Thursday 4 April 2019

NaPoWriMo Day 4: Dying Of Duty

 

Sarah Morley


I am eight. I have not known death
Or childbirth.
Imperial brides, stoic women wedded to the Civil Service, are
Beyond my imagining.
"Bombay" rolled over my tongue, wreathed in mystery.
Arrested by pathos, drawn in by the pillar of cloud
Entranced by the nearness of God in the presence of his angels,
I came face to face with mortality.
"How can it be," I wondered, then, and now,
A woman could embark on a sea voyage
Close to her time, and die of doing her duty.
 
 
 

 

Wednesday 3 April 2019

The Cherry Tree NaPoWriMo Day Three

In the beginning,

Yesterday,

The sun gazed somewhat magnificently, from a bright blue sky, and

My gaze fixed tightly on the cherry tree in the garden next door.

I am certain, as I gaze in wonder, that the day is perfect.

There have been warmer days. Oh yes. On those, I would not leave the coolcave

That is the thick inner room of my English cottage, until the sun had passed over.

There have been days in more exotic places. Forgive me.

If I am, right now, standing besides a cascade in a rain forest, near Oahu

Or leaning over the Tsitsa Falls, near Mtata, with my Xhosa friends.

I am moving now to the school house in Talkeetna, Alaska, listening to the

Shrill Klaxon of the lumber train, from the security of the town library.

Oh yes, I have other lives to bring, and have lived them in superb gratitude.

But yesterday, I spoke God's language, on a frighteningly warm March Day when the sun shone brazenly from a bright sky.

And in that moment, the cherry tree was perfection, and my Self rose, delighted, in thanksgiving.

Tuesday 2 April 2019

Sort of Sonnet

OK, Look. This was As Far As I Got: ... Sorry.

Appear
Embark
Shakespeare
Plutarch

Bemused
Imposed
Refused
Disposed

Berate
Pursue
I'll-fate
Undo

Defied
Died

23:15 on Day Two of the, 'Poem A Day' challenge. And I got desperate ...










Monday 1 April 2019

First You Take A ...

First you take a twinkle in God's eye.

I don't know, perhaps being the Only One was

Too lonely, even for a Deity. So ...

In an explosion of imagination, it all kicked off.

 

Did She have to think about , for, like,

Eons? Imagining the juxtaposition of quarks

The spin of electrons and

The mass of a boson?

I doubt it.

I'm alert to the possibility that

God thought, one day, of Me.

"Now THERE'S a thing!" He pondered, "Let's do this!"

And out it came!

The firmament -

The waters above and below -

Stars, bears, whales and flowers -

(I am especially fond of flowers)

!

I don't expect that God had to gather, chop and stir

I'm Old School. I think They said,

"Let there be Light,"

And there was light.

And at the end of it all,

There

Was

Me.