Wild Horse

Bound for a time,
Lightly.
My choice to fight my halter,
To kick against the pricks.
To break my pasterns against the stall.
Tangle myself in the lead lines
Of those who would guide me.
To chafe and bleed,
Wild to break myself.
Deliver myself to the nacker
With my desperate unruly ways.
Or shall I submit myself to Thee?
Shall I take Thy bridle,
Learn Thy gaits,
Bear Thy burdens?
Shall I humble myself to serve Thee?
What then?
Learn of Thy gentleness,
Let Thee take the stones that bruise my feet,
Brush away the dirt that galls my skin.
Be guided by Thy gentle touch upon the reins
From dangers I cannot see and do not understand.
Ever watched by Thy tender care.

Soulmates

I loved you and only you before I ever knew you.
There was a place in my heart the precise shape of you,
Just waiting for you and only you to come along fill it.
To fill up the holes in me, and let me fill yours
And the ones we can't fill, we'll give to God.
I dreamed of you and only you, knew your soul with mine,
I just didn't see you at first because I forgot
That your beautiful, shining, noble soul that I knew and loved
Would be clothed in an ordinary human body.
It seemed strange to me that something so wonderful
Could look like everyone else.
I suppose that place in my heart could have accommodated someone else,
It's an awfully big place and someone smaller could have gone there,
But then the gaps would still have been there,
Where the edges of ourselves wouldn't have met so perfectly,
The way they do when I'm with you.
They say there's no such thing as soul mates,
And maybe that's true,
Maybe there's other people out there that could have fit there,
but you chose me, and I've chosen you,
And that means before and ever after, I love you and only you.

The Fanny Farmer banana bread recipe, revised

First, I set the stage. I turn the oven on to 350, wondering why most everything turns out okay at 350. Then with a little butter, I grease the breadpan, wondering why everything tastes okay with butter.
I take my three bananas,
Soft and yellow with brown-flecked skins,
And release them from their bindings into the silver steel bowl.
I smash them methodically with the back of a fork,
six four-tined marks on each banana,
Then slowly mushed and mixed into lumpy-smooth golden yellow paste.
I take two white eggs, smooth and perfect,
And with a satisfying THWACK crack them
So that I can pour the clear white and good-morning-sunshine yolk
Out of their porcelain casing into the bowl,
Where they are blended with the banana.
3/4ths of a cup of crystalline sugar,
Sparkling, scintillating, sweet natural glitter.
It pours from the cup like the sands of time,
Measuring out life as we know it.
My Mother measured sugar, my daughters will measure sugar,
My Great-Grandma borrowed a cup of sugar from the neighbors and met my Great-Grandpa.
2 cups of flour, Soft and gentle. It flows over my fingers like silk, into the bowl. White flour is so elegant and refined, so adaptable to every occasion. Like Stepan Arkedyvitch Oblonsky in Anna Karenina.
1 teaspoon of salt. Salt is sharp, biting, on the tongue, on your cuts, rubbed between your fingers, but salt just makes things taste good. It's lively and warm and awake. It is the cure for insipidity, so often a trait of the aforementioned flour.
1 teaspoon of the magic powder, fine white Sodium Bicarbonate, so that the bread can rise.
I don't have a cup of walnuts or chocolate chips to stir in, but that's okay. It's quite nice without.
I mix it all together, it's lumpy, but it's supposed to be. I pour it into the pan, scraping with a rubber spatula, not wanting to waste any of the stiff, sticky batter. As it bakes it makes the house smell warm and sweet and happy, like a home should smell. And when it's done, we all gather around, eating slices of tender banana bread with it's crunchy crust, spread with soft, melting butter.

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed: A Girl's camp memory

There's a girl in the upper bunk
She's a chipper, cheeky chipmunk
Every morning when she wakes up with the sun.
Her bright, musical good morning
Gives us all quite ample warning
That soon our pleasant slumbers shall be done.

The essence, but not the feast.

The table is spread,
Heavy laden,
And delicious the air round about
But I, little I
Oh so hungry,
Must sit still by this window without.
I see it, and smell,
Almost taste it,
Hear the revellers merry and stout,
But I, little I
Am left wanting,
So cold and hungry alone and without.

Shadow of a rose

The sunlight, golden mottled black,
Follows it's predestined track
And soon will be white hot and bright.
But for a moment, captured quick
Within my minds eye's book so thick
Of lovely snapshots is this light
And the shadow of a rose across the blinds.

Dearest Heart

The question, clothed in reason's robes
Spread chilling fingers, dread microbes,
Multiplying, breeding fear
Once entered in the tender ear.
It fed upon a storied past
And whispered things so thick fast
That Faith, though strong, was overgrown
By chilling doubts so thickly sown.
Thus, Ill with worry, sick, sad, scared
To my God I limping fared
And found the courage, Dearest heart,
The whole of it to you impart.
And you, My love, so gentle dressed
The wound that smarted in my breast,
So patient smoothed away the hurt,
Without a word unkind or curt,
Though faltered brief my faith in thee,
You never once lost faith in me.

Allegories

I have been called the tender vine,
And Thou the mighty oak.
I would not thus your prospects blast!
Your strength and vigour choke!
I would we be more like an arch,
Supporting bridge or wall
With God our keystone and each oth'r
To lean on we'll bear all!

Critics

Too many love poems,
Write something new
That's what she said,
If only she knew!
All poems come from love
Why else the work?
Poems are hard
And easy to shirk.

the 29th's piece

Up and away his kite she flies
While he sits upon the ground and cries

The 28th's piece

Visiting friendly people

To be welcomed is a wonderful thing,
To be let into the warmth and love,
It makes my heart within me sing
A little home and peace from above.

The 30th's piece

The moment

The lupine and the balsamroot
The deer and ponderosa pine
The rolling green hills spread below
The tiny drops of rain

The scattered pattern, sunshine shade,
The buzzard soaring overhead
The baby 'hopper on your arm
The things you and I said,

They're fixed within my memory,
Like you are fixed within my heart
I don't know when or how or where,
But I know Who, Why, What.

To a cup of pureed garlic with a hotwheels van and a beheaded lego man

It sits there,
Smelling garlicky,
As pureed garlic must.
A poor defenseless hotwheels van,
Headfirst, mercilessly thrust
Into the Child's concoction.
And you, poor headless lego man,
Missing one hand too,
Did you ride this hotwheels van
To this Ramp-ant doom?

On the way home from work

I feel so proper, prim,
With the dainty blue and white trim
Of my umbrella bobbing overhead.
I feel so happy, bright,
Aglow with mischeivous light
As I splish splish splash the water puddle-ed.

Rachel

Rachel, Rachel,
Long you waited,
Seven years of tears.
Teach me, teach me!
To be patient
'Til My Dear appears!

The 24th's piece

This little purple rose
Is so delightful to my nose!

Class clown

Oh little boy,
You sweet-spirited child!
You're so afraid of something.
You're needing,
Wanting,
Hoping,
And it's so hard, so hard,
I can't see what it is.
What is it? What thorn is in your side?
What do you need to feel comfortable,
So that you don't need to giggle giggle nervously,
Squirm worried in your chair.
You're so unhappy though you're laughing,
The pressure's plainly there for me to see,
What do I do to take care of you????

the 22nd's piece

You're not here but I can feel
Your fingers in my hair
You're not here but I can steal
Your image from the air

The 21st's piece

A hundred years you've lived here
Since wrecking in the surf
This stretch of beach is your home now
The sandbar is your turf.

The 20th's piece

There’s a gentle rhythmic sighing coming from his corner of the van. His hands folded gently, his head drooping forward, his feet splayed upon the cooler, he sleeps. His overalls have ridden up his shins, gathering up just below his knee so that he looks like a little paper boy asleep on the daily news.

To a white butterfly

Delicate and quivering
You hover on the sweet blossom.
Roses arching over me
And you ever more above them,
A flower living on the wind.

Goodnight Dearest.

Before you never found it hard
To say "goodnight, goodbye."
He came and charmed away your guard,
Now endings make you sigh.

Give someone the beat of your heart,
Your love and stray-lamb thought,
Then you can hardly bear to part
With what you had not sought.

But give it! Give it! Do not shrink!
Though there a few pains be,
There's too much happiness to blink
At being part of "we!"

Escape into thought

Enough of the mundane!!
No more dishes and dirty floors!
I crave something less profane
Than fingerprints on doors!
Give me tetrahedrons
Or an aria by Handel,
No more boring old reruns
Of the "latest scandal"
I need a mental break
From dull insipid minutiae
Let me ponder the snowflake!
Whales from Nova Scotia!

Substitutions

I've written two poems today, but I don't particularly feel like posting either one. So I'm giving you an old one that I don't believe I've posted before.

Baby brother

Softly his hand explores
The curves and angles of my face.
Gently his hand reveals
To him the coars texture of lace.
Lightly he talks nothings
In my ears, a little nonesense.
Laughing he takes glasses
Of my face and moistens the lens.
Smiling he tries taking
What I am holding, like my pen.
Reaching he tries taking
And when he fails he tries again.

Happy shark

Hey there happy Shark!
Why the gaping grin?
Are you inviting me to play?
Would you like me to come in?

The Heron

Sleepy little froglets, wake up and run away!
Don't you know the hunter comes at the break of day?
His legs are long, his beak is sharp, his coat is blue-ish gray,
Wake up you sleepy fish babies, wake up and swim away!

Just a little longer

Taitai cat, I know you're sad.
You want my lap so very bad
As soon as I may I'll give it to you
But right now I have some stuff to do.

The student

Love! I have hoped for it, dreamed of it,
Pondered the very meaning of it
Observed the bright, smiling glad glances
Of those in the throes of romances
Read every and all books on the thing,
Well those I could read without blushing.
I've hounded, dissected, studied, learned
The confused, successful, giddy, spurned,
Yet none of it could prepare me for
The happiness for me Love had in store.

Wind

You are just like a child,
Tugging my clothes to get attention.
Tossing my hair until it's wild.
Using my earrings to catch the sunshine.
Howl and bluster away
When you aren't getting what you want yet.
Kick up the leaves in playful way
Before running over to the swingset.

Lavender buds

Slender tender palest green
Tiny buds with silver sheen
Two long years I've tended thee
Just for these I gladly see.

CTR class

Why do I have to make you sit still
When I know that you're longing to play?
I wish I could wait until YOU are ready
To say what I have to say.
But it's so very important dears,
I only have this short bit of time,
To show you a smidgen of all that is good,
The Gospel sweet and sublime.

Delivery

Okay, I did WRITE this one yesterday, but I was half asleep, so I just memorized it to post this morning.


Can it be so very hard
To say such a little thing?
Yet I keep circumnavigating
The words I want to say.

Worry Wart

Worry wart, worry wart,
Sitting on my thumb.
You remind me very well
Though your deaf and dumb.
Worry wart, worry wart,
Sitting on my thumb,
To my little doubts and fears
I will not succumb.

Self-control

I feel hurt and indignant, and my first instinct is to hurt back. I want to get angry, I want to say things that will bite as deep into your pain as you've bitten into mine. I feel it simmering and boiling as I hold my words back, focus my hands on the dishes, make myself be gentle, force my mouth to be soft. Some things slip out, my control is not perfect. But I can be happy that they are quietly said, not meant to hurt. I only ask that you don't test it. Don't push me. Don't keep talking. Leave me be to let go of the anger you've sown. I know it's my fault it had a chance to sprout in my breast, but I need some peace to uproot it, I can't do it with you shouting at me. I need to finish so that I can escape to my room and give these feelings to my Savior. For I would far, far rather give them to Him, to His understanding, let them be swallowed in His atonement, then allow them to widen the hurt between us.

Blinds

It's not my fault they hang that way,
Broken, bent and torn.
The kitty-cats have paved their way
To the window-sill worn.

Yes, it's the moment you've ALL been waiting for!

Every day in May is BACK!!!!! Okay, yeah....it's the fourth.....I forgot, okay??? But it's here, and it's awesome! So to kick off this month, here's your poem!


Homebound

Lights flicker by
My close-lidded eye
As we all swiftly fly
Through the deep and rainy night
And I sleep, though swift is our flight
In our vehicle silvery-white

Moderation in all things.

Oh Father, in this trial,
When he is far from me,
Father, take me by the hand
Keep my thoughts turned to thee.
For they would run toward him,
His green eyes glowing bright,
Lit from within by his soul
Aflame with Heaven's light.
Father, I know it's alright
To think often of him,
But only if I don't let
My thoughts of thee grow dim.

Peacefulness

I could have stayed there forever,
Within the safety of that place.
Inside the circle of your arms,
Your kind and thoughtful, warm embrace.

Revelation

I kneel beside my bed,
My decision almost made.
Only one thing left to do,
I have not yet prayed.
Before the Lord I lay
The path that I would take.
Peace distills upon my heart
My worried soul to slake.

View from The Dalles Veteran's Memorial

The water's blue,
The hills are brown
Slowly turning green.
The wind whips through
My hair, it's blown
Across the sunlit scene.

Swirling through the milky batter
Cherry red and golden
Paddles turn in dizzied dance
The delicate mixture foldin'

Rubber band

I feel my edges fraying,
The tension starts to grow.
Pale and thin the cracks appear,
Around my edges slow
They gather and they widen.
Soon one will go right through
To the other side of me
And I will split in two.

CTR!

Upon my finger slim and bright
A small reminder to choose the right

Attention

Staring at the speaker
His words go right through me
Like water through a ghost
No effect
My mind is far away from me
And though I keep calling
It strays.
Oh master shepherd!
Perhaps it will know thy voice.
Thy still small voice,
A feeling inside
to make myself my home again.
And not worries of the future.

Taco day.

Mom stood over the stove top,
Wreathed in spicy steam.
I rinsed tomatoes for Dad to chop
We were a perfect team.
The table would run out of surface
We'd pile on so many things
Avacado, tomatoes, sour cream, lettuce
All kinds of crazy toppings!
We'd laugh as we built our tacos
And spilt them on our plates,
How to eat them nobody knows
Yet they're a dish not one of us hates.


For Loren.

King Follett discourse.

God exists, I can't deny it,
His love I've often proved
He is the father of my soul,
And I his child well-loved.
Created in his image,
The heir to all he hath,
I follow firm, steadfastly
My older brother's path.
In my heart I've always known it
That he was once as I
As my dear father here on earth
Once saw with child's eye.
When I search the prophet's words
The spirit guideth me
To find the confirmation
Of what I knew to be.

Plague

Sting upon the tender heart
Your own peculiar brand
Carve your name in scarlet case
Across the breaking land
Tear apart the youth's coccoon,
Left gasping on the sand

conversation heart haiku example

Holla, "It girl, tweet me!
Rock out 4 ever drama queen,
Miss you cutie pie."

I know it's terrible. That's the whole point!

The last man on Earth

Stay on your side of the bench.
Do not open doors for me.
Do not walk me to my porch.
Do not fall in love with me.
Do not flirt with me,
Don't sit next to me.
Don't say "Hi!" when I walk by.


I refuse anything more
Than acquaintanceship with you.
Though my heart may hunger for
Love, I shall not fall for you.
I won't flirt with you,
Won't sit next to you,
Won't notice when you walk by.

Variety cruise

I can burp,
She can't burp.
She can raise one brow.
He can whistle
But not juggle.
They are juggling now.
Mark can meow and bark,
Jeff can talk like he's deaf,
Sadie's fingers are freaky
But nobody here's talents extend
To our boat, which is quite leaky.

It's BACK!!!!!!

Yes! The conversation heart haiku returns! And this year, THERE IS A PRIZE! I will appoint a few disinterested judges, (I'm thinking the missionaries?) and the author of whichever poem they choose will win an original "Whimsical Bent" jewelry masterpiece created by myself! The rules are: All conversation hearts must be from the same box. You may try different boxes until you find the one your muse is in. Extra points go to those who make their haiku from the Twilight conversation hearts, (complete with sparkles! Or coruscations for those who love their thesaurus) Not that I'm a fan of twilight, I just think sparkly orange flavored conversation hearts are cool. All entries must be posted in the comments or emailed to me (see "about the poetess" for address) with your email address/phone number/some way of contacting you that doesn't involve smoke signals by February 28. Pictures of your haiku, or videos of you making your haiku, get extra points also. Extra points may or may not be considered when judging the winner of the contest, they just mean that you are a cool person. And I appreciate coolness. So for every extra point, you will get an email from me, appreciating your coolness. Thanks to Mary Lewis for being the sole contestant last year! Here's hoping some more people get involved this year.. Yes Debra, I'm talkin' to you.

When you are here with me

You stir a whisper in my heart,
Sighing through the strings,
Playing chords of spanish guitar
And all within me sings


An unsought smile brushing my lips
Paints my face anew.
A master's eye, seeing my face,
Would know I'm loved by you.


With you I am art, beyond the common sphere.
Beauty touches all I see when you are here,
With me.

As in uffish thought he stood

Do you know little boy,
That when you twist the curls
At the back of your head,
Around and around your finger
With your mouth open in concentration
And your blue eyes wide as they go,
I love you?

Pollyanna's spirit

She'll dance down the aisles
And fly down the streets
Who cares what people
She meets or greets?
Whether they're grumpy,
Cross, grim, and lined,
Or merely sad,
Broken of mind.
A smile, a word,
A breath of fresh air,
She'll lift a part
Of their burden of care.