Sunday, December 31, 2017

Another new year: two poems

Another new year

A SHORT WINTER POEM

Four bluebirds,
a sparrow,
balancing
in winter’s wind
on the thin
beautyberry
twigs, eating
what’s left
of the purple
frozen fruits.
~ ~ ~ ~

AND THEN I SAW IT WAS JANUARY

 (a Laurette sequence)

I looked around
some days beyond
December, found the year
had fled. Instead
the Janus month,
cold January’s here!

Oh, snow and ice
and bitter cold.
The north wind howls apace.
The schools are closed,
some churches, too,
but, oh! Bright winter’s face!

The old cat sleeps
 beside the fire,
 his paw above an eye.
 Before too long,
‘Mom Nature will
 blow January by.
~ ~ ~ ~
C 2018, PL, dba lovepat press



Monday, December 25, 2017

At the close of 2017: a Christmas Day poem

                                                              


A REFLECTION FOR THE END OF 2017
(an Octo Sequence)

In Advent, twenty-seventeen,
I’m doing what I love to do
at Ebenezer U. M. C.—
that’s play piano every week 
for worshippers and those who seek.
At Ebenezer U. M. C.,
I’m doing what I love to do
in Advent, twenty-seventeen.

Where needs and talents lie in sync,
I’ve always heard, a mission calls.
The Holy Spirit fingered me,
and I’ve been playing all this year,
selecting service music dear.
The Holy Spirit fingered me;
I’ve always heard a mission calls
where needs and talents lie in sync.

The church is fifteen miles away
with many curves and valleys, hills.
(My trusty Taurus runs just fine.)
At eighty-one, still sound of mind,
––my genes and angels have been kind––
 My trusty Taurus runs just fine
through many curves and valleys, hills.
(The church is fifteen miles away.)

As long as health and age allow,
I’d like to keep this music job
because I love the people here.
Unless the winter’s icy, wild
we’ll celebrate the Holy Child.
Because I love the people here,
I’d like to keep this music job
as long as health and age allow.



c 2017, PL

Monday, December 18, 2017

Third week of Advent: a poem



It’s Advent—twenty-fourteen now--
too many years since last I wrote.
I fill my time with hand bells, choir
--requiring diligence--and bills
and cats and house and med refills.
I fill my time with hand bells, choir.
Too many years since last I wrote,
it’s Advent—twenty-fourteen now.


I used to write an Advent verse
each year, till life got in the way--
especially after I retired.
I penned one novel, then one more.
Activities came to the fore,
especially after I retired.
Each year, till life got in the way,
I used to write an Advent verse.



I hereby vow to take more time
to celebrate the Advent Child,
to live expectantly each day
as if the second-coming’s near;
make ready, leave no room for fear.
To live expectantly each day,
to celebrate the Advent Child,
I hereby vow to take more time.



c 2017, PL












Sunday, December 10, 2017

Second week of Advent: a poem


                                                          Advent

         I used to write
         a poem each year
         at this time, anticipating
         the Savior’s coming, but
         household chores,
         the yard, the holidays––
         I’ve made no time
         for meditation,
         writing, waiting,
.
         I hereby vow
         beginning now
         to take more time
         from this day on,
         to concentrate,
         to celebrate,
         prepare, like Mary,
         for the Blessed Child.
         Lord, help me live
         expectantly today
         and every day
         until the second-coming.
        I must make ready--
       again.
c 2017, PL







Sunday, December 3, 2017

First week of Advent, 2017: a poem

                    An Advent wreath. Advent is the run-up to Christmas in liturgical churches

Years ago, I began what I hoped would be an annual happening: writing an Advent poem in the Octo Sequence pattern touted by Mary Harper Sowell, former president of Poets Roundtable of Arkansas. The online instructions are different from what Ms. Sowell used, that is, the fourth and fifth lines of the eight (octo) rhyme. Mine are rhymed. This poem described my life twenty-seven years ago in 1990.

ADVENT: THE COMING OF A CHILD

This Advent will be more serene
since I'm no longer organist--
no preludes, hymns or antiphons--
and time I spent in pressured haste
is now revered as private space.
No preludes, hymns or antiphons
since I'm no longer organist.
This Advent will be more serene.

The yuletide bustle will be less:
my school choir sang an autumn show,
releasing yet another night
for shopping with the family
or entertaining merrily.
Releasing yet another night,
my school choir sang an autumn show;
the yuletide bustle will be less.

Just when the season's simplified,
a grandson comes to live with me;
one curious, crawling eight-month-old.
(Did Mary want to rail and  rant
when Jesus tumped her favorite plant?)
One curious, crawling eight-month-old,
a grandson comes to live with me
just when the season's simplified.    


Published in variations, 1994
c 2017, PL

                                              The grandson, a few years later. He's now 27.

Monday, November 27, 2017

Run-up to December - HAIKU

                                                                autumn-bare crape myrtle


AN OAK LEAF FALLS
INTO THE MINI-ROSE BUSH
WINDCHIMES' TUNE
~~~~

one month later
finding
my Halloween shirt
~~~

flying
into the birdbath
leaves and shadows
~~~

CAT JUMPS TO THE RIM
OF THE BIRDBATH . . . PERKS HIS EARS
AT A FLOATING LEAF
~~~

skimming
in the lake water
trees and clouds
(photo, S. Breidenthal, AD-G)
~~~

late November
beyond the bare tree, a flock
of blackbirds fly by
~~~

A THUNDERSTORM
INTERRUPTING
MY RAKING
~~~

grandson in a crape myrtle at The Wharf

c 2017 PL dba lovepat press




Tuesday, November 21, 2017

"Improv on 4 lines of Frost" - poem






IMPROV ON FOUR LINES OF FROST

It would take me forever to recite
all that’s not new in where we find ourselves,
to live once more on family’s old home place
now that my mother, your great-granny’s gone.
The house is mine, as eldest, to maintain,
and ours, my grandson, since you’re mine to rear.
Let’s walk around the grounds where I once played:
the chinaberry here, persimmon there.
Mulberry leaves outside my bedroom swayed
in wind, threw ghostly shadows on the wall.
That yard, which neighbors keep immaculate,
grew our potatoes, limas, purple hulls.
When I was six like you, this grassy patch
played host to jimpsonweed and cockle burr.
Back there, the woods, which some years Grandpa set
on fire by accident, sit tamed in streets
like suburbs. Muscadines, blackberry vines,
plum thickets, black-eyed Susans—all are gone.
I’m going to put you in your bed, if first
I have to make you build it. Come, the light.

c 2017,  Pat Laster dba as lovepat press

published in:
Lucidity Poetry Journal II, 2012
Grist (MSPS Anthology), 2013
Hiding Myself into Safety: Short Stories & Long Poems, 2016



Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Rain and other subjects - poems

HAIKU

rain
running along the roof line
away from the storm
~~~

CINQUAINS

Last night,
a thunderstorm.
This morning, pine needles
carpet streets and roadways like brown
velvet.
~~~

THE SAFARI ROOM-I
Couldn't
tell if it was
thunder or the traffic
this early Sunday evening in
Piggott.

HEAR ME ROAR - II
Thirty
minutes later,
thunder rumbled around
this building as if to say, "I'm
thunder!"
~~~





SHOO! (FLICK)

The rim
of my coffee
cup close to the fireplace
sports an Asian beetle nosing
around.

POST-RETREAT

Sleeping
around the clock
after a week away
with no op for my usual
naptime.

c 2017 PL, dba lovepat press

Sunday, November 5, 2017

Autumn photos and poems


Wary/ like a guard dog/ or the secret service/ Greye checks the yard with feline eyes/ then sits.


a flock of blackbirds
flying down to the cotton
no scarecrow around


Lady/bug lights on my/ puzzle page. Sans even/ a hello! I quickly flick it/ away.


A squirrel/ under the car/ forages for acorns/ abundant from the wind in the/ oak tree.


sunset
adding its colors
to autumn foliage
--Dorothy McLaughlin, from our calendar,
CONNECTING OUR HOUSES

c 2017 PL & DMcL, co-author's of Connecting Our Houses, a perpetual haiku calendar, out of print


Friday, October 27, 2017

Deep into Autumn: POEMS

# 315
While I
make coffee, Greye
sits apace staring at
his food dish--patiently--still as
marble.
~~~

#317
I watch
as a goldfinch
takes a long bath in fresh
water. Nearby, yellow maples
drop leaves.
~~~

#320
No birds
singing; so still,
the far-off highway drone
is audible--till a pickup
passes.
~~~

#323
Spider
webs everywhere
there're two objects to start
and end with. In one, two perfect
circles.
Builders
spun while I slept,
designed webs CD-sized
or old 45s--too fine to
capture
photos;
too sunny to
get close. What industry!
Examples of Mother Nature's
beauty.
~~~


c 2017 PL dba lovepat press

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Mockingbird and falling leaves: poems

HAIKU
mockingbird
sips the water
before its bath
~~~

Brown leaves
fly by the droves
into the holly tree
for good seats at the mockingbird
concert.
~~~

GOSSIP?
Early,
a mockingbird
gabbles to its world
from the dogwood tree, changing up
its tunes.
~~~

WITHIN SIX FEET!
Testing
my hearing, are
you, mockingbird, like she
did in real life with recorded
voices?
~~~

SEAT AT THE OPERA
High-wire
recitatives
and arias from le
oiseau moqueur amuse me on
the porch.
~~~

c 2017, PL dba lovepat press


Monday, October 2, 2017

Time for reunions - a poem

Kathy, Roxie, Janis, Bettye

REUNIONS

R  eunions--whether in families or for friends
E  voke ebullient anticipation or edgy dread.
U  nderlying our attendance is a vulnerability
N  atural to those who've grown apart. What if
I  'm too big, too bald, too bold, too shy? Will
O  thers accept what I've become? Alas,
N  o one is responsible for me but me.
S  ympathize, empathize. Life c
                                                   o
                                                     n
                                                       t
                                                         i
                                                           n
                                                             u
                                                               e
                                                                 s.

Linda, Carolyn, Kaki.

c 2017, PL dba lovepat press, from variations, 1994

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Autumn creatures & plants - poems

Dogwood at Dairy Hollow

ON TUESDAY
Monday's
spider not there.
Without going closer,
I strain my eyes for a look-see:
nothing.
~~~

PERSISTENCE
I douse
one large ant hill
in the stone-filled sidewalk.
The next week, an even larger
one's built!
~~~

TOO TINY TO SEE
Web from
holly to Norfolk
pine, but no sign of its
maker on this cool September
morning.
~~~

SAVED BY THE OLD WOMAN
Cat tries
to go inside
with a squirming lizard
in his mouth . . . "No, no, no you don't!"
I said.
~~~

MAKING THEMSELVES VISIBLE
Juvy
redbird, robin
fly into my vision--
one in the purple shrub; one in
the grass.
~~~

ALONE
Scruffy
fledgling redbird
has the "pool" to himself
after his sister abandons
her bath.
~~~

IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN
Maple
leaves--five of them--
fall, one at a time; one
after the other, nestle in
the grass.
~~~

AUTUMN'S HERE!
A long
blooming season--
those Encore azaleas
that welcome the sunny first day
of Fall.
~~~
~~~


                                          Spider webs are everywhere these days

c 2017 PL, dba lovepat press





Monday, September 18, 2017

Mid-September: poems

#299 'TIS THE SEASON
Drier
than at any
time this summer--yellow-
bell and wild coleus both are
drooping.
~~

#297 WHIRRING
I hear
a hummingbird
behind me . . . in a bit,
it pauses within view, then flies
away.
~~

#298 HIDING
Redbird--
its 'chit' constant
but undiscovered. Now,
it's moved from the dogwood to the
maple.
~~

#300 ON THE PORCH AT DUSK
Night bugs
providing me
with stereophonic
music--some from the east, some from
the west.
~~

#301 A FORUM
Goldfinch,
tufted titmouse
and a sparrow all bathe.
Why so many birds all of a
sudden?
~~

#302 INTERPRETATION
"I think
he (the Prez) means..."
Why does his staff always
feel they have to explain the things
he says?
~~

#303 LOSS OF A FRIEND
Spacecraft
Cassini burned
up as planned in Saturn's
ringed atmosphere after twenty
years' work.
~~
c 2017, PL, dba lovepat press - hummingbird photo by Thurman Couch






Sunday, September 10, 2017

Tiny creatures lurking about: poems

Tiny
hummingbird rests
on a beautyberry
limb close to the feeder. Next look,
it's gone.

Next look,
it's back again.
Third look, there's TWO of them.
How much longer will they stay, I
wonder.
~~~
PL, 9/10/17

At dusk,
week-eating grass
around the roses, I
look up: nose to nose with a black
spider!
~~~
PL, 9/9/17

The squirrel
forages in
the wagon full of grass
clippings and irises' brown tips.
Surely,

with all
the pear leavings
thrown into the hedge row,
it's not hungry. It scampered off,
mouth full.
~~~
PL, 9/9/17

Juvy
redbird, robin
visit Couchwood today--
one in the purple shrub, one in
the grass.
~~~
PL,  9/9/17


Thursday, August 24, 2017

Pears, pears, pears, pears, working up the pears

 Second wagonload of wind-fall pears, August '17
pear petals
drifted
against the fence
--by Susan Delphine Delaney
from Facebook. Used with permission
~~~
a buzz
from the pail of pears
that need “working up”
--sycamore’s mottled bark, October monthly, 2012
~~~
bountiful harvest
one leaf and one pear still hang
on the ancient tree
-- in front of the moon (2010)

CINQUAIN
After
the pear harvest,
the south wind wrestles one
recalcitrant fruit to the ground.
My treat!
--posted on Facebook, 11.13.'14
~~~

leaving plenty
of the windfall pears
to gleaner bees
--a patch of yellow, 2005

ping of sealing lids—
thought of winter preserves
eases today’s work
--Connecting Our Houses, 1997

c 2017, Pat Laster dba lovepat press




Sunday, August 20, 2017

Pear-motif poems

From my January Gimcracks, January 30, 2003,
drizzly morning
a lone yellow pear
in the blackness
~~PL

From Dim Sum, 2005/II, p. 23:
apple orchard--
could I have
the pear tree
~~Yu Chang

From day breaks, February 20, 2000:
pear tree
white explosion on
the blue day
~~(the late) Dion O'Donnol

LOVE POEM II
I just finished breakfast
--cheese omelet
with picante sauce,
coffee, milk,
and a ripe
(the best kind)
pear.

I thought of you
and your buckets
of blown-off-the-tree
pears,
not to mention those
that resisted the wind.

It does not take much
to call you to mind--
maybe nothing at all--
but the pear served
admirably.

I hope you harvested
as much good from them
as I did.
~~Reformed from a note or email sent by L.T. sometime during 2012.



Wednesday, August 16, 2017

A poem by Wendell Berry

DARK WITH POWER
Dark with power, we remain
the invaders of our land, leaving
deserts where forests were,
scars where there were hills.

On the mountains, on the rivers,
on the cities, on the farmlands
we lay weighted hands, our breath
potent with the death of all things.

Pray to us, farmers and villagers
of Vietnam. Pray to us, mothers
and children of helpless countries.
Ask for nothing.

We are carried in the belly
of what we have become
toward the shambles of our triumph,
far from the quiet houses.

Fed with dying, we gaze
on our might's monuments of fire.
The world dangles from us
while we gaze.

--from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry, page 28,
originally in the book Openings (1968) 

Friday, August 11, 2017

MID-SUMMER RAINS (poems)


AUGUST, 2017
T-storms
forecast daily
this week. Eek! New Orleans
is flooded. Are we next in line?
Not yet.
~~~
DELUGE
Blowing
rain--hard--pooling
in the grass; grays the street
and air. But--as if in a one-up
contest,

vicious-
sounding pickups
roar past angrily toward
somewhere. I sit under the roof
and swing.
~~~
AUGUST 1, 2012
Raining
just long enough
for me to walk around
the side of the house and turn off
the tap.
~~~

AUGUST 31, 2012
"Speed bump
ahead" sign just
above the floodwaters.
Boaters using other street signs
as oars.
      *
Remnants
of Isaac make
it to our state, with wind
and downpours, somewhat relieving
the drought.
~~~
~~~
c 2017 PL dba lovepat press    





















`

Monday, August 7, 2017

Several Etheree poems

PROBLEM
A
hummer
trapped inside
the screened-in porch--
it wouldn't be shooed,
hov'ring above door frame
bumping 'gainst transparent walls.
No butterfly net handy. But
an open wire hanger just might work:
hook red feeder on open door. Voila!
1997 ~~~

FRUGALITY
I
go through
coupons clipped
four months ago
from papers' inserts,
note expiration dates--
some 3 months old, some three days
past, which I separate and trash,
add current ones, still full of the hope
that I might save a dime or two next trip.
1998~~

THE SWIM SUIT AD
You
see this
bathing suit?
Now, do you see
the model pictured?
Is she a size 16
in women's, for heaven's sake?
More like a 6, but hey, her top
enhances her like mine: it smashes;
the waist minimizer feature doesn't!
2000~~

DR. JOHNNY WINK, OBU
His
satchel
in one hand,
a paper scrap
in the other, the
English professor walks
to class on the city's bike
trail and memorizes poems.
Once, I offered him a found pencil.
"Thanks. Some student always comes without one."
2001~~

c 2017 PL, dba lovepat press