Thursday, May 23, 2019

Spring means graduations, flowers, yardwork: POEMS

                       Grandson in a crape myrtle years ago, graduated from high school last week.

a passing truck
painted like a zebra
--this quirky town
(Eureka Springs, '15) 
~ ~ ~ ~
                                                          Coreopsis and purple jew

QUATRAIN
Did Mama ever pray
when her children drove away 
"Dear Lord, they're yours now,
please keep them in your way."?
(April '11)
~ ~ ~ ~
                                                    Another grandson many years ago

the only thing
you will leave 
is what you create
(Tom Padgett on Wallace Stevens. Lucidity retreat, 2004)

~ ~ ~ ~

                       Older son with granddaughter who graduated from high school last week.

CINQUAIN
After
yesterday's wind
and rain, today's roadside
fields of mustard brighten the gray
landscape.
(Hwy 35 to Tull, April '19)
~ ~ ~ ~

                                                                  Google image.

THREE DAYS' PAPERS UNREAD
Resting
from yesterday's
frustrations, noggin-bump,
kin's graduation and a long
trip home.
(5. 17. '19)
~ ~ ~ ~


c 2019 PL, dba lovepat press, Benton AR USA


Monday, May 13, 2019

A 6th mission trip and the poems they inspired

                                                    A collection of UMCOR shirts

gazebo
facing the bayou
--secrets

PL, 5.10.'19 in Baldwin, Louisiana
on a mission trip to UMCOR
~ ~ ~ ~

sugar cane
a foot high
oddly-layered clouds
PL, 2013 trip
~ ~ ~ ~

spikes on his hubcaps
must mean
"Keep your distance"

PL, 2013 trip
~ ~ ~ ~

we drive under
the helicopter
different directions

PL, 2013 trip
~ ~ ~ ~

the yellow one
in the long row of houses
--school on spring break

PL, 2013 trip
~ ~ ~ ~
                            Inside the UMCOR Depot: bolts of cloth for eventual school bags


Geretta unpacking toothpaste for health kids, UMCOR Depot, Baldwin, Louisiana, 2013


c 2019, PL dba lovepat press, Benton AR USA



Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Spring: rain, birds --poems

Watching
the cardinal
casing the area
around the suet feeder. He
flies in.
~ ~ ~ ~

After
the ramp's laid,
I widen the flower
bed to include adjacent lawn,
dig grass.
~ ~ ~ ~

the old woman
wearing socks
with sandals
~ ~ ~ 

rain from the roofline
escaping
into the cellar
~ ~ ~ ~

Easter Monday
both our mailbox flags
are up
~ ~ ~ ~

a silent rain
droplets in the birdbath
the only clue
~ ~ ~ ~

                                                                   photo-C. Hoggard

untended
the leggy but leafing
hydrangea
~ ~ ~ ~

c 2019, PL dba lovepat press, Benton AR USA