My wife informed me that today is International Haiku Poetry Day. Believe it or not, I was completely unaware! She heard it from good friends of ours who, chose to celebrate with ice cream. (Yes, we’ll be heading out to the local ice cream parlor ourselves despite the sub-fifty degree weather here after I post!Continue reading “Vignettes: Five Haiku in Honor of International Haiku Poetry Day”
Category Archives: poems
Orange: Poems Inspired by Color
I hate to waste things. The peanut butter jar is nearly empty? I’ll get the spatula and clean it out. (Makes it easier to wash out before recycling!) Have a few heels of bread? I’ll finish them off for breakfast. Is there a soft spot on that orange? I’ll cut it out and eat theContinue reading “Orange: Poems Inspired by Color”
Crimson: Poems Inspired by Color
Finally! After a long hiatus spent tending the various fields of my life, I’ve found my way back to the deepening ground. So much was going on here over the last fortnight, including closing out a marking period at school and multiple birthdays, that it left me little time to just still myself enough (andContinue reading “Crimson: Poems Inspired by Color”
Struck by Loneliness
A few years back, the start of my school year was interrupted by jury duty. Rather than welcoming students back to the study of Advanced Placement English or British Literature after another seemingly-too-short summer (I know, I shouldn’t complain), I spent my days weighing the evidence in a civil court case. In all, I onlyContinue reading “Struck by Loneliness”
Where Are You Positioned? Before, Behind, or Beside the Freight Train
Last week a freight train stalled my usual morning commute. Of course, in the vast scheme of things, the few minutes I spent waiting at the crossing were nothing. But coupled with two other events over the past week, I found myself asking the question that I’ve used as the title of this post: amContinue reading “Where Are You Positioned? Before, Behind, or Beside the Freight Train”
Elementary Matters: Not so Simple, My Dear Watson!
For purists, you’ll never actually find the statement, “Elementary, my dear Watson!” in any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s sixty Sherlock Holmes stories. As I read on multiple sites today, Holmes uses both phrases separately in the stories, but never together in this way. An interesting fact, but what has that to do with aContinue reading “Elementary Matters: Not so Simple, My Dear Watson!”
Filling the Void: The Power of Speech
In the beginning…there was a blank page. Sitting down to prepare Friday’s devotion for the speech and debate league our family has been involved with for nearly a decade, my first thoughts drifted back to those beautiful words in Genesis 1:1 – “בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים” (In the beginning, God created). In verse two, we read,Continue reading “Filling the Void: The Power of Speech”
Appreciating the Simple Things
Today, as I was sharing about my week while sitting in the Observatory with good friends, one of them leaned over to her husband and whispered something to him while looking out the windows behind me. I figured one of the squirrels caught her attention, hanging upside down (as they often do) on the sideContinue reading “Appreciating the Simple Things”
Snowflake Supplications
Usually, I put a hard stop on the day around lunchtime to just read or pray. It’s become a regular part of my deepening. This Thursday, I shut the door to my room and turned to face the windows overlooking the courtyard. The snow lazily fell from the sky until stirred to life again byContinue reading “Snowflake Supplications”
Practiced Faith
If I recall correctly, this poem sprouted from five word-seeds, including immutably, ineluctable, and ostensibly. I love the sound and weight of these words. On one hand, we’re told by writing “experts” to avoid overusing adverbs, but used fittingly (cough, cough), they add flavor, like any good seasoning, to the main course of the poemContinue reading “Practiced Faith”
