My Writing & Poetry
garden row 4
https://www.angelfire.com/yt/gardenofpoetry/tongue.html
CLICK here for a special group of my poems:
https://www.angelfire.com/yt/gardenofpoetry/tongue.html
https://www.angelfire.com/yt/gardenofpoetry/tongue.html
Fingers
A contemplation on the many tasks done with our fingers.
March 11, 2011
cradling, counting, caressing
massaging, mixing and messing
bead-praying
card-playing
Poking, picking, packing
scratching, sticking and smacking
garden-seeding
Braille reading
pinching, prodding, peeling
fixing, finding and feeling
cab-hailing
hay-baling
pointing, painting, patting
buffing, boxing and batting
dirt-scrubbing
back-rubbing
sewing, striking, shaming
breaking, beckoning, blaming
corn-shucking
bed-tucking
twiddling, twisting, tapping
spinning, straining and slapping
ash-flicking
baby-tickling
So many more things that fingers can do,
But this is all I have time to rhyme for you!
ONIONS & REUNIONS
...my humorous twist on things that make us cry. I wrote this shortly after the death of my dear sister-in-law, Vicki - Mark's beloved older sister - October 2004
Allergic tears
bring kitchen blears
from horseradish, garlic & onions.
Nostalgic tears
for bygone years
at weddings, funerals and reunions.
What a cost
for love that's lost;
an outpouring of salty flurry.
You don't have to try
for a real good cry
to make everything go blurry!
It seems for me, that inspiration comes not from the stillness in my life and heart, but from the stirrings. While it is true that my musings and verses on things of nature quite often spring from peacefulness, it is the stirring or waking of the senses which bring forth the verse. I have found that when my heart and life have turmoil, the verses seem to pour forth! Here is an observance of this from 1980, when things were going well. Note the garden theme:
NO INSPIRATION
My poetry springs from wells, deep within my soul.
It blossoms from the seed of pain; plantings gone afoul.
Hope of happiness takes a turn for the worse!
That's when my heartaches bloom into verse.
Like water from a can, hurt flows from my heart.
Tears nurture the pain, the life of my art.
But, now I have nothing to plant, my soul has no pain-
no inspiration to drive me insane!
This picture was taken on my wedding day. We were married at Columbus City Hall in April of 1972. My marriage was short, but I had a lot of inspiration as I described in the poem above. During that year and a half, I wrote a great deal of poetry, to deal with the pain of heartbreak. Had I not loved,
my heart would not have broken. I do not regret that love.
When I first started dating my husband, he drove a bright orange 1963 Rambler, with the rear end jacked up. I was riding with my car pooling co-worker one day when I saw him go driving down the street. The butterflies in my stomache at the sight of him, inspired this short poem:
Hark! Mark!
I get buttlerflies
when I see you flutter by!
You and your scrambler Rambler!
FREE TO BE HELD BY LOVE
I do not accuse you of heart abduction.
I give you my heart forever and a day.
To walk away would be self destruction.
Knowing that it's love, I cannot turn away.
4 Nov 1999
Yvette & Mark 12 Nov 1999
After a quarter century, Mark continues to be a source of poetic inspiration to me.
WHAT DO I SEE IN YOU?
What do I see in you?
You asked one full-mooned night.
At the time I could not answer,
Though I thought with all my might.
I was stammering and tongue-tied.
Your question baffled me so!
What I see that melts my heart,
I never knew I'd need to know!
What do I see in you?
It dawned on me at dawn, that I see
The earth & sun, the moon & stars;
For you are all the world to me.
22 Nov 1999
KISSING FROGS
They say you have to kiss a lot of frogs
To find the one that becomes your prince.
I first kissed you when we were pollywogs
And have kissed a few more frogs since.
Now you've come back and we're both in a fog
I hope I've left more than just lip prints!
For Mark on Valentine's Day 2000
Another one for Mark: I like to fix his coffee cup for his instant coffee in the morning, even before I went to work. One Sunday morning as the kettle began it's "screaming," I composed this on the spot!
CUPPA WAKEUPPA
Coffee Pot a'screamin'
Coffee wata steamin'
Gotta fixa cuppa
Wake my ol' man uppa!
9 May 2004
BLESSED UNION HAIKU
Mystical marriage
Sacrament and sacrifice
Two become as one
9 May 2007
This next one is for my daughter Monica and her friend Rae, who more or less wanted me to compose a poem on demand. They had just previously asked what a back-biter was, so I chose that word as my inspiration. This example shows my penchant for wordplay.
THE BACK-BITER 9 Jan 1994
The dog bit me; I cried to Mommy.
I bit him back, but no one saw me.
When I first started writing poems, I started with my idea, and just began writing. Quite often, I would end up with something completely different than what I wanted to write! The problem came from weaving rhymes into the work, that were not conveying the thoughts I wanted. I learned over the years, that in order to stick with the thought or theme that inspired me, I had to write what I wanted to say in prose or free verse. I then convert it into rhymed verse. Here is an example of the original in free verse, and the rhymed version. This is one of the few instances in which I liked the original also, so I kept them both.
THE SAVIOR'S SHIELD --free verse-- 28 Feb1992
The enemy of God
is being slain in our midst
.
Every report of a loved one
seeking refuge of the Savior's Shield
brings such joy
that I can only weep
.
Feeble utterances of praise and thanks
pour forth from my own heart
but only silence gathers on my lips.
To realize that yet another soul
has been delivered from
the powerful jaws of death;
The soul for whom I have long labored
in prayer, is a great relief.
The Savior's Shield -
the Sacred Heart of Jesus -
offers protection to all who seek it.
But some know not where to begin.
We, therefore, must always be ready
to seed the words of encouragement:
"Take heart!"
The Sacred Heart -
the Savior's shield.
THE SAVIOR'S SHIELD --rhymed verse-- 5 Mar1992
In our midst, struck down
Is the enemy of God
That peace will abound
where evil once trod.
Every loved-one reported
Seeking shelter of the shield
is happily exhorted
in the Savior's Heart revealed.
My own heart is ablaze
for another's death destroyed!
Feeble utterances of praise
silenced on lips overjoyed!
Prayers, long and laborious,
Great soul-harvests yield
To the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
The Savior's Shield.
To those seeking intercession
And of kind words in need
We offer benefaction
Through our prayerful seed.
To them, we offer a start;
Encouraging words we wield:
"Take heart!" -- The Sacred Heart --
Safety in the Savior's Shield.
MAUREY'S COMPLAINT TO CRITICS 5 Jan 1994
Inspired by CHAUCER'S WORDS TO ADAM, HIS OWN COPYIST by Geoffrey Chaucer
Read my work; you may even criticize.
It may not deserve a Pulitzer Prize.
Even so, I'll not apologize.
My poems to you may be trite,
Too irreverent or too polite.
But only I may rewrite!
If you don't like my humble scribbling
And think you write BETTER dribbling,
Then DO IT, and quit your quibbling!
WORD SMITH
Until now, a poet was a poet
Was a poet--I had no favorite.
But then I read Stevie Smith
And she became mine forthwith!
LETTER TO GOEFFREY
6 Jan 1994
Dear Geoffrey,
As Elvis Costello has written to Juliet
I am writing my favorite court poet.
Nearly twenty five years, though intermittant,
I've called myself "Chaucer's student."
In my studies of your life and writing
the one thing I find most exciting
is simplicity of English - so direct-
which makes our language seem so perfect.
Our times and societies widely differ,
but some personal similarities, I'll infer:
Like you, a notary and civil servant;
to God and Church, I'm loyal and reverent.
Poetry courses through our veins
unraveling poetic yarn from skeins,
weaving stories and feelings in rhyme
whenever there's a moment's time.
We've muddled through hard times, writing
and came out better for the smiting.
Like you, past forty, I'm writing my best.
When I retire, I'll write, not rest!
I am in awe of the other aspects
of your courtly and public projects.
But I find most awesome, your command
of the English language then at hand.
That English tongue was diametrically
overshadowed academically
by French and Latin in it's own English land
struggling for linguistic upper hand.
It might have happened all the same
if someone else had fanned the flame
which propelled English world-wise
to the height it now occupies.
Geoffrey, it couldn't have happned any too soon!
Did you know English has been spoken on the moon?
Your writings were great "public relations"
that set the language in animation.
So, Geoffrey, now I'm sure you know
I'm writing you just to show
my thanks for that nudge you gave
that caused the worldwide English wave.
Thank you, Geoffrey,
Most Sincerely,
Yvette L Maurey
