Briefs

1.
We only know NOW –
The beginning is over,
The future, a wish,
But blessings, dreams, everything
Build in us courage and hope.

2.
Finding ourselves in
The arms of Jesus who loves
Us eternally,
We are free to live in joy
Knowing His blessings ours.

3.
Coming from the storm
Into Love’s still waiting arms,
Blessed assurance.

4.
Hope stagnates within
The life where choices are grown
Limited by fear.

5.
What does it mean to
Carry a human inside
Your body? Love born
Into a perilous world
Forever caring galore.

These are tanka and haiku, the forms I resort to when writing is hard, or I become distracted. Usually, brief work will prime the well.

When And Ever

The relationship with
Time is unreliable,
Past invades present
Without an invitation
Giving no hint or warning.
Although sometimes things
Crop up like pleasant hauntings,
Others much darker.
Living in the stream wavers,
Unfolds personality.
Thoughts flinch in passing –
Some neglected on arrival,
Superstitious fear,
If held, could these manifest?
Clear concentration, be blest.
Treasures run away
Appear again in vision,
Maybe now gain, claim,
The mystery retains charm
What comes, comes, as it will, still.
The search, clarity,
Love is the treasure, fullest
Measure of life lived
Whether past, present, future,
All is in sharing, caring.
Time unravels
Pieces everywhere, chasing
Forever in fog
Blindfolded except when free
Accorded chances to see.

Prompt: Expound on your relationship with time.

Swim

Standing at the edge
Of the river known as Life
Looking across it,
To the other side where dreams
Dear held, challenging reside.

Procrastination,
Doubt, fear of failure, aside
A toe in the stream,
So cold, vast, daunting, lonely
No bridge, boat; must cross alone.

Wading in deeper
Knowing there is no return
To this place, safety,
Embarking; bottom falling
Away from hesitant feet.

Beyond all limits
Pulled under the water’s flow
Finding the way up
Blessed air, more determined
Swimming like a manatee.

Nothing hurried now
Building passage with each stroke
In the depths, courage
Must be found to reach those grounds
Where all good things may be found.

It is the journey
Building every needed strength
Which allows success
In each endeavor given
As Life becomes love engaged.

Celestial

Some tell me the stars
Hold me, describing my fate;
I think they shine light
Into the deepest darkness
Lending me strength to begin.

When the sky above
Burns like a bonfire aflame
Upon such a plane
The confusion enhances
Every blessed moment timed.

I plucked, like fine fruit
For display, banquet, table,
Where grace finds its place
Making everything stable
Until dawn convenes with song.

Rich the scattered hours
No creature may fast devour,
But explosive spent
In ceaseless labor unmeant
To torture the evening ways.

The stars have lived long,
Being a beginning staid,
Forever music
Played those spheres united, untied,
What we know, guess, still survives.

Pocket Lament

Pockets,
Oh,
Pockets,
Why are you
Always given
Over to the males?
Here we,
Such genteel
Females
Are bound
By weight of
Purses!
Maybe some
Manmade
Pleasure done
To encumber
Us in some
Kind, way,
For Lord knows
What might occur
Were both our
Hands empowered.
Even enlightened
As these times are
One may not
Depend on
Fashion,
For pockets can
Be often false,
Others too
Small
To carry
Much.
Designers could
Give
Consideration
To cost
Of female
Liberty lost.