lillian the home poet

A Glimpse in Time

September 13, 2015September 13, 2015lillian5 Comments

I press my hand into the rock
this cave dwelling of yesteryear
and yesteryears before that
hand in hand, exactly
living inside solidified.

Bending still,
my eyes turn upward
seek the crevasse,
its light
and breath of breeze.

Clouds stir
create, reform
amorphous ambivalent shapes.
A spirit courses through my fingertips
perhaps rides the wisps above.

And I understand. I feel. I know.
Those before me, before them
all are dear to her,
threads of life intermingled
tied to the earth’s core.

Me in 2003 — at Walnut Canyon, Arizona. The Sinagua people lived in the cliff dwellings within the mountain sides. This is me, putting my hand into a print in the cave wall — I was so moved. My hand fit exactly. I’ve never forgotten it. The second “picture” – my words, written next to the picture in my scrap book….”It is an amazing feeling of connection to humans of another time.” All these years later, still remember that feeling and it motivated this piece.

Plum Love

September 12, 2015September 10, 2015lillian6 Comments

sweet purple wet flesh
first bite of plum delicious
your tongue licks my chin

Blame

September 11, 2015September 10, 2015lillian4 Comments

See what you made me do.
your errors
your mistakes
your blunders
led to your explosions
at me

Summer Kiss

September 10, 2015September 9, 2015lillian6 Comments

sea salt licks tart sweet
your kiss, standing on the shore
waves crash, passions soar

The Visit

September 9, 2015September 9, 2015lillian6 Comments

House ready
spit-shine clean
bathrooms gleam
mirrors spotless
fridge full
door bell rings
and here we go!

Door slams shut
rugs askew
table strewn
bread crust strips
on juicy sticky countertops
legos here and there
quiet echoes everywhere.

Photo by Andrea Kratzenberg.

Time Descending

September 8, 2015September 8, 2015lillian9 Comments

I flung my arms out wide
to feel the wind
that sun baked day
danced, skirt billowing

cool sand between my toes

I stretched my arms out wide
to erase the fear
eyes locked on yours
step by first step, second, third

you chortled, giggling towards me

I curved my arms out wide
to envelop your leaving self
joyful sad, then turned and watched
the airport swallow you

emptiness descending

I raise these arms
tissue thin sagging skin
eyes search yours

name descending

shawl droops down legs
dancing somewhere
a thin filament

within this brain

disappearing into mist

The G-tarian Gnat

September 7, 2015September 4, 2015lillian5 Comments

There once was a gnat who hungered for gees.
He nawed and he nashed on narly young trees.
The nome, his old friend
warned the gnu round the bend,
he’s coming, use Deet, as fast as you please!

In limerick style:
3 long and 2 short lines, aabba rhyme.

Summer Bygones

September 6, 2015September 4, 2015lillian9 Comments

Sunshine and rainbow rain
banana popsicles and lemon-tart-ade.

Bumble bees with yellow jackets
dandelions and buttercups.

Short sleeved jammies that snap shut
jump on beds and never nap.

Oh how we’ll miss these special times,
the sunlicious days of summer.

We the Voyeurs

September 5, 2015September 4, 2015lillian7 Comments

We fly in this metal cylinder
to escape the city frenzy
and we still sit in the midst of it.
Hear metal belt click shut
and engines roar
feel the rush of air
from round blow holes overhead.
Nothing natural in this enclosed world.

Binoculars hang about our necks
a noose we choose to use.
Instead of trekking high,
step by step, from tree line to the sky
we ride a four wheeled bus,
now dusty from its assault,
on roads carved deep
into your very core.

We crane our necks
at white dots on mountain tops
adjust a rubber eye piece to our face
seek to magnify without a fuzzy blur.
Specs become horned dall sheep,
heads down to graze upon the rocks
unaware of human spies
with black binoculars eyes.

Last night, we communed with earth
faces up, we stared
into the cold black diamond sky.
One star jarred loose,
arced its way across the sky
as if to tell us in its glitter script,
you are the voyeurs within this space.

Denali National Park bus. The Kantishna Experience goes to the end of the one and only road in the park — to mile 92. I was struck by the magnificence of the land and its inhabitants: grizzlies (see poem Ursa), caribou, moose, dall sheep. And I kept thinking that we were the voyeurs, the interlopers in this incredible place.