NaPoWriMo 2019 – Day Twenty-Two

In the palette, the paint puddles,
ultramarine and sienna to make
a pool of clouds waiting
to float across the paper
dense and wind-feathered
The sky always comes first
the blue, not matter the shade,
brushed in where there are no clouds
and then the shadows and
water-filled density of them.
My teacher’s voice whispers
‘a little light red or yellow
to show the light’ and I agree
When all goes well my heart
rises up with the courage
to lay down the horizon line.

My first study of the Hudson as seen from Rensselaer, last night. Takes a bit to understand how it all fits together.

Clouds as I was leaving work tonight. A passing couple apparently thought – yup there’s a crazy lady taking pictures of the clouds.

It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.
— J.R.R. Tolkien

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NaPoWriMo 2019 – Day Twenty-One

There was stuff going on today, Easter, News, stuff, all kinds of stuff. So here we go at the last minute!

The water in the glass is clear
conforming perfectly
and perfect in its clarity
playing tricks with light.
Perhaps it remembers being steam
but it has never glowed
red hot as the glass did once.
They sit easily together
within reach of my hand
and being so ready
to answer that reach
strong and fluid and cool.
Quenching as they part
now I am the vessel full
and the empty glass
waits to be filled again.

Also, Mom gave me this folder she found at her house – full of drawings I’d done while in high school and some yearbook photos. Amazing!

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NaPoWriMo 2019 – Day Twenty

(based on a real encounter. PS it’s hard to take hair selfies…)

We Both Had Braids

Like wow, that’s your real hair
the young woman said,
having admired the color
and me, having noted hers
orange and pink tones
recalling a stylish dress
I wore in seventh grade,
answered – you mean the dark
and white, making grey?
I considered my mother’s
beautiful white waves
and told her how my
father’s hair had stayed
dark with silver strands
She said, you’re so lucky!

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NaPoWriMo 2019 – Day Nineteen

What a day and this is how it ended:

Coming home tonight
the yard already dim
and colors flown to night
an unexpected box
carefully set on the porch.
I gave a quiet thanks
to the postman who swung by
to leave the cardboard gift.
The label plain, gave no hint
so straight away, slicing tape,
then prying up the lid,
revealed a newly minted book.
Now I’ve no claim to need more books
But I drank in the aroma, deeply.

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NaPoWriMo 2019 – Day Eighteen

I had taken a week off my duties as Twitter-Aggregator (“I read twitter so you don’t have to!”) because sometimes you have to step back and regroup. Now it’s time to get back to it and to start trying to exert pressure again to get things done. It ain’t easy being ignored (and what else would you call a non-response from elected officials). For better or worse hope springs up again like daffodils after a bad winter.

All the time I was growing up
people in the movies
generally
did the right thing,
rose to the moment,
made the hard choice,
and even the bad guys
murmured their regrets
and whispered love for mom
in their final moments.
These days, that slaps me
in the face with each request
to send a crucial letter
to text or fax appeals
for the action so needed.
Sure, I think, of course.
Of course I will do that.
And then I wonder why
thousands or millions of
messages and words are needed
for a trusted leader
to do the right thing.
And that is the hardest
loss of all – where did it go
that “do the right thing?”
I don’t pretend that
movies are just like life
but if I have to ask you
to do the right thing
over and over and over
maybe I’m just asking
the wrong person.

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