forms die and are reborn

I’m a bit late to the Oracle today.  She must be out there riding the wind…

ships of light
above heaving seas–
moon winds bare
openings
that release time’s shadow storms
through a thousand doors

 

Landing on the Other Side

My bones are
white under my skin
(also white–
but different,
not bleached or hard–) and yet you
answer by asking

for eaten
words, invoking crow–
(according
to legend,
once white too)–bearing omens,
consumed by riddles.

How far will,
then what?—the black bird,
the human,
arms outstretched
unfeathered above waters
that drown the questions,

quench courage.
Spinning children of
the moon!—(all
shadows with
the same skin–)
What light lays bare,
its absence enshrouds.

My poem “Landing on the Other Side” is included in The Ekphrastic Review’s Franz Kline Challenge responses.  Kline’s painting is above.  My thanks to editor Lorette C. Luzajic for once again featuring my work.

Moon Sonnet

Its light spills out from everywhere—the moon–
a lantern in the sky, a mirrored sea
projecting the between of tide’s return,
throwing its questions at infinity.

The landscape shimmers, particles on fire–
breathes in, impatient, waiting with the stars
for orbits to conjoin as shadowed blood
that spills out, falling into otherwise.

Bewitched by moon beams, pushing into pull,
the spirits of the night become themselves–
a coiled diffusion standing in two worlds,
a melody that casts the wind with spells.

Transparent on the air, invisible–
the ancient shores of galaxies still call.

DVerse is featuring the sonnet form this month.  I always have difficulty with sonnets , which is why it’s taken me so long to compose even one.

The clouds cooperated and gave me a chance to see the magical moon last night.  It’s beautiful this evening, too, and equally enchanting.

 

Enchanted Garden

Nina and I consulted the Oracle together this week.  We did our art independently, but the Oracle is always watching.

Now out to look at the blood moon!

Diamond rain crushing
the sky with shadow wind,
bitter like an ache–

Blood singing of moon storms–
languid music so still…

I want an enchanted garden
of madness and mist
to whisper through beauty–

 

Shapeshifting Moonlight

My haiku “Shapeshifting Moonlight” is posted today as part of Pure Haiku’s Portal Series.  You can read it here, along with all the other wonderful portals in verse.  Thanks as always to Freya Pickard for including my words on Pure Haiku.

 Joyce Fienberg, 75
Richard Gottfried, 65
Rose Mallinger, 97
Jerry Rabinowitz, 66
Brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal, 59 and 54
Bernice and Sylvan Simon, 84 and 86
Daniel Stein, 71
Melvin Wax, 88
Irving Younger, 69

 

Remembering those who lost their lives in the Tree of Life Synagogue on Saturday. May they rest always in a portal of light.

Comment-a-Haiku Poetry Contest: Hearkening

The moon sailing free–
hare pauses in the forest,
listening for light

Vita Brevis is once again sponsoring a haiku meet-and-greet.  You can post your own haiku here, and then read all the other ones that have been submitted too.

As I stated in my entry, this haiku was inspired by Jane Dougherty and her many hare poems, like this one or this one.  And of course the moon.

 

Economics (Draw a Bird Day)

Biodiversity is unprofitable. Industry is profitable.

Old growth forests are unprofitable. Deforestation is profitable.  Prairies are unprofitable.  Pipelines are profitable.  Clean water and air are unprofitable.  Manufacturing, drilling, and mining are profitable.  Public lands are unprofitable.  Private property is profitable.

Healthcare is unprofitable. Illness is profitable. Truth is unprofitable. Lies are profitable.

Extinction is profitable.

dark understories,
multilayered, listening–
a silent swift swoop

The spotted owl is one of the species that will likely lose habitat if the Endangered Species Act is gutted, as those pushing development over preservation, supported by many members of Congress, and the President and his cabinet members, wish to do.  We have to find a way to live that doesn’t have greed and profit as its prime motives.  We are not just destroying the individual ecosystems that are homes for endangered species; we are killing the delicate balance that keeps everything on Earth alive.

Celebrate Draw-A-Bird Day by asking your leaders to do something to save our planet, so we can have more birds, not less, and a better and richer life for all.

The Moon is Dreaming

I haven’t visited the magnetic Oracle for awhile.  She didn’t talk about the moon specifically, but I think it’s inferred.

the language of sleep
whispers beneath a garden
of a thousand dreams

like flowers born dancing with
children and starry-eyed fools

 

Eclipsed

This curious life–
a burst and then a fading–
star paths to the moon.

Faith stitched taut into nothing—
thoughts held together by wind.

A tanka for Colleen’s #Tanka Tuesday with synonyms for strange and beliefs.

It’s a full moon, eclipsed.

 

Poem at “Formidable Woman”

My thanks to editor d. ellis phelps for her lovely post about Laura Nyro that includes words from, and a link to, my poem “Gonna Take a Miracle (for Laura Nyro)”.  You can find it here.