Lilies of the Valley ~
fairies parade toward heaven
under parasols
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Spark
The line is soft
curved
strokes of lead
give it roundness
a beginning of form
a shoulder
a cheek
a lip
Where does your mind go?
A hilltop
A cloud
An eagle’s wing
A pizza crust
A mushroom
An onion
A car fender
A window
A guitar
Grandma’s anniversary clock
Mom’s wedding ring
A sundial.
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Desperation
After Sonnet 134 by William Shakespeare
Bondage
Of one kind
Or another
With a whip
Or without
Breaks a man.
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Sonnet 134 by William Shakespeare
So, now I have confessed that he is thine
And I myself am mortgaged to thy will,
Myself I’ll forfeit, so that other mine
Thou wilt restore to be my comfort still.
But thou wilt not, nor he will not be free,
For thou art covetous, and he is kind;
He learned but surety-like to write for me
Under that bond that him as fast doth bind.
The statute of thy beauty thou wilt take,
Thou usurer that put’st forth all to use,
And sue a friend came debtor for my sake;
So him I lose through my unkind abuse.
Him have I lost; thou hast both him and me.
He pays the whole, and yet am I not free.
Autumn Aura
Surrounded by trees,
a field of wheat
paints the landscape
with ombré stalks.
Dark brown rising from the soil
shaded by the leaves
melds upward into beige
where daylight flatters
the heads holding florets
brandishing their awns
which catch the afternoon sunbeams
and toss them around like glitter
creating a golden glow
that shimmers atop the sweeping
expanse of baked bread.
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Compliment Sandwich 10/15/2026
A flock of robins spent a rainy afternoon in my yard, singing and playing musical trees.
Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon is the latest site of gun violence, resulting in 4 deaths, at the hands of a 16 year old.
Underneath the oak tree, still fluttering green leaves, lay a smattering of brown acorns with a future.
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Have You Considered the Weather?
Does it have a will of its own?
Can it choose its course, its timing?
Is it a trickster with a wicked cackle,
Or a benevolent fairy godmother?
Or is it too a victim of the wind?
Autumn is a good time to plant trees
giving them the whole winter season
to make their home safe and secure.
Spending hours choosing the most
upright, stable, graceful, willow tree,
seemed short. The delivery took longer!
We dug the hole, dirt piled on a tarp.
The temperature dropped as did the sun.
Running out of fun, we waited
Dusk was saying its final goodbyes
when the truck pulled up to unload
our perfect willow tree
Flashlights held by children, shovels
wielded by adults, the process hurried
to finished before bedtime.
We woke up to the surprise of ice
hanging from every branch of every tree.
But our willow in its transient state
had bowed to the wind’s determination,
had taken on the weight of the ice
and submitted to the earth’s embrace.
Frozen to the ground covered in a foot
of snow and ice, it accepted its fate,
living forever as an old man looking
for a penny in the dirt.
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Haiku 9/29/2026
soybean fields
flicker gold in the slanted
afternoon sunlight
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Love is Blind
After Sonnet 133 by William Shakespeare
Love is blind.
Accepting harm as a decent price to pay,
Knowing full well he wanted to stay
no matter the cost, nor the dignity lost,
He pretended her love was real, was his.
His instinct focused on his beloved Fair Youth,
Passionate protective tendencies burned within.
Not wanting him harmed he willingly dimmed
his own light, offering her what she already took
to save another from her withering look.
mlc2026©️
Sonnet 133 by Shakespeare
Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan
For that deep wound it gives my friend and me.
Is ’t not enough to torture me alone,
But slave to slavery my sweet’st friend must be?
Me from myself thy cruel eye hath taken,
And my next self thou harder hast engrossed;
Of him, myself, and thee I am forsaken,
A torment thrice threefold thus to be crossed.
Prison my heart in thy steel bosom’s ward,
But then my friend’s heart let my poor heart bail.
Whoe’er keeps me, let my heart be his guard;
Thou canst not then use rigor in my jail.
And yet thou wilt, for I, being pent in thee,
Perforce am thine, and all that is in me.
Senryu 10/18/2026
The screen door is silent
Flannel sheets are on the bed
I collect sticks
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Compliment Sandwich 10/12/2026
~A cento/collage poem After Emma Lazarus, Francis Scott Key, and xenophobes worldwide
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,”
“Go back to where you came from!”
“O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.”
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*The New Colossus
BY EMMA LAZARUS
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
*Homeland Security Investigations “executed a judicially authorized search warrant” as “part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.” at Representative Ilhan Omar’s home.
*The Star-Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key
