Proverb within a poem

It was easy, the dissolution, legally;
harder is facing the return to autonomy.
How much better our informal partnership
before we decided to incorporate.
In the reasoned light of hindsight,
a more viable option would have been
candlelit, covert meetings,
more passionate than profound,
more exotic than essential.
The rush to merger called down a
curse on hard-won, individual freedoms;
thus the union foundered.
Now, darkness conceals clandestine pleasures.

--PL, from delicious fatigue, 1992

My very first attempt at writing a poem

DR. G R E E N G R A V E

A ll alone in the
  B ig house a-
    C ross the street,
      D welt the
        E ffervescent,
           F lamboyant Doctor
             G reengrave.

H ow this
   I llustrious gentleman kept his
     J ealousy hidden from his
       K indred for so
          L ong is a puzzlement to the
            M ind of man.

N evertheless, because the
   O peration to remove a
      P ellet from his gullet--
        Q ueer as it may seem--
           R esulted in his green color, he was

S tung by unkind remarks of small
   T ykes who passed him on the street. He
     U sually became depressed and ended up
       V isiting his friends on
        W ard
          X, off the
             Y ellow Room, at the
               Z oological Gardens.


Maybe it's not a poem yet, but it was my first effort in the graduate class, Writing Across the Curriculum, Benton High School, Summer, 1984, taught by Sue Perry, to whom I will always be grateful.

Journey through July

"Weather Change"

Wished for,
begged for, prayed for
for days--finally the
summer weather pattern aligns:
it rains!!

         I could
         have predicted
         it for today: I woke
         up sneezing, dripping--always a
         sure sign.

The grass,
the flowers, trees,
rivers--and my car--all
needed a life-giving drink. Prayers
answered.
~~~

ACs off
and windows open
   --in July?
~~~

great slabs of bark
at the base of the oak
a pine seedling
~~~

mockingbird's
warning click and buzz--
the cat too close
~~~

Poems written on this year's Fourth of July

from Goodle images

 

Haiku

 

evening, July 3rd

the night bugs nearly as loud

as the fireworks

~~~

 

mockingbird using

its full vocabulary

this 4th of July

~~~

 

morning picnic

on July 4th

sans the heat and noise

~~~

 

mockers on both sides

one scolds the cat ... the other

trilling happily

~~~~

 

Cinquain

 

Independence Day

 

Early

July the 4th,

it's 60 degrees--cool

enough to don my terrycloth

housecoat.

~~~

 

Etheree

 

Celebration

 

My

July

fourth picnic

happens at nine-

thirty a. m., with

a hot dog (cold: yum-yum),

Frito Scoops, whole almonds, and

watermelon pieces. I can

view the porch flag, listen to the birds,

read the paper, exult in our freedoms.

~~~

 

c Pat Laster, written 7.4.'13, Couchwood