weeding
and I made Daddy mad. He said
you were free, but
I had to stay
til all was done.
You stayed too – even when a friend
stopped by and asked
you to please come
and swim with him.
JDG
When harsh winds tear through, when even
the sturdiest
trees uproot or
break, where do birds
go for refuge? Where do the squirrels
hide? How is it
when the storm has
passed, they emerge
full of song and wild leaps while
I stay huddled
in the uncertain
shelter of my mind?
JDG
Beyond the people
and all their accoutrements
wide expanses lie –
the twin blues of sea and sky –
shimmering in morning sun.
~~
~~
After a sun-bright
day of sweltering heat,
those sudden dark clouds
came, promising relief from
far too much of what was good.
JDG
Rolled eyes, dramatic
sighs – my summer vacation
with three young grandgirls –
there’s no end to teenage angst
or preteen umbrage taking.
~~
~~
“When you were little,
Grams, did they have beaches?” I
heard him ask and thought
she might say, “No, back then earth
was still without form and void.”
JDG
Before I open
my mouth and insert my foot,
I think I’ll just take
that foot and step away from
all I was about to say.
~~
~~
Taking ten thousand
steps a day builds health, or so
they say. My goal is
to step, step up, step away
each as needed through the day.
JDG
Hard
lesson –
grownups don’t
always want truth,
she learned at summer camp when she was nine.
It helps when your older sisters are there
to comfort you
with wise words:
“Avoid
jerks.”
JDG
This poem is written in a poetic form, the double tetractys, invented by Ray Stebbing. Shadowpoetry.com has the following quote by Ray Stebbing,” Euclid…considered the number series 1, 2, 3, 4 to have mystical significance because its sum is 10, so he dignified it with a name of its own-Tetractys. The tetractys could be Britain’s answer to the haiku. Its challenge is to express a complete thought, profound or comic, witty or wise, within the narrow compass of twenty syllables.”
Weave a net and catch a minute.
It doesn’t have
to win a prize,
Pulitzer or
otherwise. It’s just a way to
nab some feelings,
capture a thought,
hold an image.
Folks do it all the time. It’s where
reason meets with
rhyme, where common
becomes sublime.
JDG
The minute is a poetic form consisting of three stanzas, four lines in each stanza. The first line of each stanza has eight syllables, followed by three lines of four syllables each -thus sixty syllables, one minute. Traditionally the minute is written in iambic meter and the rhyme is aabb, ccdd, eeff, but minutes are often written without a strict adherence to meter or rhyme.
Worn out
but quite content,
I drape myself over
a branch and rest – nature’s limb holds
me fast
~~
These trees,
green guardians,
make space for nest and song,
hold firm when we leave home, whisper
green grace
JDG
