New windows in December: poems

EXERCISE
Jumping
from one sawhorse
to another, then down,
a squirrel forages in the leaf
carpet.
~ ~ ~ ~

MY KIND OF MUSIC
I hum
Beethoven's Ode
to Joy keyed to the drone
of the microwave's intrusive
motor.
~ ~ ~ ~

THE NIGHT BEFORE
Prepared
for snow and ice
by canceling church trip
only to wake up to sunshine,
brown leaves.
~ ~ ~ ~

HAIKU
dogwood leaf
on a snowman's
heart
~ ~ ~ ~

NEW WINDOWS
The 'zing'
of his nail gun
interrupts the quiet;
stuns, as the hi-fi plays Christmas
carols.
~ ~ ~ ~

BELOW FREEZING
Heat's on
but worker leaves
the door open each time
he goes out, even though I shut
it once.
~ ~ ~ ~

                                          Attic windows still must be replaced

c 2018, PL dba lovepat press, Benton AR USA

Thirty days has . . . . . . November --poems

                                            leaves  blown onto the south steps

Windy--

oak leaves settle

until the next gust hits,

& then they scatter farther down

the porch.--PL

~ ~ ~ ~

open window--

a passing train's whistle

on the cool night air

--Dot McLaughlin, NJ

~ ~ ~ ~

three generations

and the calico . . . Sunday

afternoon naps

--PL

~ ~ ~ ~

six-foot wingspan

the blue heron lifting

from algae-filled pond

--PL

~ ~ ~ ~

a vice-president's

new life as a chimney sweep

his colleagues all died

--PL

~ ~ ~ ~

another full moon

bigger   brighter   rounder than

any seen in childhood

--Dion O'Donnol, CA

encased in ice

limbs and lights sagging

Santa on the firetruck 

--PL

Cinquains by Pat and friends--Ted Badger & the late Lew Taylor

BIOGRAPHY
His dog
walked him to school,
and many years later,
one lay beside his bed until
he died.
--PL, from an obit
~ ~ ~ ~

BLIP ON THE SCREN
Life is
transitory--
a wisp of smoke soon gone.
Best then focus energies to
seek love.
--Ted O. Badger
~ ~ ~ ~

BREAKING WRITERS BLOCK
Write poems
like you pick plums.
Glean all that come to you.
Sort out the ones with flaws and worms
later.
--Lew Taylor
~ ~ ~ ~

CAROUSEL
Shuffling
the wooden herd
between storage spaces
resulted in the loss of one
pony.
---PL
~ ~ ~ ~

DOMINANT TRAIT
Science
can't abolish
our fallibility
because human nature always
prevails.
--TB
~ ~ ~ ~

DR. JOHNNY WINK, OBU
Satchel
in his right hand
paper in the other,
he walked to class memorizing
poems.
--PL
~ ~ ~ ~

EVOLUTION CONTINUES
Early
worms sometimes meet
birds, becoming breakfasts.
Some day hence all worms will be late
sleepers.
--LT
~ ~ ~ ~

c 2018, PL d/b/a/ lovepat press, Benton AR

A poetic salute on Veteran's Day

A SALUTE

It's Veteran's Day, and in my mind
I see the flags and guns aligned,
parading down the thoroughfare,
cheers and chanting everywhere.

With wholeness gone, but proud and free,
from wheelchair, an amputee
waves tearfully, perhaps through pain
and hopes it was not all in vain,
                                                   his sacrifice.

Memories--still vivid--swirl,
blitzing those who served at Pearl;
the Rangers now, though all old men,
smile proudly as they think again
                                                     of Normandy.

Gunner's mates, ensigns and chiefs
remember all their various griefs
and hells, awaking still to screams
of slogging through the swamp in dreams
                                                                   of Vietnam.

Returned to glorious accolades,
the troops of Desert Storm parade,
proud of their work in blinding sands,
defending Kuwait's borderlands
                                                   on Persia's gulf.

And in my mind's projection room,
I hear the drum's resounding boom,
reminding me of sacrifice,
of pain and death: the awesome price
                                                            of freedom.

PL, written November 11, 1989.

c 2018, PL d/b/a lovepat press, Benton AR USA

Blogging: 'mums & haiku

plants in for winter

Christmas cactus budding

in late October

~ ~ ~

red vine adorning

the bridge abutment--

approach both with care

~ ~ ~

after the crows,

small birds jibby & schree

--red honey locust

~ ~ ~ 

ecru over brown

leaves on the trail...…..farther

splashes of orange

~ ~ ~

6:00 a. m.

the cat & I both stretching

toward another day

~ ~ ~

an owl's whoawh

breaking the morning silence

over the deer stand

~ ~ ~ 

c 2018, PL, d/b/a lovepat press, Benton AR USA

Found poems from my readings

--formed from Bob Lancaster's, column, Arkansas Times, Oct.3, 2003
I.
history laughs
at our attempts to corral
it into a text
II.
history
only taught in the school
of hard knocks
III.
old timers
know history
by empathy
~ ~ ~

--formed from "Natural Light," an essay by Edw. Hougland, Harper's, Oct 2000

I.

the yellow-throat song

from the raspberry patch

--a pair of beavers

II.

the mink frog's call--

a raven answers

in similar voice

~ ~ ~

--formed from Bill Hall, editorial page editor, Lewiston (ID) Tribune, Oct.1.1999

a mother's knowing--
fury in grown child's worry
speaks to her of love
~ ~ ~

--formed from a letter in Birds & Blooms, Oct/Nov, 2005, p. 46

Mrs.. Cherry's
dilemma--how to keep squirrels
away from her pears
~ ~ ~

--formed from Rick Bragg's, All Over But the Shoutin', several pages, Oct. 29, 2003

I.
"Baby Brother"

never had a name,
making it easier
to forget him (p.67)
II.
much of the Old South's
in books on coffee tables
in Greenwich Village
III.
oscillating fan
blowing flies around
the living room (p.70)
~ ~ ~

c 2018, PL d/b/a/ lovepat press, Benton AR USA

blogging: poems of mid-October

CONTEST WINNER
Can you
imagine a
two-thousand, five-hundred-
twenty-eight pound pumpkin? How would
it taste?
~ ~ ~ ~ from ADG's News in brief, 10.1.'18

NEARLY THAT TIME AGAIN
HAMMER,
FARMER, BAPTIST
among election signs
along the highways in Saline
County.
~ ~ ~ ~

woodpecker eating

the rest of the abandoned

suet cake

~ ~ ~ ~

A LEAF AND A SPIDER WEB

Oak leaf

caught in a web

dances without a net

or puppet strings. It's a brown bird

flying.

After

a gust of wind

both the leaf and the web

that held it flew off, never to

return.

~ ~ ~ ~

Hearing,

then seeing, a

flock of geese flying west

on this early, first cold snap of

autumn.

c 2018, PL d/b/ lovepat press, Benton AR USA

Summer is a-goin' out, fall is comin' in - Poems & photos

Summer
left grudgingly
with an hour's thunder,
wind blowing still-green leaves from two
maples.
~ ~ ~ ~

wisteria
clipped from crape myrtle
sending up a shoot
~ ~ ~ ~

Stretching
for the suet
--to no avail--the finch
finally hops to a closer
branch, eats.
~ ~ ~ ~

A wren

flies to the porch,

then to the flowerbed.

A hummingbird whirrs in to sip

red sage.

~ ~ ~ ~

Baby

lizard dares to

emerge from behind the

porch box; I shake my footstool, it

goes back.

~ ~ ~ ~

across the sidewalk

dandelions facing 'mums

summer into fall

~ ~ ~ ~

brown thrasher

enjoying the suet

alone

~ ~ ~

Mother's Day hibiscus

Blogging with poems about 9-11

                                                                       Lest we forget

STILL TOO EMOTIONAL
Folding
pages of news
about 9-11
anniversary till I can
take it.
[2002]
~ ~ ~

bereaved families
their loved ones returned
piece by piece
             eventually
[2006]
~ ~ ~

World Trade Towers
"attacked...aflame...
aground
      &
medical teams,
volunteers of all colors
in hospital green
       &
two days later,
he pulls his "9-11" shirt
from a jumbled drawer
[2012]
~ ~ ~

The flag
billowed in gusts
of winds that moved cloud streaks
through the pale blue sky and across
the sun.
[2012]

SHUDDER . . . CHILL
Sixty
degrees on Nine-
Eleven, 15 years
since the bombing of the World Trade
Towers.
[2016]
~ ~ ~

JOURNAL ENTRIES, 2018
On swing.
Raining gently.
In the distance, a train.
Cloudy, almost breeze-less. Lest we
forget.
   
      &

the flag
dripping tears
of rain
~ ~ ~

c2018, PL d/b/a lovepat press, Benton AR USA

More August poems and photos

Door-side table, decorated for company

in a wobbly hand

her thank-you letters

83rd birthday

(my mom)

~ ~ ~

neighboring lawns die

above the red-brick fence

bougainvillea

~ ~ ~

                  My pitifully-blooming bougainvillea. Next year, I'll know to cut it 'way back.

from a pine needle

the raindrop shoots prisms

then falls

~ ~ ~

thunderstorm brewing

early morning looking

like late evening

~ ~ ~

predawn porch light

revealing both spider and web

in daylight, no trace

~ ~ ~

early morning trip

sharing the road with the crows

and their breakfast

~ ~ ~

Porch flag in the wind, August '18, Couchwood

spread by the winds

of midsummer

the dreaded thistle

~ ~ ~

Yucca

bloom buds rising,

expanding in sunlight.

One day soon, they'll become three white

torches.

c 2018, PL d/b/a lovepat press, Benton AR USA

It's August already? --poems & pics

Spirea cluster in summer

her dreadlocks

dancing in rhythm with

the jump rope

                                                          Last year's dianthus

60th birthday

his goal: running from Ola

to Little Rock

singing along

in the grocery store "...Once, twice,

three times a la-a-dy."

                                                  Billy at work at Cracker Barrel, Bryant

spinning

in thin air

the redbud leaf

venetian blind

slicing sunshine

labored breathing

after sunset

cicadas

and the gibbous moon

Happy hour at The Inn at Piggott--Hemingway-Pfeiffer writers with mentor, Pat Carr (center)

August first

finding a Christmas napkin

under desk papers

c 2018, PL d/b/a lovepat press, Benton AR USA

Summer poems & summer plants

Anthurium bloom

I SEE YOU!

Passing

through the house, I

spot in the shady yard

the V-shaped ears of resident

rabbit.

~ ~ ~

Baby's Breath from Mother's Day planter

TABLEAU

Robin

bathing in last

night's very-welcome rain.

A finch wades in, then out, then in

again.

~ ~ ~

Sage from Mother's Day planter

Faint sounds

of night insects

this summer morning. Rains

brought relief--and humidity,

no breeze.

~ ~ ~

Coleus from Mother's Day planter

MORNING

"Do, re

mi, mi, mi, do."

The wind chimes serenade,

the cat spies a lizard, the squirrel

searches.

~ ~ ~

Purple jew from the front bed

HAIKU

cicadas   tree frogs

and electric-meter wheel

steamy summer night

c 2018, PL d/b/a lovepat press, Benton AR USA

Unrelated --photos and poems for July

cool wind
crow calling someone . . .
                     something . . .
~ ~ ~

on the riverbank
in my own company
distant train whistle
~ ~ ~

droplet
hanging from a lily leaf
the damselfly
~ ~ ~

pergola's downside
after a shower
the wet chairs
~ ~ ~

the safety
of mother's underbelly
three-day-old giraffe
~ ~ ~

dolphins leaping
into the moon's silver path
quiet evening
~ ~ ~

listening
for the baby to waken
the day-long rain
~ ~ ~

counting forty sips
by the same hummingbird
before it flies off
~ ~ ~

a new nightwatcher?
no, just the full moon above
awakening town
~ ~ ~

c 2018, PL d/b/a lovepat press, Benton AR USA

SUMMER anytime, anywhere: a poem

                                    Sage from Gordon's Mother's Day planter

SUMMER
(rediscovered in LUCIDITY POETRY JOURNAL, Summer, 2002)

Pack up the 'wagon, we're leaving this town

with our kids for two weeks at Nebo's campground.

A giant Impala packed close as sardines

with two youngish children and two more pre-teens,

six sleeping bags, cots, and a blue-striped tent

--its raising is always a stressful event.

"Let's find the swimming pool," begs older youth,

and, finding the bottom too fast, breaks a tooth.

Tennis preoccupies father and sons,

while daughters, with mother, bounce, swing, slide and run.

The day Dad turns forty, mortality looms;

he gazes toward sunset through coneflower blooms.

At night when the katydids kickstart their tune,

we see near the table bright eyes of a 'coon.

One night when it's raining, the tent starts to lean

we move cots to center away from the screen.

Bacon and coffee, charcoal and woodsmoke--

aromas spread over each camp like a cloak.

Hiking and reading, card games, volleyball,

away from computer, TV and the mall.

Two weeks every summer till children are grown

make memoried pictures to relive alone.

                                                  Summer sunset in Egg Harbor, WI,
                                                          photo by Gordon Paulus

c 2018, PL d/b/a lovepat press, Benton AR USA

Sights and sounds in my part of the planet : POEMS and photos

A LIST POEM: SENSES
A plane
gardenias
birds
fresh coffee
cool breeze
~ ~ ~ 6.17.'18

                                                               woodpecker at suet cake

KNOCK ON WOOD

Chipmunk,

raccoon, neighbor's

cat, squirrels, ant-hills, blue jays,

woodpeckers, finch, titmice--so far,

no snakes!!

~ ~ ~ 6.5.'18

HAIKU

brown thrasher

bathing & grooming

for the longest time

~ ~ ~ 6. 14.'18

A brown

thrasher gleans food

from below the suet

feeder. I never see him in

the bush.

~ ~ ~ 6. 7. '18

Mother's Day plant (s) along the back wall

ON MY BUCKET LIST?

Never,

ever looked in

a nest to see either

eggs or baby birds--I'm missing

a treat?

~ ~ ~ 6. 7. '18

POPULAR DRINKING VENUE

A squirrel

at the bird bath --

all critters need water.

Why chase it off?? The suet cake's

nearby!

~ ~ ~ 6.5.'18

DRINKING, BUT NOT A BIRD

After

plugging up two

good-sized holes, I know why

the holes existed: there is a

chipmunk!

~ ~ ~ 6.5. '18

c 2018, Pat Laster d/b/a lovepat press, Benton AR USA

PEOPLE poems through the years

SPRING IN HONG KONG - '03

Tiny

ballerinas

rehearse their routines. Pink

tutus & tights and surgical

face masks.

~ ~ ~

FROM AN OBIT - '05

The task

of teaching in

a one-room schoolhouse: none

of the students were the same age,

alas.

Husband

gone to the war,

she cares for ailing mom

& two small children on her own.

Bravo!

~ ~ ~

YOUR BOSS IS CALLING - '05

Sister,

soon to retire,

wakens on a Friday--

she thinks it's Saturday, goes back

to sleep.

~ ~ ~

AMATEURS VS. PROFESSIONALS - '07

After

critiquing poor

haiku from the heartland,

I read Upstate Dim Sum. What a

difference.

~ ~ ~

NOW AND THEN  - '12

I swing

and inhale new

gardenias' aroma

thinking I should be busy with

something--

sanding

the dish cupboards'

insides so I can paint

or transplanting the moss rose, or

weeding.

Some days

seem only for

"being" and reflecting,

and this cool mid-May day is one

of them.

~ ~ ~

c 2018, PL d/b/a lovepat press, Benton AR USA