Tumbled Words

It is so worth it, the picture that is just incredible!! I want to live wherever he does, I think.

Front Row Seat.

These words pertain to all of us. Even if you don’t read poetry, try to read this, even my non poet husband who usually reads or hears my poems read and responds, “What???” understood this poem immediately. It is very non-poetic, so to speak.

Untitled

Her bare arms
absorbed sunlight

sandaled feet
strolled a silent path
along unused asphalt

breathing slowed
to match turned pages
as she attempted to make
sense of coroner’s reports
and failed.

It was a sudden thunderstorm
rushing to overtake blue sky
that brought clarity,

Death often approaches with stealth
to capture the unwary,
it rarely makes a difference
why or how.

Just as clouds drop rain,
we drop tears,
both will be absorbed
by nature,
be it human or otherwise.

MeeAugraphie
01/24/08

Dedicated to C, a poet, who will be going through this sooner than later….

The vision of clouds absorbing our tears and releasing them as rain originally came to me when writing a short post for Memorial Day last year. It was such a strong visual for me that I immediately wrote a poem, Life Tears, that lead almost immediately to a new blog, Cloud Hugs, that will, in the future, be where my focus will go. For now it has just languished in a plain wrapper without the poem that will drive it. I have great intentions for it, but then all my intentions are great… but……….. and another but…. I have gotten better with follow through, though I still suck at it as all who have tagged me for things know so well! Who knows, I may just pull it off this summer when work ends for several months.

Let me foresee the future: Our house will sell to someone who will love it and Leon will earn enough money (and I will help) to pay to have the blog designed - and I, who have changed walls on houses as much as some of y’all change clothes for a date, will actually decide on a design for it. (Stop laughing you who really know me!) I will take the twenty or thirty ideas for what to DO WITH THE BLOG, tumble them around a bit more, and actually make a decision on which has the best chance to succeed. And… I will actually get it going. What a novel idea… No, wait, I have a novel in the works already, and it is not about clouds… a few tears maybe, but not cloud hugs. (See how easily I get sidetracked?) I will get my much wanted waterproof camera and our RV and get awesome photos of clouds between Florida and Washington — and post them for your enjoyment, like I used to on my “In the Clouds” posts. You know what, I can’t wait that long to publish this poem, I mean, I actually EDITED it again this morning after I wrote the one above… and we all know I edit little. This is a poem with a message. Forget about titling the poem above, just read this poem (trust me it is not all syrupy) and know why clouds are really in the sky and what a difference you can make!.. they are there for our anguish to make a difference.. (Note to Leon: next time you run an errand, you better take me with you, left alone, my words just multiply and rush onto my blog…..) Oops, he is already back…. I was supposed to be dressed and ready…. Will I ever change?

Follow the Sun

MeeAugraphie
12/25/07

Seeing the good in a small tragedy, living a dream. The following is what prompted this poem:

Our nephew has a sweetness about him, he has always made me feel special, can’t put my finger on it; something in the way he says, Aunt Marcia, in the way he accepts me though I sucked as an aunt. I never have gotten to see him a lot, but those times were special. He and our son were raised completely different, they are totally different in personality, in lifestyles. They are a perfect example of variety in people, and I love variety!

Our nephew has been into racing bikes and dirt bikes forever, it seems, never outgrew it, though he is only thirty. It is as much a legitimate passion of his as blogging and writing poetry is for me, as acting for Leon, as any hobby is for someone else. For ten years he has wanted to make a long jump. Now, I won’t pretend to know what constitutes long, but to me, the 70 foot gap he jumped his dirt bike across is HUGE. He jumped it four times. The first one was a bit rough, the second one he had to dump the bike on the ramp after jumping and it went on into a fence and lets just say his male anatomy, the very male anatomy that is normally credited with trying something extremely difficult, well, it got a bit of a bang… took him a while to regroup, so to speak.

Third time a charm, successful, and as awesome to him as he thought it would be - and then some.

It was the fourth that he did immediately that was a butt kicking. He gave it a bit too much gas on the ramp going in, by his account, and rather than the bike just going vertical, it starting going back on him, he had to push the bike away to prevent it landing on him… so he dropped 30 plus feet onto the hard packed dirt ramp. Broke his foot in several places, slid on his butt down the ramp, completely crushed one vertebra. Surgery is scheduled this week to keep shards from destroying his spine. It’s not going to be a picnic, that’s for sure.

The good:

• He lived his dream, he went for it!
• He will be OK.
• With the help of a morphine drip, he was able to talk to us, with clarity! AND - he was able to hear his daughter, now 3 and a half, open her Christmas presents via phone - and they are videotaping it.
• With rules in hospital so different now than when I grew up, his daughter was able to visit him yesterday and again today at the hospital!
• His girlfriend and daughter had good friends to stay with last night so they didn’t spend Christmas Eve and Christmas morning alone.
• There are people behind the scenes doing marvelous things while he is laid up, really marvelous.
• He gave his Aunt Marcia fodder for a post, grin, and a huge grin visualizing him making that jump!

You know I had to ask him, “Was it worth it?”

He did pause for a second, but then replied, “Yea, it was.”

The good there: he didn’t just throw the words out there, his voice indicated that it was a rough trip, that he wasn’t discounting what it cost him, but that he was glad he finally lived his dream. My tears are as much for joy that he lived a dream as in sadness that he is in such pain.

Keep dreaming y’all, many of your dreams are not as dangerous… S0! What are you waiting for?