Things Unseen

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Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse # 101

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Elephants and grandchildren never forget. ~Andy Rooney

My grandmother spoke of things unseen

like southern winds through rustling leaves

All the stories some would dare not tell

Strolled her tongue like lovers on a garden dell

And letters never written to the world

Were placed in my heart as just a girl

Like graffiti’s true art on a northern wall

She shared explicitly her rise and her fall

Then all her secrets left one day

They rode her wings final flight away

Yet all those quiet convictions I still can hear

They live within me and whisper soft yet clear

For grandmother spoke of things unseen

And my heart still listens and my heart believes.

Dedicated to my maternal grandmother, Hazel Cameron Covington Odeneal.  She had a beautiful southern draw, and her stories were always wonderful and fascinating.  I lost her when I was only 13 years old to pneumonia in 1976.   She has been on my mind even more these days.   Please be safe everyone, and remind others that we need to be safe not just for ourselves, but for our family members at risk, our neighbors, and all the beautiful and diverse people with whom we share this world.   

Bittersweet

Linking with the Sunday Muse for the BIG 99th prompt hosted by the utterly amazing poet Shay!

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Love is a sweet tyranny, because the lover endureth his torments willingly. ~Proverb

We all begin whole

Ruby red cheeked

No scrapes nor bruises

Light with the seeds of hope

Held by the hands of love

Yet later that same love is also

The hand that slices us to the core.

Move Your Heart

Image by by Christian Klein on Pixabay

Linking with Earthweal for the prompt: "Beating the Drums of Change"

Life is its own journey, presupposes its own change and movement, and one tries to arrest them at one's eternal peril. ~Laurens van der Post

Sooner or later rocks get thrown into the middle of the pond ahead,

 and ripples flow out until they reach the edge

change is like that it pushed through

and makes all standing still have to move

do not be silent without a song

reach out your hands and move along

clap and tap and drum the beat

move your heart and move your feet

change is like that it does not stand still

it bravely journeys through where danger will

for sooner or later rocks get thrown into the middle of the pond ahead

and ripples flow out until they reach the edge.

The Candid Moment

Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse # 95

hosted by one of my favorite poets in the whole world

Shay!

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“A poet looks at the world the way a man looks at a woman.”  ~ Wallace Stevens

The world is a runway and poets are forever in a photo shoot

Clicking through the blue smoke

Of life’s illusions

Searching for the candid moment

seeing every heartache

parting the lips of unspoken words

And capturing every hidden truth

Exposing life and love

 naked, raw, and lovely

not for the eyes to examine or identify

but for the heart

to truly behold.

Life Holds Love Hard

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Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse # 94
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A man is not where he lives, but where he loves. ~Latin Proverb

Life holds love hard and eager to not  let it go

And love cups life gently with open hands

They kiss every night by the light of the moon

For life is nothing without love

Just an empty pool

That no one can swim

Cold like the arctic

Where bare feet cannot tread

Yet when love is ours to hold

We see it in everything that surrounds us

And we become both fulfilled within

and part of the blended beauty

that encompasses every step we take

I have held love and felt it

A hypnotic and powerful tugging

A longing that drives us to the farthest of places

And takes us back home safely again

And sometimes tattered and torn

I have endured many sleepless nights

To keep it safe and alive

Dabbed its brow with a soft wet cloth

To bring the fever down

Picking it up to keep it from danger

And at times I have had to let it go

Giving it the freedom, it surely deserved

And even then my love grew stronger

For life is nothing without love.

Best Laid Plans and The Best Boots Ya Got.

Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse # 93

Once I had plans tucked in my pockets so deep

To see the world and do the greatest of things

Like maps to a fortune and hopes only key

I would never let them out of my reach

No matter where I rested my head

I had dreams of better things up ahead

Then one day when the bluest sky was a deeper grey

I spread them out like fresh linen would surely lay

Somehow there were wrinkles that no iron could press

Not what my younger self would have come to expect

Sometimes life knocks you plum off your feet

Ruffles your feathers and loses your only keys

You just have to pull yourself up off the ground

Dust off your trousers

And wear your best boots to town.

My Name is Water

free use image on Pixabay

Linking with earthweal for the weekly challenge ~ water

The sea hath no king but God alone. ~Dante Gabriel Rossetti

My father is a sky full of clouds and he weeps

For season that shall never be

My mother holds to her bosom

All that is left of me

I flow to the farthest oceans

Through rivers tattered with waste

Hurting those I lean close to

By the ones that have chosen to take.

Hunters of Truth

Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse # 90

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“They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.”

~ Zora Neale Hurston

The poet’s heart is a fox that sees the world in darkness and in light

his eyes pregnant with possibilities and yet empty from the fight

It is an inner struggle to recollect and yet a hunt that drives him further from his home

A quest into the wilds of hunger among the many creatures yet still alone

You see life is sharpened arrows yet doves that shall fly far beyond harms way

It is the winds of a thousand storms, but one companion that keeps him safe

All the beauty within starlight and the hurt that blinds him from the seen

Are the questions that keep him hunting for a reason to believe

For the poet is a dreamer that ponders meaning while searching for hope in flight

And he hunts the darkest of forests longing to capture the truest light.

Colder Than Colorado

Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse # 87

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The naïve follow their hearts. The wise lead with their hearts. 
~Author Unknown 

Some hearts are colder than Colorado

And more than toes get frost bite

treading through that kind of cold

I learned that in the morning frost of childhood

And lessons learned early are not easy to forget

For even when we walk away

And find warmth in loving things

The sensation of losing feeling

And not being able to move forward

Can be a ghost that haunts more than halls

Freedom was a dream I mapped out in my heart

And then one day it guided me onward

Like a beautiful horse on it’s beaten path

Now I rest upon the softness of kindness

And that is where I choose to stay

And until I take my last breath on this earth

Kindness will be the choice I make.

Wising everyone a lovely holiday season, with a safe and happy New Year!
Merry Christmas Ya'll!

If you are up for one more poem for the prompt
click HERE

Calling All Gentlemen

Photography by Guy Kawasaki

Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse # 85
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Gentleness can be taught in the slow tender stroke of years

But in its essence, it is either already resting in the heart of its holder

Or absolutely nowhere near

You can lead a biker to a bar

But you can’t make him drink

And getting him to stop

May be harder than you think

You can place a kitten in his arms

But whether he holds it tenderly

Is out of your hands

So my advice to you is

Never hand a kitty to anyone 

Except a loving woman or man.

~Just for the record I have nothing against biker dudes.  In fact I find them quite intriguing, especially if they are not afraid to hold a kitten sweetly and enjoy it.~

Big Bites

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Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse # 84
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The real measure of your wealth is how much you'd be worth if you lost all your money. ~Author Unknown

There is a wealth in having deep empty pockets
cause the lessons of hardship
are a knowledge that sticks with you
like a warm hardy stew
you learn to take big bites when you have the chance
life is like that
it is all or nothing sometimes
a bittersweet surprise dessert
that we long to have 
but we cannot keep
and we all are hungry for more
so go ahead
and take a big bite
just remember to 
thank God for all you have before you
and don't forget to chew with your mouth closed.

©Carrie Van Horn 2019

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!