Thank you so much to braveandrecklessblog.com for inspiring and featuring my poem: The Salt Grows Heavy. The challenge was to write a poem based on NPR’s Books We Love list.
Click here to read the poem.
M.E. (Anacrostic)
Memories escape me…
You’d think I’m older than I am…
Autonomic nervous system misfiring…
Lucky I have a sense of humour –
Grief would otherwise be smothering –
I remain optimistic
Counsel myself to find the lesson
Every day is a question mark
Needs ever changing
Can I walk without aids?
Endure a drive in the car?
Past my time without overexerting?
Healing requires restorative sleep
Although, it’s been years since I woke up refreshed –
Letting go of such expectations part of the learning –
Occasionally energy comes in bursts,
Mostly, it’s a trick…
Yesterday’s self no longer exists
Energy a quagmire…
Longing does not equal capability
Initiative encounters brick walls
Too often I overdo it
Insensitive to my own reality
Stubbornly unwilling to learn.
(Myalgic Encephalomyelitis is the disease I’ve lived with for 10 years now. I’ve collected a few more to keep it company along the way, and, of course, had one or two issues to start with. Anyway, I was recently inspired to write an acrostic poem. I’m sure there is more left to learn about living with these challenges. Image my own, as usual.)
Remedy
In these inclement times –
fear stoking anxiety –
we seek anchors,
faith to carry us
Imagination offers an outlet,
distracts from the angst –
a creative reprieve
to lift our spirits
(Art my own)
Master Player
Not a team player,
Change likes to spike the ball –
first to the net, a master
derailing strategy
I sit on the sidelines –
age having dulled reflexes –
amused that I ever thought
I could beat such an opponent.
(Image my own)
We Are Mermaids
Severity of disease
defines degree of marginalization
Who will enter the darkness;
rub shoulders with despair?
Disability is entrancing
but doesn’t invite engagement
We are mythical creatures,
those of us whom fate has chosen
Passage aborted, movement
encumbered, we fantasize
about normalcy –
to be forgiven, just a day
That we might shatter
our barricades, and bound
carefree into the ocean waves –
like the mermaids that we are.
(Image my own, aided by AI)
Burrs
How many winter walks
ended with burrs matted
in curly Wheaton hair?
How you wriggled
to escape the grooming;
how we laughed at
jokester antics?
Your spirit still fills
the empty spaces
I hear the jingle
of your collar, catch
a whiff of terrier fluff
Pull on an invisible leash
whenever I encounter burrs.
(For our former, cherished companion, whose memory still lingers. Image mine)
Post-Celebration Pause
A wrapping paper remnant
glimmers beside sofa leg
Uneaten chocolates and
sugar cookie delights tempt
The chorus of voices
fades into mind’s recesses
The fullness of the day
tucked warmly within
The advantage of age
is the ability to imbibe
in the post-celebration pause.
(Wishing everyone the warmest of pauses this holiday season.)
Greetings to all
We’ll be celebrating Christmas with the family today. No matter what your beliefs or tradition, let me take this moment to wish you all the best of the season. 
May your hearts be full, and may peace find you. 
VJ
No Adjectives Necessary
Robin is absent
Winter’s silence
inviting retreat
Children embrace adventure
while I, behind panes,
watch fluctuations
await harbinger’s return.
(This poem was written for a challenge from my poetry circle: to write a poem without adjectives. Image my own).
Great Blue Flies In and Out
Heron steps into my dream,
cachinnating…
paradigm shifts,
and I am awake
brooding over
the invasion
remembering days
we lived in tandem –
Great Blue and I –
that Texan winter
I brace for Northern cold,
and heron, on departure, laughs
(Image my own)
One Woman's Quest 