Category: Poetry in Forms

Suggestions, Perhaps?

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Respectful Restriction

Gates open and close,
Allow entrance and exit,
But they also lock.
Sometimes there is no going
Through barriers facing us.

Neighborly fences
Can save us torturous pain,
Where parties respect
Limits that secure freedom
And borders are not breached.

The gates of morning
Let in the nourishing sun
Lighting life each day,
Night swift falls, portcullis like,
Calling us to wangle sleep.

We live between gates
Though we believe we are free,
The beginning, birth,
The conclusion, death, and yet:
Eternal resurrection.

In this beautiful
Time we spend between the gates
We should live – alive,
We should be real, with the gates
Of experience thrown wide.

We are who we are
And we can create our lives,
Miracles abide,
Even in the dark, some gates
Guide us to places we belong.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

Sometimes people wonder about inspiration. I took the photo this afternoon. I picked it randomly from a selection of several. Afterward, I determined to write a “GATE” poem. You just roll how you roll.

Before the Rain

Day Eleven – 2020 Creativity Project

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This birdcage is at least fifty years old, I had a dusty blue parakeet in it when I was very young. We had birds until Mom decided they were nasty. The mess did not fit her fastidious ways.

These short poems are all individuals. None of them is directly connected. Some were written at different times today. Some in my journal, some at the keyboard as I stood here in front of the screen. They are tanka, and of course, a lone haiku.

Some days hold torrents
In a loose embrace, then let
The sky-bound tears fall;
Sympathy for hearts broken
By losses too great to bear.

 

I could cage myself
Hide all the feelings away,
But emotions tend
To lead me often in life,
I am tender, edge of knife.

 

Secret reasons why
I keep trying to catch you
With a picture, line,
But you fast escape the ties
I might employ to bind you.

 

My heart breaks again
With an ache shot through and through;
The long loss of you.

 

I almost began
To hope for the future again,
But then I recalled
How the fires seared my skin
And things became ashes then.

 

Pieces together
Fit the pattern of quiet
Built on peaceful days
When all we needed, we found,
Within one another bound.

The rain came, bucketfuls at once, and walking the dogs was a waste of time. We only got soaked. I did walk awhile before alone with the Sony camera. It is nice to photograph whatever I decide.

I hope, as a prompt, you will create something lovely, and with love. All of us need more kindness, comfort, care.

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This scene draws me in, and I am uncertain why. I think the stark lines may have something to do with it. Mysterious allure.

God Bless and Keep You and Yours.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

2020/365 – The Reasons Why

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Why do I do Creativity Projects? This is not my first one and probably will not be my last. Why do I crazily decide to commit a year to come out in public with some work every day? Most know I regularly work, create most days without posting. Like now, I soon enough decide I should give up because there is a lack of engagement.

The thing is, I believe in LOVE, and believe in creativity as LOVE’s most actionable visible expression. If I do this – if I make myself produce something original each day of the year, maybe one person stumbles across what I am doing and is emboldened to create. If I inspire one to do something gorgeous and lasting out of LOVE, overcoming fear, that he or she would have left undone, it is worth my 365 efforts. The expression of ideas fuels changes in our lives – if we want a better world, we best be busy creating a platform from which it can be built and launched. The basis of a brighter day is LOVE.

I am not here only to make my things, to promote myself, I am here to move, encourage others to have fortitude enough to share their truth, their reality, in freedom and boldness. Together, perhaps, we may all move this populated globe toward an understanding of why we exist. Loving, supporting, helping, encouraging, accepting, inspiring, teaching, nurturing, building, nourishing, protecting, listening, cherishing, being friends, and companions together with every one of us – this is our individual and joint reason and purpose as human beings. We belong, all of us, we are precious.

We have what it takes to LOVE, and we should be busy about making it our business.

I hope that clarifies my mission and why it is important to me. It is no easy thing. The quit dogs me often, but I have never been one to give up.

Join me, do this thing yourself or just come back here when you feel the notion. I hope 2020 has taken off as a blessed year in your life. All the best in all you do.

This time do not let
It flow past you and away,
Capture it with LOVE!

I never know what will be until it comes, and I am grateful that this came in my journal. I like what it has to say. Have a great weekend. Fill it with moments to treasure and make what you dream happen.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan