The Learning Space

In seventeen years the Phoenix resumes
like a prodigal hellbent it consumes
and cataclysmic entombs once again
a cycle of doom time hides from our ken

our descendants, like our ancestors, stare
at the reddish night sky–sun doesn’t dare
to watch the destruction, the construction
of man in disruption, the corruption

buried deep where the elite try to keep
power but the hour has come to sleep.
And so now at the height of our glory
in our forum create a love story

and fill every moment we’ve been given
–and not by stacking fiat greed-driven
but kindly, misdeeds forgiven, renew
our souls, remember what we’re here to do.

Inspired by: Forum, Stare, Height and Prodigal

Love Goes On and On

My flammiferous heart ignites with you
hiking through coniferous woods in true
kinship. Yon distant pinnacle unbreached
the symbol of our journey’s end unreached

Inspired by: Flammiferous, Symbol, Kinship and Pinnacle.

Heartburn

Well I guess what hurt me most of all 
You were playing with my heart.~Wafia

What will it take to thaw my frozen heart
encasing the anger I’ve chosen not
to release, setting free with a wild sweep
the gamut of feelings a hurt child keeps

at bay, the only display finicky
at the table, my body brilliantly
telling them all chaos I can’t digest
but no one understands they are hard-pressed

the timelines shift I’m in the now I know
it’s all a game I play to help me grow
a rueful chuckle breaks the childish spell
and finally I laugh, the past dispel

Inspired by: Chuckle, Finicky, Sweep and Gamut

Featured image: Queens Canyon, Colorado

Rejection Slip

Silence is consent. And silence where life and liberty is at stake, where by a timely protest we could stay the destroyer’s hand, and do not do so, is as criminal as giving actual aid to the oppressor, for it answers his purpose.~Ernestine Rose

In the dark hours before dawn, I rise
and bid the ogreish nightmares goodbye.
Face in the mirror, hand over my heart
I pledge my unique gifts. I’ll do my part.

My soul’s obligation is to embrace
while saying I do not consent. This place
and time show clearly what is durable.
The fear and greed recipe’s curable.

Be light and dance, I am advised. Shadows
chastise and all that I’ve despised disclose
the work I’ve yet to do, illuminate
the poorly written script as it deflates.

Inspired by: Durable, Ogreish and Obligation.

Romancing The Night

Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.” – Alan Watts.

Hours before dawn my pup and I pace
under the glowing mirrored moon and trace
the trail of constellated starry cues
that summon intuition and infuse

my muse opening gateways in the night
illuminating ether my birthright
I’m back in tune each segment harmonize
walking the dark powerful galvanize

Inspired by: Segment and Back

Au Naturel

For decades (centuries), official media and government have been using their bully pulpits to publish lies and self-serving gobbledygook. To control what millions of people believe and think.~Jon Rappoport

The depraved united to skew the view
distort the facts, reliable truth coup
–when you own the press, it’s easy to do–
call me conspiracist as I break through

the queue of visitors led by the hand
through galleries constructed by broadband
and humming with that 5G frequency
that irritates my sensitivity

outside I go under the dazzling stars
as Moon and Saturn dance retrograde Mars
and then the sun reveals the crimson leaves
and yellows brighter than artists conceive

Inspired by: Crimson, United, Reliable and Visitor.

Rise and Shine

I realize I can’t pretend to sleep
to summarize the dreams I tried to keep
have dissipated and though I beseech
the walls between the worlds cannot be breached

and so I rise and open up the blinds
and leap into a dazzling sunrise
that lifts me up and joyously reminds
me: open my eyes, living is the prize

Inspired by Summarize, Dazzle and Sleep.

Abracadabra

Words cast spells. That’s why it’s called spelling.~Jake Thompson

The insubstantial gleam of sun is caught
in layers of clouds stranger than they ought
to be. My childhood memories of puffs
of white on blue, not tic-tac-toe by toughs

piloting tanks of toxins to spray high
over our heads until we choke and cry
while propaganda hoots, be lenient
calling conspiracy convenient

bespelled, entranced, word meanings fall away
without logic, dissonance here to stay.
It’s 1984 as predicted
reality is torn and conflicted

so you and I align and praise sunrise,
ground under trees, let beauty fill our eyes
and break the spell with our powerful words
singing with breezes, heeding signs from birds.

Inspired by: Lenient, Insubstantial, Gleam and Stranger.

Featured image: Duck landing symbolizes: “No matter where you put me, I will learn to thrive and make the best of what I have.”~Katelyn Wilde

Cutting Edge

I eat my peas with honey. I’ve done it all my life. It makes the peas taste funny, but it keeps them on the knife.

I hang out with a six-year-old, discuss
cosmography and medicine and thus
expose the lies of our entrainment-ken
nonsensical theories we must defend

because it’s so. Unravel all I know:
a tapestry woven by clever foes
instilling false beliefs like pretty fluff
we carry unexamined off the cuff.

Segue to dark: grovel, beg my liver
release the arrows stored in your quiver
anger tips venom-coated deadly aimed
to take flight, fell the enemies I blamed

and claimed have caused the ills in this moment.
This sore throat’s yesterday’s hurt bestowment
and weapons I’ve created to take arms
I release. I will not cause myself harm.

Inspired by: Grovel, Pretty, Flight, Segue, and Moment.

Featured image: Honey medicine. A little goes a long, long way.

Pierced By Morning

In the still morning light conquers shadows
to reveal fleeting mandalas wind throws
in the darkness. Red maple leaves exceed
their limits, untreed and tumbled to bleed

poetry and art. The sky echoes pinks.
Mallards feather trails of spiraling links
in water reflecting the willow’s weep.
My dog feasts on the scents, she noses deep

in sculptures of pinecones and needles rust
my battery’s recharged, senses upthrust
bliss bowls me over, no trepidation
this vivid autumn painting elation

Inspired by: Trepidation, Battery, Exceed, Lights and Shadows, and Bowl.