Patience rewarded

My husband named him Rocky, 

The tailless raccoon with the wounded foot, 

And has started leaving peanuts for him 

Under our deck, where the deer can’t get them. 

The stellar’s jays quickly figured it out: 

They swoop down from their favorite pine, 

Flashing their iridescent wings, 

And wait in the Rhododendron by the deck 

For their chance to sneak in and grab a peanut. 

Who knew retirement could be so entertaining!

Why create art?

The question asked, “why create art?” 

Has no one simple answer. 

I keep on painting, hoping to create 

Something beautiful, of which I can be proud, 

And with each one, when it’s done 

I feel, “Ah, this one; yes!” 

But later I come back and judge its flaws 

 Thinking it does not deserve recognition — 

Then, later still, with some, 

I return and see magnificence, 

And wonder if I’ll ever paint that well again: 

A never ending cycle 

 Of struggle, pride, embarrassment, 

Paint-overs and frustration, 

Marked with occasional and intermittent joy...

Before the dark, a dawn

My cherry tree again, her flaming branches 

Echoing the crescendo of colors 

 In the sky above my neighbor’s farm: 

My heart soars with the beauty of the dawn, 

Whose glorious colors now, just moments later, 

Have faded back to gray; 

Now falls the rain. 

Today, instead of “darkest before the dawn,”

We seem to have dawnest before the dark…

At season’s end

The aging actress’ rosy lipstick, 

Rubbed off with time and words, 

Exposing the lined skin beneath;

 A beauty all its own,

 Framed by the memory of youth 

And promise that lives on 

In evergreen leaves of script 

To be performed again in future seasons.

Separate to reconcile

Like the road ahead of me here, 

There may be times we have to separate 

To get around some obstacle 

That’s risen up between us:

 It’s good to step apart 

 And take some time to think. 

But if we fail to reconcile; 

If we cannot find a way to share the road, 

We run the risk of sabotaging the journey;

 Of failing in our efforts to help 

The world become a better, kinder place.

With time, leaves fall

I’d like to think that as we age 

The search for validation 

 Becomes a search for truth and honesty; 

That, like this cherry tree, 

Once past the time we’re bearing fruit 

We glow briefly with accomplishment, 

Then humbly drop all that we were,

 Letting it fall to nourish what may come 

And stand with vulnerability 

 Exposed before the wind in humble testament 

 To what has been, now letting the world see 

Both what’s beneath and what’s beyond; 

What waits on the horizon.

Blanketed by color

How blessed we are, to be enfolded in 

 So magnificent a blanket of colors in the Fall! 

It fills our eyes with memories 

 And warms us for the winter days ahead.