december winter

 

I. before the sun sets

sunlight swells as mushroom

above skeleton-boned trees

so warm as maple syrup

yet so brief as a passing cloud

i savor its divineness

breathing in the blessed heat

bestowing stillness

a gift 

II. freezing rain

snowflakes on wooden porch

sparkly white diamonds

that turns into black ice rain

{deadly}

i slipped & fell

as the bird falling from the nest

effortless as a paper, breaking bones

how i wish i could have scooped it up

breathing wind into its wings & eyes

i tread carefully now

missing the birdsongs in the garden

{life}

Posted for dVerse Poets Pub - Zen Poetry, which I am hosting as our last post for 2022.  Join us when the virtual pub doors open at 3pm EST. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!!!  

Heavy Snowfall

                                            

Sleeping Maple Trees

 

blued, bloodless, brooding

is the sky, my hands savor

mapled squash, wild berries

Credit

I currently live in Canada for the last 17 years.   While we are burried under winter snow right now, earth gifts are warm & colorful.   I look forward to the late winter when the maple syrup would be taken from the maple trees.

Now, we are in the deep of the winter season and everything is iced over the  field and garden in Ontario, Canada.   The color of the sky even at night is white, reflecting the winter ice below.    Spring is still far away (April).  Yet we have fruits like squash, carrots and blue & red berries to bring color to our meals.   I also make a lot of soup from squash and the other root vegetables.  Maple syrup is part of our baking and drinks (instead of using sugar).

Posted for dVerse Poets Pub, Poetics:  One of Seventy Two Seasons - Hosted by Lisa.

an impatien(t) rearrangement, i move potted plants

 

from cold draft

to cradled lamp light 

   i (too) am impatient 

for passing of northern wind

shreding black-tarred maple 

leaves to leather-rust 

earth

plots seedpod, rebulbs tubers

(sleep)

womb of possibilities-

   green fingerlings, pink-sunlit crowns,

   petals bee-trimmed in mediterranean 

   hues-

unperturbed by winter's breath

Posted for dVerse Poets Pub - Quadrille, Poem Those Possibles, hosted by De Jackson.   Please join us when the pub doors open at 3pm EST.

Coldest Night

Black raven perches on fence, eyes piercing
Through snow-misted air, bill poised for killing-
I mused how many will die, unburied 
As howling wind knives the fields, dry, stinging

Our eyes, blue with salt, as we hurried
through burdens & loneliness, stacked, storied-
I don't want to wither in storm's tempest
My hands are fighting life, blood, breath flurried



Posted for dVerse Poets Pub - Poetry form - Rubaiyat, hosted by Frank Hubeny.  This is an interlocking rubaiyat - AABA, BBCB.  Inspired by seeing a black raven in the garden during our cold winter night.  

Winter snapshots

I.

Looking out from my window-
who painted this sky with grey dove tulle?
who splattered this garden with white-
petalled diamonds?


II.

Small flock of geese flies
in v-formation, 
to southern climes
where warmth awaits them
as freshly brewed ginger tea


III.

A pair of red-orange
cardinals hop on fence, bright 
as poppies
as rain trickles down, silky
as cottonseeds


IV.

Mud sticks to my hiking shoes
As forest floor is caked in dead leaves
A giant log is home
to creatures & sleeping seeds
Birds and butterflies flutter 
shimmering of life
Shrubs and flowers garnish remnants
of twilight
Here is 
Where I want to live my life all over again, 
to begin again, 
to be utterly wild.*



* Inspired and lines from Mary Olivers poem:  A meeting

Posted for dVerse Poets Pub- OpenLinkNight.   Thanks for your visit and comments.

Invisible

Am I the diminished tree in distance
Shaken by wind blows, bent in waning light
Empty of nests, gnarled in mute existence

Am I the fallen leaf in snow-bleached night
Solitary figure, cut out of frame
Abandoned by time, dying out of sight

Am I the buried book,  dame with lame name
To bellow brave exploits & loves, so lyrical
Stirring up grey eyes, a chanteuse proclaims 

No, I refuse to be the invisible
Or silenced by brighter light, louder voice
I'm not just a chorus or syllable

My life is tapestry of songs, by choice
Woven of seasons & storms, growing rose

Grace@Winter

Poetry form:  Terza Rima where the sonnet is divided into 4 tercets and a couplet with the following rhyme scheme: ABA BCB CDC DED EE.

The title came from a conversation with a group of friends, having post Christmas dinner last Saturday night.  We were all comparing our Christmas holidays and getting updates  about how our children were doing.   During his family gathering, my friend statement was, "Have I become invisible?   I don't like it."


Posted for dVerse Poets Pub - OpenLinkNight.   Also my entry for dVerse Poets Pub - Poetry form, Sonnet.   If you have any inputs on improving my sonnet, please let me know in your comments below.  Thanks for your visit.

Night Sky

Night sky, shimmer your mirrors of light
Streak our path with meteor showers
Quarter moon is rising, silver knight

Crossing above winter's storm, so white
We hunt for arrows and spears of Gods
Night sky, shimmer your mirrors of light

We bring coins to buskers, ink to poets
We offer good tidings for a glimpse of heaven
Look, quarter moon is rising, silver knight

Heralding dancing shadows, colorful sight
We open our palms to catch bluish of circles
Night sky, shimmer your mirrors of light

Soon darkness with the longest hours 
Will come, drawing strings of new season
Quarter moon is rising, silver knight

We dream of spring tulips and sunflowers
But tonight, you're fullness, glorious tower
Night sky, shimmer your mirrors of light
Quarter moon is rising, silver knight


Posted for dVerse Open Link Night -  Thank you for your wonderful support and comments!!!   We are taking a break for 2 weeks.  Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!!

melting snowflakes

Winter turns me into a grouch
Keeping words & sweets to myself

I scribble quickly on used paper
As if each letter holds a secret 🔑

The garden outside is a dull statue
As if a thief has stolen all the blooms

As if a baker has thrown all the flour
On table, forgetting measuring cups & left

In a huff, leaving the nuts
to squirrels and nothing for the birds 🐦

Not even his secrets
Was it fresh cinnamon stick or extra lemon 

Zest & twist
That made these sweets tinglinG butterY 

Warm on my hands... 
Melting snowflakes, drawing  😁   😉   😤    😍    💗    💋




Posted for dVerse Poets Pub - Hosted by Amaya on the theme of Secret Ingredient (examples are food or poetry form).   Please join us when the pub doors open at 3pm EST.

Waiting

We wait eagerly for Friday night to arrive and settle as an old familiar book in our hands.  Weekends are for staying home and playing with our first grandson, on Sunday afternoons.  With our work, time is taskmaster juggling all our commitments.   So it is relaxing to finally kick back and get into a slower pace of chores.   With the Christmas season in the air, we are eager children counting the days of Christmas Eve.   

Last week, we saw a flock of white geese flying away, to what we assumed would be a warmer climate.   The winter season has clouded our sky with gloomy grey and whitened the garden with icy stillness.   Maple trees are bare of leaves and we can't wait for spring to breeze in with all its bird songs and flaming hues.  

brown leaves raked away- 

i spy bright moon's unveiling

above misty windows-

Posted for dVerse Poets Pub - Haibun Monday with the theme of Waiting, with guest blogger, Imelda.   Please join us when the pub doors open at 3pm EST.  

Winter's first kiss

You arrive - first dance -
Shower of crystals - magical -
Yet, a kiss of death 
On fallen leaves, yellowed frail
Throats of birds are silent - black -


~0~0~


The sky keeps greying
Over your relentless crossing-
Make my words a flint
Hungry for air and roses 
Longing for lips petalled by rain




Posted for dVerse Poets Pub - OpenLinkNight - Hosted by Frank Hubeny.   Join us when the pub door opens at 3pm EST.

Beginnings

amethyst & ice-crystals
hug my neck, as needles 

of pain stakes my chest,
yesterday's grey- 

lone blackbird perches on
bare twig  

leaps from the darkness &
flies, flashing silver-

my eyes follow,
an apprentice-

then search underneath
frosty dust

my beat-
heat-

beating stone

Grace@EverydayAmazing

Posted for dVerse Poets - Quadrille - 44 word post with the word - LEAP.  Join us when the pub doors open once more at 3pm EST.    Happy New Year!  

Winter Solstice

Night, a lightning.   Shovel hitting the frosty
ground. Splintering crystals into thousand mirrors.  

My eyes squint,
heavy laced with ice

searching for color  

above the walkway

laden of diamond drops-

No, No!
I am a prey 
caught in frozen web-

        

The moon crackles.  Crescent above skeletal   
trees.   Scattering faint its nebulous light.  

My hands are so cold   

motionless, dead leaves

Push, push

back the black tides

engulfing, surging

my lungs  

the guilty weight is an illusion

Breathe, breathe

The sun crows. Wearing pink & peach shades.
My eyes mist that I made it through long long night.

~0~0~0~0~  ~0~0~0~0~

And finally, our dVerse Anthology is available !   Enjoy the journey of more than 100 poets at Amazon, North America or Amazon, Europe.

Posted for dVerse Poets Pub - OpenLinkNight, hosted by Bjorn Rudberg.   We are going for a break at the poetry pub for 2 weeks.   

Wishing you all Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays !!!!  ~0~0~0~0~

Winter's breath

Winter lands in the city
with stiff dove's wings  

It slides under the cars &
creates a whirl of grey clouds

It blankets, spiraling over
fences & roofs, erasing paths & grime

Getting into the groove quickly,
licking every bare tree & fallen leaf with silence

Taking its time
as if the world is flaring, silvery canvas

But its a chameleon
turning clear roads to slippery ice

Some nights, its a vulture
knifing homeless & lost souls on cold streets- 

We fret, with no sunshine
to needle our eyes to light & motion

Forgetting colors & spring flowers
We get intimate with death, melancholia 

& pinched nerves, enveloping our words-
pink, furrowed with blue salt-



Posted for dVerse Poets Pub - Poetics hosted by Lillian ~ Theme is "groove".  
I slipped on the ice last night & fell on my side, while shoveling so I am feeling a bit cautious.  Thank goodness, no broken bones or bruises.  I have forgotten how slippery the ground ice can be.

winter's first exhale

Grace@Everyday Amazing

flurries 
light as feathers
falling in November's whiplash wind 

howling sky is pewter
as leaves dance in tattered
remains of empty garden

in the tumult of winter's arrival
breathe the calm 
you must keep steady

blue fire 
blazing for all
that's good in us




Posted for D'verse Poets Pub - Quadrille - 44 Word Post, with the word breath/e.   Hosted by Mish ~ We had snow flurries yesterday.   Thanks for the visit ~

A summer so far away

Purple yam ice cream drips over my hand as my tongue hungrily chases a dripping blob down the cone.    The afternoon sun casts a bright hue over the street filled with colorful banners and small food carts.   A woman calls out to pedestrians to sample her sugar-laced bananas on stick.   A man yells above the dim inviting everyone to taste the wood-fired chicken wings and salted duck eggs.   Commuters tarry as lazy balloons adrift on summer festival.    Music drums as the parade of eager young girls and boys march along paper-rice street lamps.  We drown in the town's fiesta mood until we wilted in the heat.   

i bloom,  pink of summer
memories as wind snares branches

into white-washed bone-yard

Posted for D'verse Poets Pub - Picture credit and Haibun Monday Hosted by Kanzensakura ~  Thanks for your visit ~

when squirrels romped in our backyard//is spring coming soon?

There is something in the winter air
more than crisp, tangy, full-bodied oxygen

that pinches the nostrils blushing red
that pumps the legs running for feverish heat

Perhaps the grey squirrels know the answer
as they cavort energetically up & down bare trees

As lusty as young men romping for a morning
delight as one female squirrel goes into heat

She sits at the top edge of treetop, waiting to see
who amongst her suitors will prevail & giving

chase along the way, the mating season begins
The dregs shake with earnest, twigs falling on ice
 
Signalling the changing season, that spring
will come with birthing of young, tender creatures

each one, beautiful
as a snowflake.   

snowflake photography by Alexey Kljatov

~0~0~

Posted for D'verse Poets Pub - Seasonal poem (Winter for me) Hosted by Marina Sofia~ I took a fun and light approach to winter after seeing all the racket the squirrels made in our backyard ~  Thanks for the visit ~

Winter wishes

Northern wind, ice crystals, seeds of darkness            
Circle our lips with gold, bright as sunflowers
Our hair grows white, buried under furs & pelts
Northern wind, ice crystals, seeds of darkness           
Drift by quickly, our hands are teal with frost
Watching night sky slow dance with balding moon

      ~0~0~

strand by strand 
feathers & hair entwine for a lass 
     more than a wig, a face to raise her voice:
     begone from whitening my limbs, 
     fever & scourge, begone ! 
     


Posted for D'verse Poets Pub - Two "hair" poems ~ hosted by Anthony Desmond ~

Picture credit:   here

The winter walk

Grace@ Everyday Amazing

is raw
& snapping cold -
my beige jacket becomes
an armor, keeping my hands
& body heat tight as all closed windows

Not a breeze stirs
Nor squirrels running up trees
Only silence trumpeting frost
& draping bare boughs
pristine as first breath of spring

still a long way from here -
i see the sun's golden stain
lifting the mist of night like a veil
my walk is steady beat on salted street-
one round

is all I can do
short but invigorating
like a 50 meter sprint -
my nostrils flaming smoke
before I circle back to house
eager for that warmth of chocolate cup-


Posted for D'verse Poets Pub - Sketchbook//in moment by Claudia -

Happy weekend ~

Winter morning

Grace@Everyday Amazing

Red

blooms trapped in ice

Brown

leaves stilled in teardrops

Blue

berries cocooned in crystals

Green

pines buried under snow bed

White

trumps all the colors, tapering

morning

ghostly pale than bloodless sky

Posted for OpenLinkNight of Imaginary Garden for Real Toads - Thanks for the visit ~

Silver

Late afternoon sun 

breaks through the grey. 

Bare trees coated in ice sparkle like stars. 

Luminous crystals.  Shower of diamond glass.   

     Silver trees.       Silver branches.       Silver salt.       

Soon the moon will  dawn its  silvery light. 

        The landscape is drowning in silver tears.        

Or maybe its my eyes watering from

seeing you for the 

first time. 

 After the Ice Storm 
Frozen Birch Tree by Positively Riveting

55 Silvery Words for the G-Man~

Thanks for the visit ~