A friend pointed me to this today and it is one of those poems that spoke to me right away. No need to try and figure it out. I love every line, wished that I had written them all. This poet is new to me and I can see that I am going to have to look for more of her work.

The Kama Sutra of Kindness: Position Number 3
by Mary Mackey

It’s easy to love
through a cold spring
when the poles
of the willows
turn green
pollen falls like
a yellow curtain
and the scent of
Paper Whites
clots
the air

but to love for a lifetime
takes talent
This is one of my favorite

but to love for a lifetime
takes talent

you have to mix yourself
with the strange
beauty of someone
else
wake each morning
for 72,000
mornings in
a row so
breathed and
bound and
tangled
that you can hardly
sort out
your arms
and
legs

Click here to read the rest of the poem.

Also check out this week’s list poem’s from the Poetry Push.

Sara Lewis Holmes has the Poetry Friday round-up today.

A friend recently shared this poem with me as one of her favorites and it has quickly become one of mine too. I want to give something I have made to people who matter to me and need to make a space in my days to do so.

The Rights

I want to give you
something I’ve made

some words on a page–as if
to say ‘Here are some blue beads’

or, ‘Here’s a bright red leaf I found on
the sidewalk’ (because

to find is to choose, and choice
is made.              But it’s difficult:

so far I’ve found
nothing but the wish to give. Or

copies of old words? Cheap
and cruel; also senseless:
                          Take

this instead, perhaps–a half-
promise: If
I ever write a poem of a certain temper
      (willful, tender, evasive,
      sad & rakish)

I’ll give it to you.

— Denise Levertov

Dori Reads has the Poetry Friday round-up for us all today. Pour a cup of your favorite beverage and poke around at some of the great poetry that’s being shared today.

I had been thinking about Poetry Friday all week, trying to decide what to share but nothing spoke to me until this morning, when I came across this poem by Louise Bogan that made me catch my breath.

Zone
by Louise Bogan

“Zone” by Louise Bogan, from Poems and New Poems. Copyright © 1941, 1969, 2005 by Louise Bogan Charitable Trust.

 has this week’s Poetry Friday round-up!

I am reading William Stafford’s book, YOU MUST REVISE YOUR LIFE and will have much to report on when I am through. But for now I wanted to share this poem of his that speaks to me while I look for the hand of own muse.

When I Met My Muse

      I glanced at her and took my glasses
off–they were still singing. They buzzed
like a locust on the coffee table and then
ceased. Her voice belled forth, and the
sunlight bent. I felt the ceiling arch, and
knew that nails up there took a new grip
on whatever they touched. "I am your own
way of looking at things," she said. "When
you allow me to live with you, every
glance at the world around you will be
a sort of salvation." And I took her hand.

William Stafford

Irene Latham has the Poetry Friday Round-up today. Why not head over and see what other lovely poems are just waiting to be discovered?

It’s Poetry Friday! I love this "good worm" poem! I can just picture this hungry caterpillar munching his way thorough the yard to build his "leaf-green mausoleum"

The Caterpillar      
by Robert Graves

Under this loop of honeysuckle,
A creeping, coloured caterpillar,
I gnaw the fresh green hawthorn spray,
I nibble it leaf by leaf away.

Down beneath grow dandelions,
Daisies, old-man’s-looking-glasses;
Rooks flap croaking across the lane.
I eat and swallow and eat again.

Here come raindrops helter-skelter;
I munch and nibble unregarding:
Hawthorn leaves are juicy and firm.
I’ll mind my business: I’m a good worm.

When I’m old, tired, melancholy,
I’ll build a leaf-green mausoleum
Close by, here on this lovely spray,
And die and dream the ages away.

Some say worms win resurrection,
With white wings beating flitter-flutter,
But wings or a sound sleep, why should I care?
Either way I’ll miss my share.

Under this loop of honeysuckle,
A hungry, hairy caterpillar,
I crawl on my high and swinging seat,
And eat, eat, eat—as one ought to eat.

Toby Speed has the Poetry Friday Round-up today.

I’ve been thinking about my post the other day about claiming my poet self and went looking for a poem that might support that idea. This one by Jorge Luis Borges hit home for me.

BROWNING DECIDES TO BE A POET

In these red labyrinths of London
I find that I have chosen
the strangest of all callings,
save that, in its way, any calling is strange.
Like the alchemist
who sought the philosopher’s stone
in quicksilver,
I shall make everyday words–
the gambler’s marked cards, the common coin–
give off the magic that was their
when Thor was both the god and the din,
the thunderclap and the prayer.
In today’s dialect
I shall say, in my fashion, eternal things:
I shall try to be worthy
of the great echo of Byron.
This dust that I am will be invulnerable.
If a woman shares my love
my verse will touch the tenth sphere of the concentric heavens;
if a woman turns my love aside
I will make of my sadness a music,
a full river to resound through time.
I shall live by forgetting myself.
I shall be the face I glimpse and forget,
I shall be Judas who takes on
the divine mission of being a betrayer,
I shall be Caliban in his bog,
I shall be a mercenary who dies
without fear and without faith,
I shall be Polycrates, who looks in awe
upon the seal returned by fate.
I will be the friend who hates me.
The persian will give me the nightingale, and Rome the sword.
Masks, agonies, resurrections
will weave and unweave my life,
and in time I shall be Robert Browning.

Jorge Luis Borges

Liz Scanlon is hosting the Poetry Friday Round-up today.

This week’s Poetry Friday entry are the terrific poems from yesterday photopoetry of 15 words or less. Here was the picture:

And here are the poems.

Clinging precariously
Dancing in the sunshine
One big wind could mean the end
Such tragedy
~Anne McKenna

Like peas in a pod
They followed Bob
They, too, loved the magic of grass

~slatts

Attachment

One fine thread,
that’s all,
but it’s enough,
my friend
across space, across time.

~Kathy Q.
wordsrmylife

Fringe on the curtain,
swaying in the breeze.
Wait, those are lacewings
traveling by trapeze.

~Cindyb

Eggs waiting
to be hatched
to live
to kill
to love
to lay
to die

~Christine

BLIND DATE

"Me…Me…Me…"

She gazes
at the pendant
lighting imagining
him hanging
by his nose.

~Diane Mayr

Green Invasion
We disguise our ship
as earth-grass,
extending traps. Soon
we will capture aphid-beings
to interrogate.

~Kate Coombs

Swinging in a warm breeze
Faster
Higher
Stretching toward the sunshine
Suspended paradise

~Celeste Ribbins

Tiny Jewels

tiny jewels
don’t be fooled
hanging free
disguised as peas
waiting for their enemies.
~Sue Douglass Fliess

Safekeeping
Mother Nature
hangs lacewing eggs
like my mom
tied mitts on a string

~Violet Nesdoly
(http://line-upon-line.blogspot.com)

Deep into a fairy world of green
sliding
swinging
laughing
playing
loving
life.

~Linda Covella

Swamp plants upended,
cling to milkweed shores,
reaching with poised
buds to waiting water: home.

~Brenda Stokes
www.brendastokes.com

Fragile.
Delicate.
Wonderous.
Life hangs on
by a thread
in spite of us.

Tantinizingly Tenacious

~stu pidasso

How many greens
can be found-
values criss-cross
on the ground,
summer soup
of color.

~Diane M. Davis

Laura Salas, akalaurasalas  is taking the month of July off from blogging. She asked if I would like to host 15 words or less photopoetry for the month and I said sure! This is no pressure, lots of fun. If you’re not familiar with it, you can read the guidelines here.

Here’s this week’s picture. Do you know what they are? This is from my garden and I was so excited to find them on the milkweed plants today. They are lacewing eggs. Soon they will hatch and devour the legions of aphids that are waiting for them all over the plant.

What does this make you think of?

If you’d like to play, just choose any topic this image makes come to your mind and write a quick 15 Words or Less poem. Your poem doesn’t have to describe this photo. The picture is just a jumping-off point.  Basically look at the picture and write a poem of 15 words or less inspired by the photo. Please add your byline to the poem so I can include it in the poetry Friday roundup.

Go on. You know you want to.

This week’s Poetry Friday entry are the terrific poems from yesterday photopoetry of 15 words or less. Here was the picture:

And here are the poems
Tethered Lives
cornflakes and scales
hay bales
rabbit trails
bone rails -

we live in chains.

— Allen Taylor
@WorldClassPoet

Don’t know what it’s for
But over by the door
Hole there in the floor

— slatts

Break through.
Peer
Into the Darkness.
Or climb in
And find out what’s really there.

— Becky Levine

Trust, Adventure, Imagination
No one knows
what’s inside a hole,
emptiness
or a world of
jabberwockies
and hobbits.

— Diane M. Davis

CRAZY ARITHMETIC

one minuscule crack
+
one infinitesimal drop of moisture
+
one process of oxidization
=
one unexpected delight

— Diane Mayr

Sunburn
Dry peeling skin
made him groan
low and eerie
like midnight’s moan.

— Cindyb

Aim for the next
level–
Ready?
Set?
Leap!

— Kathy Q.
wordsrmylife

If Willy Loman Had a Sex Change
Death of a Suburban Mother and Saleswoman, circa 1950s

That iron did
me no good
I threw it
down

Done

To hell with
you

— Pamela Ross

Never listen to sixth grade kids -

"Put your nose here,"
they said.

Sucked in!

— Susan Stephenson

Fix – now please
For you never know
how big I will become
Maybe eternal ugliness

—  Anne McKenna

This week’s Poetry Friday entry are the terrific poems from yesterday photopoetry of 15 words or less. Here was the picture:

And here are the poems!
 

Lolipop
of lint and life
waits for wind
to disseminate
procreation.

~~~ Diane M. Davis

Shared Desire
Gray hair, untamed,
just like mine.
We hope for a breeze
at the clothesline.

~~~ Cindy Breedlove

This is proof–
even a flower
can have
a bad hair day.

~~~ Cynthia Cotten

I
am
so
beautiful.

Why do you
revile me,
repulse me?

~~~ mlyearofreading

A DANDY PLAN

She fastens
her children
to parachutes
preparing them
for an inconspicuous
invasion of
cultivated lands.

~~~  Diane Mayr

Helen meant to blow,
but instead she inhaled.
Then she spat and coughed.

~~~ jennifer-d-g

Sunships of wonder
waiting to ride
the breeze,
to create their own worlds.

~~~ Kathy Q.
wordsrmylife

together we grew
then the winds came
scattering us afar
it’s time
to bloom apart.

~~~ melissa

Wishing to be 5 yrs old again.
With wisdom
to know how great 5 is.
~poof~

~~~ Amanda

Wish

A hundred tiny wisps of hope
Waiting to be sent into the world.

~~~ Sue Douglass Fliess

Just one big blow
Fly away fairies
Bring back wishes
of hope,
happiness and love

~~~ Anne Mckenna

Sphinx Sperm?
Soft, white and tiny
dandelion seeds twirl gently on
a mythical breeze.

~~~ John Mutford
 

This week’s Poetry Friday entry are the terrific poems from yesterday photopoetry of 15 words or less. Here was the picture:

And here are the poems!

Watch your step
you never know where they go
way down
into depths of despair
– Anne McKenna

Watch Your Back
Planks remain bare

Poisonous vines
don’t tread visible paths

They climb directly
into your heart

–Laura Purdie Salas

Conquering
Breath catching
Heart palpitating,
searching depths
Mastering fear,
Take a step!
been afraid too long

– melissa

I’m so glad
I’m not Jimmy Stewart
In that movie
VERTIGO
Instead,
Here I go!

– slatts

The view–spectacular!
But now….

Spinning, spiraling….

Where’s Jimmy Stewart
when you need him?

– Kathy Q.
wordsrmylife

Round
and round
redwood tight-gripped
I wish
life
had so graceful
a bannister.

– sartorias
 

Wasn’t sure
where I was headed.
Pick a card,any card.
Life’s a gamble.

–  Martha Calderaro

Round and round
One step down.
Round and round
Two steps down.
All around. Ground.
– Louise Henriksen

July 9 Post – 15 word poem
Cycles, circles go around,
Until the way of dusty death and ground.

– G Grenley

Each day
fans out
from Summer
separate
but connected
in their uniformity
of season.

– Diane M. Davis

Steps too narrow.
Feet too long.
Thanks–
I think I’ll stay
up here.

– Cynthia Cotten

Board

Board, so bored,
with the same steps.
Time to stop looking back and go up.

– Sue Douglass Fliess

The Board Monster
Board monster’s here.
Couldn’t nail him down.
It spins wooden paddles
spanking kids in town.

– Joyce Lansky

Here I stand at the top of the stairs
Wondering which way to go.

– Barbara Van Deusen

Jama has the round-up of all the Poetry Friday posts today!
 

the body falls
into an upturned truth
its been waiting to meet
all its life

– Shutta Crumm

When I was growing up my grandmother always had at least one fuschia on the front porch….the kind you get at your local garden center. It was lovely and tropical looking and a wee bit on the finicky side to take care of. When I discovered the California Fuschia I fell in love. I couldn’t believe how beautiful and lush it was with so little water or attention. And talk about a hummingbird magnet! To see a large bush of them cascading down a bank looks like it it raining fire to me.

 

Once again, not really much brainstorming went on. I was just trying to get a draft of a poem together because, well, it’s late and I’m tired and I know I can revise these under less pressure. It’s not quite right but it captures the direction I want to go.

California Honeysuckle

roots hide in shade, cool
vining fingers search for sun
hummingbirds rejoice

— Susan Taylor Brown
      April 18, 2009

@copyright Susan Taylor Brown 2009

Read the rest of the Haiku challenge poems
 

This is one of the funniest names for a plant, Sticky Monkey Flower. I’ve read that they’re called monkey flowers because the flowers look like grinning Monkeys. You may or may not agree. They do, however, have very sticky leaves filled with nutrients for critters. I see these plants all the time as we drive to Santa Cruz, bright orange flowers popping up from in-between the rocks where it doesn’t seem like anything should grow at all. Of course I had to have them in my yard. It has its own butterfly…its own caterpillar…the checkerspot butterfly lays its eggs on the sticky leaves.

I have to say that I didn’t really do much of a brainstorm on this one. I read up on the plant a little bit, then got the last line first. After that came the second line and then the first. I was happy so I stopped.
 

Sticky Monkey Flower

sticky leaves hug eggs
hungry — not yet butterflies
laughing monkey waits

— Susan Taylor Brown
      April 17, 2009

@copyright Susan Taylor Brown 2009 

Read the rest of the Haiku challenge poems
 

I heard about this plant, Mountain Mahogany, long before I ever saw it in person. When we finally saw one, a full-grown specimen, both my husband and I fell in love with it. The unique flowers/seeds were a bonus for me. When I look at the flowers my first thought is of those 4th of July sparklers I used to love as a kid…the ones where you would write your name in the night sky and watch it light up. It’s great evergreen bush to small tree and a terrific cover for wildlife.

 The brainstorm

seeds burst into air
spring seed explosion
sunlit seeds explodes
seeds burst free
seeds pop in the sun
seeds burst in the sun
trails of white
white feathers
white streamers
floating
stream of feathery white
feathery white stream
leaving a feathery white stream
with a feathery white stream
swirls of sparkling feathers
swirling, sparkling feathers float
nature’s hope for more
seeds burst in the sun
swirling, sparkling feathers fly
somewhere a child smiles

Mountain Mahogany
from exploding seeds
sparkling feathers light the sky
somewhere a child smiles

— Susan Taylor Brown
      April 16, 2009

@copyright Susan Taylor Brown 2009 

Read the rest of the Haiku challenge poems
 

A few weeks ago we had an amazing adventure – thousands upon thousands of painted lady butterflies were in the midst of their migration and we were right in their path. I stood in the front yard and watched them zoom by in twos and threes every few seconds. They travel at just about head high and go straight, up and over, rather than around anything in their path.

I’m not pleased with this haiku yet. It hasn’t quite captured what I want but these are not yet finished pieces. They are more of a workshop.

Painted Ladies

irridescent flight
painted ladies on parade
vanish in the sun

— Susan Taylor Brown
      April 13, 2009
 

@copyright Susan Taylor Brown 2009 

Read the rest of the Haiku challenge poems
 

looks like a  pipe
smelly pipe
stinky fungus gnats
pollinating the pipevine
smelly like a pipe
smelly funny plant
foul smelling perfume
picky eater
picky eater butterfly
picky caterpillar
eats
chews
dines

California Pipevine

caterpillar dines
an exclusive neighborhood
swallowtail appears

— Susan Taylor Brown
      April 12, 2009

@copyright Susan Taylor Brown 2009 

Read the rest of the Haiku challenge poems
 

Coyote Bush is one of those California native plants you either love or hate. I happen to love it. It’s dependable as all get out. It is huge on the wildlife value. But some people don’t like it. The Native Americans had many uses for this plant, from medicinal, to making arrow shaft, to building houses. They also called them "fuzzy wuzzy. "I love the seed heads. They look like feather dusters with long silky threads. One of the most important jobs of this plant is to serve as a nurse plant, sheltering young plants that need shade and protection until they are old enough to stand on their own and it’s a great soil fixer-upper too! 

white silky angel hair
silky angel hair
fuzzy wuzzy seeds
nurse plant for degraded soil
nurse plants for baby acorns
nurse plant for tender seedling
reviving tired soil
exhausted soil
breathing life into tired soil
resurrecting tired soil
oaks
shelters baby oaks
sheltering young oaks

Coyote Bush
fuzzy wuzzy seeds
tired soil, revived, made new
shelters baby oaks

— Susan Taylor Brown
      April 11, 2009

@copyright Susan Taylor Brown 2009 

Read the rest of the Haiku challenge poems
 

There’s one thing you should know about this plant before you plant it in your garden – it actually shows up on lists of plants you should consider for security purposes around house. Roses have nothing compared to the thorns on these babies. We have three of them planted next to the house of evil. It’s a beautiful plant with long, tubular flowers which are pollinated by hummingbirds.
 

The brainstorm

necklace
thorns
pendant
hummingbirds
delicate
pink pendants hang low
pink ladies wait
pink necklace
protected by the thorns
protected by thorny swords
guard
nectar
sweet nectar
thorny swords guard the nectar
brave
solider
no fear
no deer
hummers have no fear
pink pendants hang low
thorny swords guard sweet nectar
painted pink ladies beckon
hummers have no fear

Fuschia-flowered gooseberry
thorns guard sweet nectar
only the brave win reward
hummers have no fear

— Susan Taylor Brown
      April 10, 2009
 
@copyright Susan Taylor Brown 2009
 

Read the rest of the Haiku challenge poems
 

This is another one of my very favorite plants but I don’t have it in my garden. I didn’t think there was room for it. Only now, after I have planted something else in the one spot that it could have gone, do I realize how much I miss it. I may have to sacrifice the other plant that is there just so I can find a place for this beauty. Trichostema lanatum, Woolly Blue Curls, wants to be left alone on a hill of perfect drainage and absolutely no summer water. Even then, sometimes it fails to thrive but it is worth the effort.

 

@copyright Susan Taylor Brown 2009

Read the rest of the Haiku challenge poems