The Storm

  I woke 

wondering

if the world was ending

  I huddled in bed

listening 

to the back door rattling on it's hinges

watching 

the eerie black claws of a tree branch's shadow 

dance 

to a jumpy

off-skew rhythm

Lightning snapped

too many negative image photographs of my bedroom

I wandered the house

looking

for destruction

I marvelled

that four walls and a roof

create a pocket of safety

in the center of violent passion

This morning

the world is a strange loveliness

like a fantastic reality

like a gift

like sun on glass

Memorial Day 2010

Today I'm going to the city's Memorial Day ceremony to see my brother perform a patriotic speech, do a little bit of office work, some shopping in preparation for the trip to Virginia, have dinner with my family, do some housecleaning, maybe some reading?

But, it is Memorial Day and I'm not forgetting the real meaning of the day. 

In lieu of anything better to post... this is the poem I wrote for Memorial Day last year. 

In Memory...

Of all the men and women that gave their lives for this country.

Because they believed in freedom for their families

And for all the people they would never know who would walk this land after them

For their courage under fire

For their sacrifice, because sacrifice means hurt

For their willingness to die for something they would never see

 

For their families and friends who are privileged to live in the freedom they earned

Who carry the burden of a grief that will never die

And know the names of the unsung heroes.

The New Year

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year
'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.'

And he replied,
'Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!'

by Minnie Louise Harkins 1875-1957