A Prayer

A Prayer

by Beverly Lord

O God, please send him back to me

              Alive, and well, and strong.

              And God, please send him very soon.

Don’t make this war last long!

Please keep him safely for me

              Wherever he may go.

              Watch over him, and keep him,

Because I love him so.

Intimate Experience

by Gammiejoon

The wind blew me a kiss

              bending that yellow poppy toward me.

It landed on my cheek

              and instantly traveled over me,

              entirely,

              and through me, too.

Then onward went its laughing touch,

              and I went with it.

Now, we are both

              more than we were.

California                                                                                Caterpillar to Butterfly

by Samantha Hagler                                                            by Samantha Hagler

California, palm trees growin’                                  Butterfly has laid her egg.

Feel the breeze, the winds a blowin’                                    Her life is done, her line is said

Sandy beaches sun galore,                                                    Caterpillar hatches, eat, eat, eat.

Cause sun keeps comin’ more and more.                          Runs around on tiny feet.

Flowers, lemons, what a sight                                                Eat and eat, munch, munch, munch.

Their colors would light up the night.                                    Another leaf! crunch, crunch,crunch.

Here comes out the big blue younder                                   Shed, shed, shed its skin,

Now is the time, the air grows fonder.                   Shed its exoskeleton.

Don’t you think California is cool?                                       Run, run, run around,

I think California RULES!                                                     Run around without a sound.

                                                                                                  Spin my silk chrysalis                                 

                                                                                                  Time to become a butterfly

                                                                                                  Days go by but now, today,

                                                                                                  Lightens up the sky of gray.

                                                                                                  Butterfly, it has emerged today.

                                                                                                  Lay its egg, that tiny egg – it’s on its

                                                                                                  way.  To be – a butterfly.

Thursday’s Message

by Gammiejoon

In those places, washing floors.

              they have a work –

              unnoticed mostly.

Yet, at least a thing to do

Yes.  A work, a thing they do.

Gathering  wood,

              pouring water,

              writing sonnets,

              digging soil,

It does not matter what your work.

But how you bring yourself to do it.

Here, we nameless heros

              keep the earth, turn the soil,

              wash the clouds, rinse the rain.

              tender all the mills of time.

Our work is shaping all of us.

We are the stars as yet unborn

              those constellations

                            yet to be.

The radiant stars as yet to come.

Observing Grieving

by Gammiejoon

“This is grotesque,

              this feeling . . .”

Silence followed

              Then. . .

“It feels so foggy . . . foggy.

              I

              cannot

              grasp

              the

              thing.”

His hands began to fidget

              with his sleevecuffs,

              then to straighten papers,

              oddments.

So I laid my hands gently

              over his.

“This is new,” I said,

              “This feeling –

You are walking a new path.

And I am here to walk beside you

for whatever I can do.”

He relaxed and he sighed.

              but staring down before him

              he began again

              to relocate

              the objects

              there

              before

Soccer Mom

By Joan Gelfand

Six A.M. Saturday.  The big day,

Cut up oranges?  Check.  Dry clothes?

Soccer shoes?  Water bottles?  Coffee?

Beneath a cloud of down,

My thirteen-year-old and her flame-haired friend

Fall back to dreaming.

Early morning sky lightens.

Dawn.  Show time.

Here, in California, countless miles from

Wars that never cease

I breathe morning air,

Whisper a peace prayer.

              Keep the children safe

              Save the mothers

              Stop the killing

              End the war

Here, in California under a pale blue late-fall sky

A determined team of pony-tailed girls

Give it their all.

When these girls rule the world

Passion will ignite the Senate floor.

They won’t be afraid of a fair fight,

And cannot help but remember today,

When they came from behind

And had to stand their ground.

When these girls rule the world,

Judgment will take a back seat as they shout:

“Freedom!” and “Justice!”

I cheer each goal from the sidelines,

Dispense cups of hot chocolate, peel off layers,

Grateful.  For the joyous shouts of children,

For the dewy field,

For the valley,

For being a soccer mom.

Music/Dream Seven

by Joan Gelfand

Sing to me in sotto voce.

Sing rings around me like a tree’s

Rings show history, the years.

Carbon date me as you sing a ring around

My planet.  I am Saturn, and you a red

Vaporous ring mysteriously encircling.

Sing to me a cappella your voice

Hugs my body weaves its way

Like a needle threads its way through

Unknown fabric.

Your voice, calls to me, slicing like a ray of light

Exposing dark places.  Sing to me in a voice, deep.

Lull me, rock me, call me “baby.”  Take me

On your journey of desire and fantasy.

Piece me back together with your sharp tongue.

Cry out for me in a voice, warm as the sun.

Sing to me of things you will not say,

In rhythm and rhyme sing to me in three quarter time.