natural beauty
cruel embroiled waves
obscured by flames
*
a tricylcle all alone
picture – a melted phone
can’t reach home
For those of you who are in California our prayers are ongoing. We check in by phone and grateful that family can still pick it up. But there are many lines that will never ring again
Thank you Firefighters – yours is a thankless job!!!
“Who is that?” My daughter asks as she filters through 100 year old snapshots.
“I never heard their story. I was only a child when I looked at these photos last.”
“Which side of the family are they from?” She looks for any family likenesses.
“They look like dad’s family. I’m glad these didn’t get thrown away.”
“Who is this?”
“I think it’s my great-grandfather. I don’t know much about him. I think he was a grocer. That’s your grandfather when he was a little boy and this is your great-grandmother. I think you look the most like her.”
My daughter squints her eyes to see some resemblance.
My family and their past is in a black and white capsule. Much of what remains is in a shoe box. The family farm is gone and all the antiques burned up in a fire several years ago. I want to carry forth their past but there is so little that I know.
***
Box of sepia prints
few faces recognized
memories lost
*
little hands
smile covered with icing
I still hear that voice
*
brush away tears
people long gone
puddle in kodachrome
*
One of things that we do with family is look at old family photos. There are so many dialogues. One thing is a constant we continue to make memories even as we look at the past.
Enjoy the memory making with family!!
grappled with your verse
making much sense
turned them over in my head
all the things that you’d said
your blue was grey
my yellow faded away
we loved the same
I caressed your name
lost in your prose
how you did it who knows
“we never met” I sigh
I live between your lines
***
two women poets
changing seasons kept apart
loved the same man
a grey- haired journey
we often stub our toes
rattle our mind for memories
caregiver regular in tow
treasures we seek
but little do we find
momentary peeks
into a treasure filled mind
*******
daily routine
seasons change as you age
digging up treasure
Look into the mind of the elderly there are vast discoveries. Sometimes there is a thin veil covering the expanse. It is worth the effort.
Goodbye to a year that will be the past
Adieu to our failed successes that don’t last
we wave a friendly blushing Ciao
Sayonara , gone for now
Magnify the things you’ve done
some things lost others won
rocks pulled from the soil
bread rising never to spoil
all of 2018 now behind
flash of 2019 momentarily blind
****
last farewell to friends
sun sets too soon over Nile
loved children smile
rose bud bloom
decided on its own colour
catching random raindrops
she danced each spring
a calla lily
ivory water cup
opens like a scroll
makes my heart sing
dry dusty petals
always winter
a ballerina once
no longer remembering
****
a swan song
the seasons changed her dance
robbed of her wings
More than forty years ago,I took care of my first Alzheimer’s patient. Back then we called a patient confused. The trade marks were the same: little by little the mind ebbs and the memory recedes.
I have learned much as I have looked through the window of an elderly person’s life. There is a store house of information, experience, history that is so close. My challenge as a caregiver is to find the key that unlocks the treasure chest.
By the time I enter a client’s life, they have “lost” quite a bit of memory. But there is always some treasure if I am patient. “Patient” is the operative word – I cannot have an agenda, be pushy or in a big hurry.
Mary loves children and she most often sets the tone for the conversation. Her years of experience as a school teacher are like gold for me as my other life is teaching African children. It is a joy to hear children in the background of her life.
Today- I grasped at another treasure – we look good in the same colors. She chose several outfits that would look good on either of us. Last week we had a pillow fight and got into a fit of laughter. She asked me a puzzle of a question; I asked her one in return.
Each day we find what we can do not what we can’t do and it works.
I am not inferring that caring for a person with Alzheimer’s is easy – It is Not! As the wave recedes, I am sorrowful for the yesterdays that are lost. But my hand is going to clasp hers and be grateful that there are more days filled with treasure if I am ready to hunt for it.
Tide is fading
wind thrashes each memory
deep blue sea
greetings far and wide
hearts momentary grasp
a smile of shared kindness
if only this could last
shallow are grey blue waters
when for another do not share
freedom used to ring
for gold we only care
daily the reminders
a smile so white and pure
a child trusts my hand
love is our world’s cure
*
gathering place
happy red tomatoes
instant friends
The prompt for this week at Poet’s United Mid Week Motif is Independence.
That concept used to be so dear – now is a time when people are enslaved in so many ways.
Innocent they plead with their hands
impotent to help each one
fingertips strive to render warmth
a moment of understanding
spreads across the distance
bridged by a smile
shards of glass
empty bellies pleading eyes
broken beauty
Photos of last January flow
Sun shines on white crystals
Pulling on boots and gloves
The shovel groans
“It’s too cold. Can’t we wait?”
I look at today’s forecast
Last year’s high is today’s low
I can enjoy my pictures of snow
(my shovel agrees)
****
rub hands together
last January’s photo
memory’s cold
The prompt at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai is Shoukan or Less Cold. I confess I am enjoying above freezing temps.
Learning to live by the indwelling life of Christ.
Gud skaper noko nytt ved sitt Ord og sin Ande, vi kan ta imot det i tru og få oppleve at han gjer sitt verk med oss. Hans skaparkraft verkar konstuktivt i våre liv og skaper noko som er verdifullt for oss. Naturkreftene verkar nedebrytande, i fylgje entropilova, men Gud er Ånd og det som er født av hans Ande består. Jesu frelsesverk er fullbrakt og fullkome. Han er den siste Adam, som er ifrå himmelen og som for oss har vorte ei livgjevande ånd. Han gjev oss den Heilage Ande frå himmelen av berre nåde. Han gjev oss det evige livet.
Looking ahead, without looking back (too often)
Thanks for following a cowgirl on her crazy life journey.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. - Edgar Allan Poe
Hoping to make the world more beautiful
Books by author Diana Coombes
With previous posting of "Our World" on Blogger
my humanity in written form
Experiments in Creative Writing, and more ....
Poetry by Mich
FOR READERS AND ASPIRING WRITERS
Everyday musings ....Life as I see it.......my space, my reflections and thoughts !!
From Board Books to Clean YA
Cherishing the Past while Celebrating the Present
FROM ONE PARENT TO ANOTHER
Living life with dissociative identity disorder and complex ptsd
penned in moon dust 