24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
Sometimes, even the saviors have no idea
what it truly means to walk through the gates
of salvation & embrace a better tomorrow.
But it doesn’t mean we don’t care;
we just know the fight has been rigged against us.
That’s the first step in the great war; find out how
to level the playing field & the rest all falls in to place like
a puzzle just waiting to be solved. Cross the finish line &
hope for the best; the rest is up to the universe itself.
Stardust is the stuff
Of which we’re all made
What is the nature of stardust
What is its colour and shade?
The incandescent beauty
Of the diamond-dusted star
Is what all life is made of
It’s what we all are.
Eons ago all matter was formed
In the cores of giant stars
And now we specks of Stardust
Fight our petty wars.
Why do we create differences
Why do we feel we must
Fight each other, when we’re all
Made of the same Stardust?
,
Hour Twenty-Four – Above Image Prompt
The Best Naps
The best naps I’ve ever had
Were never on my bed
Where the duvet is warm, the sheets are clean
And pillows under my head.
Head lolling, body sliding sleep
in busses and ‘planes instead.
As students burning the midnight oil
We woke up in the morn
on books wet with sleep-soaked-drool
and pages creased and torn.
But fresh, we bounced, and went to class
in yesterday’s clothes we’d worn.
Now, when sleep is oft elusive
sometimes I do nap at night
When I fall asleep on the sofa
in the glare of the telly’s bright light
How deep that sleep, regular now
with eyes shut half tight.
But then I drag myself to bed
and shut my eyes to sleep
Alas, I’m wide awake now
and begin to count them sheep
All night long, I long for that nap
the memory of sleep so deep.
I still recall the email
An invitation of a lifetime
A chance to meet a top tier publisher
Her people reached out to me
I felt instant elation and sorrow
I had no way of getting to the meeting
It was a time before ride-sharing services
And no one from my area was going
I had to admit it to myself that it was not happening
I had to tell them thanks, but no
The day of the meeting, my heart sank
I so wanted to be there – to have had the opportunity to say yes
To have gone
But hours after that meeting had happened,
I met my now husband online
Had I gone to the meeting, I likely would not have met him
Looking back now, as much as that publisher meeting meant
I now realize that destiny had other plans
I would change the life I have now for nothing in this world
Even top tier publishers
Tell me that I can’t,
I will show you that I can,
I must persevere,
Don’t underestimate me,
Watch me as I prove you wrong.
Make me a cake with that
Marachino cherry tasting
almond extract
Make me some frosting too
You need all the ingredients
The eggs the flour
Not just the sugar
If you don’t put
all the contributions
you won’t have a cake
Just like a country
Needs more than the frosting
Heartrending.
That is my final word on motherhood.
We discuss the joy enough, often it is small cuddles, slight touches.
They finally did it.
Got it
Great stuff.
But if it weren’t for the sadness
The unpreventable accident
The failed test
Fall of the bike
Skinned knee
Asking why the 98th time,
Would it the sweet be so sweet?
I doubt.
Joy is fun
Fuel helping us trip the Etsy fantastic
Instagramming up our best.
Curated best.
That can be nifty fun, kept in perspective.
It also helps them hold the joy when they are old and the wrinkles and gray hairs poke through.
Remember that fun time,
Oh right.
Yeah.
But the pain and sorrows are etched deep, carved in past muscle, straight to bone
No picture required there folks.
That’s the character building stuff.
We all got some of it.
That mixes in with the joy and it makes magic.
Not just sorrow they grow up
Frustration they learn the hard way
Harridness if being human and not an octopus.
I really need to be an octopus.
Not just first place trophies and group hugs either.
That cauldron of good and bad and this and that.
Man
That’s meaning.
Yep, that’s the stuff
That’s the mother’s fuel.
Heartrending.
Give thanks and praise to Yah
Lets get together and be alright
One Love, One Heart
Copyright(c)2022 Roxann Lawrence
Welcome to the land where the rains paint the heavens grey
Grey to an orchestra of trees that sway in rythm to the whistling of the east wind, a collaborative birthing of sweet melodies
Melodies so smooth halting time and space, bringing mind and taste to a place where rivers unite as lovers entwined.
Entwined into memories unwound reminding of a man once known, boy maybe
Maybe it was he who once stood at the precipice
Precipice upon which stood the platform that encouraged his Conversations with the stranger
Stranger was he who helped put his wonder asunder
Asunder became like an enchantment discarded. No, he will never forget the day
Day now unfolding to reveal the essence of the visitation.
Visitation now becoming a regular, leaving behind a tear or two which he shed on a daily.
Daily has now become the reminder with reasons for the boy in the man to always see the man in the boy as he peeks through the eyes of time.
Time, the gift he carefully stored away in his treasure chest…blessed.
Attack of An Apple
‘Twas
two days
left ’til Christmas
when he dropped
me at
the
door,
leaving me
lost and lonesome,
a stranger in
an even
stranger
land.
People packed
like standing sardines,
trapped tightly in
a tin.
Panic
overcame
me, incapacitating.
Sweating, shaking, sobbing,
anxiety attacking inside
Apple Store.
As
we
left, he
asked would I
ever return on
my own?
“NEVERMORE!”
****A hay(na)ku is a three line poem where the first line consists of one word, the second line has two, and the third line is composed of three words. A reverse hay(na)ku is three lines composed in the opposite fashion, of three words, then two, and one word for the final line. In the 2019 Poetry Marathon, I created the “Mirror hay(na)ku” by combining a hay(na)ku with a reverse hay(na)ku. In 2020, I took things a step further by compiling five mirror hay(na)ku stanzas and calling it a Hall of Mirrors Hay(na)ku.****