I will be taking a brief hiatus from blogging. My mother, who has Alzheimers and is in frail health, is in the process of being put into hospice care. She also lives with me in my home so caretaking has been difficult. It is a painful part of my life, watching my once vital, funny, and intelligent mother dying. I will be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, I wish you all happy holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and many many hugs and blessings. I imagine I will be back sooner than I anticipate because I love writing so very much. In the meantime, your prayers and good wishes are earnestly needed.
A blogger friend of mine – Sirena Tales – reported doing her 500th post. Wow. I was just amazed. And me being me, decided to check how many posts I have done as.of.today – 655! Posts fly when you are having fun. Happy dance, happy dance, happy dance!!!
THANK YOU Every one of you, thank you. Your comments, sharing, kindness has been an inspiration to me. Truly. And I know there are some of you muttering about all the poetry I’ve been posting. Don’t worry, I’ll start posting other things – again. Along with the poetry.
You see, I wrote my first classic haiku when I was six. I wrote poetry all through high school and university. I wrote poetry afterwards…and then – stopped. I began writing poetry again soon after I left the hospital after surgery for cancer. And while the surgery, anesthesia, meds took away my taste for seafood, it gifted me back the inspiration to again write poetry. I hope I don’t write any stuffy, twisted, complicated stuff. I hope I write something that will touch you as much as my prose has done in the past. I’m a simple person and so enjoy life. Being a cancer survivor does that to you.
My love of falling snow, blue skies, cherry blossoms, still nights, falling stars, being in love – simple things that bring such joy. I want to share those with you. Poetry seems to be the best way to do that, sometimes.
Don’t worry though, the recipes, the stories, the smart aleck Southern woman will be once again sharing this blog with the poetic Southern woman. BTW – this post makes 656 – woo hoo!!
Again my friends, THANK YOU. God bless you everyone.
Christmas decorations taken down,
Back in their boxes
for another year.
dark winter envelops,
at night, only lights from
stalled traffic and fast food
joints add artificial festivities.
Houses plain again,
yellow light from windows
– no more candles in windows
or twinkles from
Christmas trees beckon
a welcome.
Stale cookies dumped
into the trash or
flung out into the yard
for birds and squirrels.
I look out and sigh.
sunny day, clear blue sky.
The limbo between brown lawns
and blooming plum trees
stretches like an endless
road in the desert
diasappearing into
a bleak horizon.
and even on my website
the holiday snow has
stopped blowing
across the page –
that bit of whimsy
just….gone.
I want the power
to stop or start the snow again.
I want the light again.
I want the darkness
to turn into dawn.
Oddly enough, the latest commercial for Kentucky Fried Chicken brought to mind one of the songs that defined an age, a place, an event, a dream for love and peace: The Youngbloods – Get Together.
I was one of those at Woodstock and heaven help me, I do not remember much. My Cousin Billy and I were doing fine until the announcement blared out: “…That the brown acid that is circulating around us isn’t too good. It is suggested that you stay away from that. Of course it’s your own trip. So be my guest, but please be advised that there is a warning on that one, ok?”
I haven’t a clue if it was bad, I just know at one point, my consciousness merged with lots of other people and it was….epic. Years later, years older, years wiser, I look back at that time in my life as endless sunshine and beauty. Of course, most of the time it was pharmaceutically enhanced but….deep in my heart, that song has stayed with me through the years. It has defined me. I have shared the song with those I love either by recording or my poor little voice singing along while I play the tune on the violin. I must add, the drugs are long gone but the love still remains.
I took my husband with me to the 40th anniversary. He watched clips, gazed at photos, talked to folk like me. He is 10 years younger than me and was not old enough to be affected. In fact, he could have been one of the many children there with their parents!
In 1984, an ex-lover and I had gone camping to an almost deserted place on the shore of a huge, beautiful lake. The first morning, I awoke an hour or so before him. I walked out of tent and dissolved into the perfect and beautiful silence. The lake was mirror smooth. I went to the car and brought out the case with my violin, went down to the shore and sat down. At first, soft random melodies and then, it all came flooding back to me. I began to play this song. I gazed at the birds and clouds in the sky, listened to the waves softly lapping the shore. My lover came and sat beside me. “What is that song?” I began to sing the words and played softly. When I was through, I looked at him and his cheeks were wet with tears. We sat in silence and then he said, “Please, again. I remember this song when I was in university in Tokyo. But it means more now.”
It means more to me now. With all the hate, war, indifference, it opens my heart anew to loving one another; to doing those small acts of kindness that only another person is aware of, to do something to help another person. I don’t know who said this, but there is a quote: “No matter how small, no act of kindness is ever wasted.” You hold the key to love and fear in your trembling hand.
Well friends, my like button stayed stable for posts up to 1 day ago. After that…ker-SMASH!!!!
And my comments disappeared along the same time. WP, if you are really really out, I and others need some triage on our like buttons and comments….pretty please? Thank you.
My like button is being bad. I spent so much time reading and catching up to your posts and none of the “like”s took. My friends Seeker and Belsbror have told me the same thing has happened to them and another friend at How the Cookie Crumbles (Let’s cut the crap) has also shared this with me.
I can’t get an answer or reason from WP and they are usually very helpful. I’ll try again tomorrow on a different computer and see.
In the meantime, I LIKES you all….I appreciate your hard work, your posts, your sharing. I’m not ignoring you, I just can’t get the bloody like button to work.
kanzen sakura 