Sometime After Midnight

There are times sleep evades me, and I find myself with too much on my mind. Sometimes I find words flow as if a vein were opened to allow rain.

Jottings

1.
Please hold me up close
Setting me forever free
From the loneliness
Which has homesteaded within
The loving heart inside me.

2.
I walk wild as one
Who feels a need for freedom,
But still welcomes love.

3.
Music it abides
A loving force freed within
My outstretched soul.

4.
Clouds cannot ever
Hide the glow of joy and love
Shining from within.

5.
Well met here again
The stranger who captivated
Portions of my heart.

6.
Heart, soul, now take wing
Follow abundance until
Love makes one captive.

7.
Cherish me richly
Up close, personal, no space
Between who we are
Who desire names our being
The perfection of loving.

As a prompt: If you find yourself unable to sleep, engage the creativity in your wild imaginative brain and make something of lasting value in the sleeplessness. You may find yourself served up a treat you otherwise might have overlooked.

Response Today

It has been weeks since
There has been any response
To repeated requests made
That he call me, talk to me,
Depression had settled in.

Then the phone rang with
His name filling its little screen
My son, my joy, all
I had been hoping for, real,
My heart, in response, joyful grew.

We talked and talked more
Everything I hoped for came,
Like the world was right,
Knowing he was well, that we
Remained like clones, years separately.

More than anything
Or anyone, he is special
The love never fades,
He is my happiest of happy
The brightest of fairest days.

Alex, if you ever read this, know I love you.

The PAD Challenge Countdown prompt today was “Response.” The fact life called was just a happenstance.

Strength

Quiet pours down, light
As the lock of hair
Grabbed and swirled round
Index finger and thumb;
Numb, numb, wilted
In the stifling of late day
March heat, barely able
To forego the house,
Walking buoyant dogs
Whose muscles ripple
Like a wake under sinew.
Ensconced uneasy in bed
Never invalid, never stop,
But the strength, it erodes,
Still, that is a no; push, go,
Various ways to give the ankle
Purchase to convey upright
This reason that is a being
Unwilling to acquiesce to
Anything against progress
Fighting always pain, doubt, fear,
“Begone, leave this one be. Strength
Remains, life retains, love stokes
The vision, all abides, stand – over-ride.”

The Prompted Positive Poetry prompt for today was “Strength.”

Elegy to 2020

Days lingered around
Gathered friends, family, rivals,
In groups, maybe thousands
Enjoying sport, music, spectacle,
Ceremony, exposition, oratory,
No worries, shared delight.
How we celebrated things
That brought us peace, smiles,
Companionship, competition,
We were golden, glitter bright
Stars feeling our fortune, filling
Time with all the joy we might.
But
Sometimes our privilege dies
A sudden horrible death
Which consequence we fail
To see in its full gory detail
Until it wraps itself around
Us, a constriction unwilling
To allow us any escape,
Nor let us go, it binds like
A straightjacket, unwanted.
Our homes, always sanctuaries,
Begin that slow movement
Toward a joint solitary confinement
Where nerves are nettled, become
Frayed, days without normal
Occupation become a distance
Difficult to travel hours through.
Now,
For ever-how long, it appears
The culture of the modern world
Has died an ungentle death
Beaten into submission by a virus,
Even more by fear, horror, panic
Of what might happen should
We linger together in the open
In shared embraces and friendly
Touches that communicate more
Than words, our empathy, and care.
Make no mistake, love is not mocked,
It will return us to ourselves for
Through everything it always
Finds a way, I believe love exists
To be our guide when things go gray.

This is not meant to be dire. The prompt on Poetic Asides today is Elegy, and I think the world will be different when it resumes business as usual.

I hope all of you are doing well and enjoying your weekend. I have been forced to stay off my feet quite a lot today because of my left foot, but I am trying to be up a bit.

As a prompt, explore your vision of what will occur when all the confinements are ended. Create something that expresses your vision.

Prayer Magic

As with God’s great love
We often live with magic
Sometimes like, equal,
The times we tell things, “Stay there,”
Or ask a door, “Please, stay closed,”
Or say a quick prayer over lost items,
That we find and praise the Lord.
We depend on God’s largesse
For moments of everyday blessing
Or taken another way His magic.

When love enters the plane
Of the mundane is a blessed magical
Occurrence that enraptures existence
Two opposite beings, often strangers,
Find commonalities that fuse them
In an alchemical combination
That ties disparate ingredients into
Agents who are loathe to part,
Only God could orchestrate all
The events and coincidences involved
With the magic that happens
At the perfect setting in time,
Magic, quite simply Love Divine.

So when our heads rattle
As if empty and our words
Become rare, let us not despair,
Think of how God is able
To provide every gift we need,
More generously and abundantly
Than we could ever request,
And pray the words appear,
No surprise, God hears.

The prompt for the Poem A Day Challenge Coundown on Poetic Asides today is “Magic.” This may be my final entry today. Four poems might be enough.

I hope all are well and healthy. May those sojourning at home during this hiatus in the world be gifted with prodigious creativity and a feeling of peace that embraces all their lives.