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
I always know that something’s up
( more than likely
it’s my dander )
when the children
take an interest in my getting
needed rest. Though
much was given
me, an even
temperament was not, so I guess
I’ll just take me
and my dander
and head for bed.
JDG
Even after a heavy rain,
last year’s leaves, now
brown, hold fast to
what was home. Some
have scattered, though, across soggy
ground, joining pine
needles and moss
in shades of brown
and washed-out green. And in the trees,
hanging upside
down, a red-headed
woodpecker swings
JDG
