Common Threads

 

To Morganton! 

Morganton, Georgia

4-wheel drive with traction to

get up the mountain 

Three-story house on

Ruby Gulch, wood-planked ceilings

but best: sparse decor! 

Do we take the boys?

They have boarding arrangements 

We can change our minds…..

 

Where to?

Vacation needed

Out of the ordinary 

Somewhere relaxing 

A Mandala Poem 

a bubble, a ticket, a leaf, a camera, a suitcase 

A Journey Mandala

a bubble in the babbling brook 
rushing down the stream rapids
over rocks and twigs –
thrills and chills 
holding on tight 
for the wild ride 
     like mine! 

a ticket to somewhere – 
anywhere, really, 
that a writer can think:
log cabin with a crackling fire 
leaves crunching under foot 
on the path 
to the front door 
like those ideas 
that crinkle and stir

a hidden camera 
in Trafalgar Square 
stalking the situations and conversations – 
a people watcher on a techie level 
studying human nature
considering all the lives lived

a suitcase – 
a keeper of
only what is necessary 
for the journey 
for traveling lightly 
    through this world 
      knowing that the best souvenirs  
        are the memories
         of presence in each moment

understanding, finally, what 
Steinbeck meant when he wrote 
“We find after years of struggle that we don’t take a trip; 

a trip takes us.”

Golden Shovel inspired by Anna Roseboro uses last lines of Billy Collins’ “A Terrible Beauty” and “Irish Spider.” 

Irish Spider Buries Terrible Beauty With a Golden Shovel 

I hear the swoosh of her 

text, click to see the latest 

manipulative photo: a dripping 

bowl of juicy watermelon, silvery

veined, picnic crown 

of the sultry beaches of 

Florida – now pure ice 

on the screen – but 

I’m not swooned by memories, not 

stirred by her fooling 

manner to lure me 

to be wooed by 

this narcissistic bully, not a 

puppet in her show a single minute

 

Poetry host Denise Krebs inspired us at the ethicalela.com Open Write to use a mentor poem in our writing today – so I used Billy Collins’ “Irish Spider” and a stanza from Kevin Hodgson’s “Short Thoughts About Writing” (stories don’t exist until we speak) in today’s poem. 

Preacher Dad

It was well worth traveling home 

for Father’s Day 

just to sit at the ancestral oak table eating piping hot chicken pot pie, 

sharing wine and stories- 

 

stories 

don’t exist 

until we speak 

to laugh 

reminisce 

remember 

and reflect 

as he pretended 

to be any old average dad 

father of two ill-behaved 

         preacher’s kids 

like God hadn’t given him an extra sprinkling of love and wisdom 

         for the task

but not fooling us for a minute! 

 

Denise Krebs inspired me to write a Langston Hughes “I Dream a World” poem today. 
I was visiting my dad over the weekend for Father’s Day, feeling blessed to have a father I love and cherish – and then, driving home I saw an umbrella being held by someone standing by a grave in a cemetery this morning in the pouring rain at 8:47 a.m. That image inspired my poem today. 

i dream a world
of no goodbyes
of love and kindness
in our eyes

i dream a world
of no regret
of no grief tunnels
to forget

i dream a world
of family peace
where arms, outreached,
make quarrels cease

 

Juneteenth 
emancipation commemoration 
freedom, liberation, celebration

 

Father’s Day

Off to St. Simons

Visiting Dad on his day

Dinner and talk time! 

 

Stories

Savor the stories – 

memories of adventures

that sustain moments! 

 I need vacation

I need vacation

Bar Harbor, Maine sounds perfect 

for about five days