Tag Archives: The Bardo Group

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Inspired by Poets for Change–Monday Meanderings

At The Bardo Group, they are hosting an 100 Thousand Poets for Change event. As part of this world-wide event, poets and bloggers are connecting at 100TPC.org and writing of a transformed world-a world where peace and sustainability take precedence over violence and throwing things and people away.

All it takes to participate is a post in a creative format, whatever that means to you – poetry, photography, collage, art, creative writing, music … you are limited only by your imagination! Would you care to join us by bringing your own thoughts on peace, transformation? If so, add your link at http://intothebardo.wordpress.com/2014/09/28/sacred-space-33/

Photo: David Slotto

Photo: David Slotto

 

My contribution:

Wild Fire

I play lilting music
in my heavy heart,
dream of blue skies
and the song of birds,

pay no heed to dense smoke
and nature’s dying
until I hear the mournful
call of doves.

It hasn’t been long since I first posted this, but it has become more significant these past couple of weeks because of a tragic, human-caused fire that had been pouring smoke into Reno. Although fire is part of the circle of life, it seems so tragic when it has been deliberately set. God forgive the person who did this.

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Calando–Writer’s 4th Wednesday

I’ve chosen a previously published poem from 2012 in response to my prompt for Writer’s 4th Wednesday over at The Bardo Group. Music lends itself to allegory.

Image: Wikipedia

Image: Wikipedia

Calando

Life lived in a minor key
incomplete
(not empty)
waiting for the final chord.

You walked alone
and yet the song you sang
(gentle, haunting)
lingers.

Dolce, my sweet friend
dolente, largo,
until alone, as you lived,
calando.

Photo: juned1.com

Photo: juned1.com

Using musical notation, this brief poem is about a loved one who suffered from agoraphobia. She died a few years back  from cancer. Many have commented on her life as wasted. I chose to believe she had her own symphony to compose, and it was full of a gentle, generous beauty.

Dolce-gently
Dolente-sad
Largo-slow
Calando-dying away

Agoraphobia is literally translated as fear of crowds. It is a type of social anxiety disorder.

Calando–published in my poetry collection, Jacaranda Rain.

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Keeper of Memories–Writer’s Wednesday at the Bardo Group

Photo: uuhy.com

Photo: uuhy.com

In musty basement dark
of that old house upon the hill
an old man finds a tattered leather case
(dimpled faux-finish, I now see)
caresses it as though it were his lover,
while I stand by and watch.

Gnarled hands fumble
at a rusted clasp that keeps
the contents from intrusion.
In spite of trembling that I know so well,
unwanted company of his later years,
he eases the lid on its loosened hinges.

Pungent aromas escape to fan
familiar once-upon-a-time remembrances
of when I was a child.

Images flash forward,
rape my ears, my eyes
and cold smooth surfaces, my touch,
so that a melding of sensations
hurl me back in time
to when I sat in expectation,
and listened to the quiet.

He brings the contents now to view.
No longer does she gleam,
yet there beneath patina tinged with tarnish
I smell music.

Clutching her now against his concave chest
he shuffles rhythmically across the room,
remembering, no doubt those evenings
spent upon the porch in twilight murmurings.

Once settled in between the cushions
of a tattered, dusty chair
he raises up the precious object to his lips and blows.
Diminished breath invades her inner being.

But I am overcome by remnants,
not of sound, but scent
that lingers still within the archives of my soul
in saxophonic exclamation.

 This is an older poem, which I hope will lend its title to my next collection of poetry.

I’m linking this to The Bardo Group‘s Writer’s Wednesday which I’m hosting tonight with the prompt for sensory description. The prompt will be available tonight at 7:00 PM PST. 

Photo: 123rf

Photo: 123rf