daddy ~

17 Monday Jun 2013

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becoming, bliss, connection, daddy, destiny, dreams, family, father's day 2013, fearless, grace, life, living, love, nature, old maps, reason, relationship, self, spirit, spirituality, strength, truth, understanding, wandering

the first to notice
ember doves –
were come to know my soul
the keeper of another name
I own

eased within the fading
of daylight spread the dark
wingeds sail before
me through the night

tied as verse my little heart
with hands the same as whispers
unfolding sacks of story
sweetgum, lark and light

. . .

missing you now ~

11 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by tornadoday in Poetry, Rambling, Storytelling

≈ 11 Comments

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connection, death, destiny, dreams, faith, family, fearless, forgiveness, grace, gravel roads, life, love, memory, old maps, passion, poetry, postmark, reason, relationship, restless, self, southern, spirit, strength, truth, understanding, value, wandering

I hang on words
verbs and adjectives
that distill time’s crazy hold
on my life
souvenirs kept
in spiral bound notebooks
with tiny locks
so easily broken
like dreams
or promises carried forward
from past generations
a chapter neatly finished
but always incomplete
tonight I unplug the yellow bulbs
strung to seasons of evergreen
sons of the tree
that rose silently one year
in splendid happiness
crystalising the summit of my childhood
the night you disappeared
and distress replaced your love
too young then
I neglected to listen to your words
thinking surely you’d be around
to speak them hundreds of other times
and now –
older than you were that year
I’ve forgotten
even the sound of your voice

. . .

Author’s Note: For D.B. & Annie – missing you now

unexplained ~

11 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by tornadoday in Poetry

≈ 6 Comments

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becoming, bliss, connection, destiny, faith, family, fearless, grace, life, love, old maps, passion, relationship, soul signature, spirit, spirituality, strength, truth, understanding, wandering

touch
as word unnoticed
spilled onto my page
silent as a poet
falls to rhyme
of reaching out for something
take me I am home
here am I to catch you
every time

touch
in ways unpracticed
suffer me your truth –
written once when all the lights
burned down
years away and still
you know me
meaning unexplained
a place of nothing works
but holding on

touch
and almost always
I will plead one more
season
without cause –
a blossom bends
flush against another
time I thought to go
leaving –
but a place
where we begin

. . .

shadow of still ~

09 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by tornadoday in Poetry

≈ 4 Comments

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becoming, cherokee, connection, death, destiny, dreams, faith, family, forgiveness, grace, knowledge, life, love, memory, old maps, passion, reason, relationship, restless, soul signature, southern, spirit, spirituality, truth, understanding, value, wonder

sworn
to believe
the seasons have passed –
how many ten thousands
are stilled by this one
rolled into years
without reason
to count
how many forevers
this sun

as legions
forgiven –
to lie at her heart
soft in the shadow of still
faded as cotton
gathered to light –
are songs from lips
ever sealed

yet
when the morning
stands from the dark
silence – their voices
abound
dew glitters sweet
on petal and pine –
as passion wells up
from the ground

. . .

fit the same ~

30 Tuesday Apr 2013

Posted by tornadoday in Poetry, Rambling, Storytelling

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

bliss, destiny, dreams, family, fearless, forgiveness, grace, life, living, love, memory, passion, reason, relationship, southern, spirit, strength, truth, understanding, value, woman

of faded pearls
my grandma loved –
though where they came
uncertain
an unmarked box
the man brought down
one Sunday
after church

tied with dimestore string
proof
of someplace sweeter
another name for wearing
fit the same

as stockings
hats
and easter shoes
a blushing bride all over
reminded of a right
before her spring

. . .

rings ~

25 Thursday Apr 2013

Posted by tornadoday in Poetry, Rambling, Storytelling, verse

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becoming, connection, destiny, dreams, faith, family, fearless, grace, gravel roads, kentucky, life, love, memory, old maps, passion, postmark, reason, restless, self, southern, spirit, understanding, wandering

in the space where once
a longing –
was nursed
a hungry cat
and edges there were left
to tell the world
of where the end
was ending –
who would tend the grass
and where the towels
were folded
with the grey

a rocking chair
and angry rings
to curse an ugly table
a crystal bowl
would hold your habits
well –
reminders of another
took my breath
for supper –
turned the bed
and never said
a thing

verses read
all over –
some I can’t pretend
are meant to hold
another fool
as I
forgotten to a season
passed me through
November –
cooled my brow
and left my longing
fire

. . .

lockets so fair ~

09 Tuesday Apr 2013

Posted by tornadoday in folklore, Poetry, Storytelling

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

bliss, christian, connection, destiny, faith, family, fearless, friendship, grace, iron lady, knowledge, life, living, love, margaret thatcher, reason, relationship, soul signature, spirit, spirituality, strength, truth, understanding, wisdom, woman

what beauty
restrained
in that which you give
for others – the debt seldom paid
so easy the burden
made lesser somehow
for smiles left in passing –
our sorrows
to trade

what story exists
in promise divine –
is come in the balm of a friend
pressed as a salve
to the breaking apart
of all we have lost –
we gather
again

what honor
is held
in lockets so fair –
would blush even now
at her praise
let us bend to this silence
with thanks on our lips
for our blessing
in knowing –
this keeper of grace

as joys
we have garnered
what name do they say
a chair –
at the table they save
let them be patient
o let them not mourn
for moments forgotten –
in living forgave

what graces
without
the kingdom must be
when given us glimpse
of your light
what selfless compassion
were angels to kneel –
when round us they gather
as souls into flight

. . .

Margaret Thatcher
13 October 1925 – 8 April 2013

the rhythm of remember ~

01 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by tornadoday in folklore, Poetry, verse

≈ 4 Comments

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becoming, bliss, breath, connection, destiny, family, fearless, forgiveness, front porch, grace, gravel roads, life, living, love, memory, old maps, passion, reason, relationship, restless, southern, spirit, spirituality, truth, understanding, value, wisdom

in the quietly unfolding
vanilla satin wings –
where shutters made of music
bang the porch
leaning in (as leaning does)
just before the fall
of breath into beginning
us again

in the rhythm of remember
a poem stirs awake –
counting now the verses
(one by one)
measured by the silent steps
from one end to the other
lives restored
as lanterns barely burned

forever stops to witness
graces undeclared
patches sewn together
(in the dark)
leaving spared another day
for smiles without the taking
was here we learned
to love –
here we stay

. . .

tangled ~

28 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by tornadoday in Poetry, Rambling, Storytelling

≈ 5 Comments

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becoming, connection, destiny, dreams, family, fearless, forgiveness, grace, gravel roads, life, living, love, memory, nature, old maps, passion, postmark, reason, relationship, restless, southern, spirit, star crossed, truth, understanding, wandering, wisdom, wonder

honeysuckle ribbons
are wrapped
as time with string
and squeezed against a plank
of aching red
dusted hallelujahs
are buried by the post
and rusted
to the latch
just like they said

we’d never make the papers
never knew our time
would end –
struggled with the map
unspoken shame –
as day old letters
fade into the memory of a box
– and photographs
don’t hold me
quite the same

a kiss
the taste as summer
a touch the same as true
gentle eyes
were watching me –
as I was watching you
like who would know
the stories
weren’t for telling
where we’d be –
or where we started over
might be here –
you came for me

as roads to trace
from east to west –
were moved as north I took
a ticket in my pocket
found me there
let me know
if e’er the stars
are moved from where
I loved –
as honeysuckle moments
are pulling
at my hair

. . .