"The Canterbury Tales"

If you have not read Chaucers
The Canterbury Tales
in middle english
in the last few years
give it a try
the first time I did
was at Michigan State
sometime in the middle 1950s
it was a challenge then
and still is
it was the year I missed
the question "Who was Madame La Giocondo?"
on a final exam
never forgot it
I was just a young girl
from a small Ohio town
who liked poetry
and memorized all that she could
at seventy it still runs through
my head as easily as it did then
never getting old or tired
poets gifts to me
lasting a lifetime

"Spiders" Volume III from " Attack"

aliens may be the only ones
that can stop
the attack of the spiders

"What's Next?"

"Jumping Alien Frog" Volume I by Cara Milnor From "What's Next?"

"SO HOT"

frog shadows dance in the woods
as the sun follows itself
promising another record hot day
texas in the summer is not for
the young or old or anyone else
your feet are in hot hot sand
standing in the afternoon sunshine
sweating as your feet touch the earth
alligning your body to its meridians
about fifteen minutes will do it
you just happen to be standing
in the middle of the allien landing area
maybe that why its SO HOT!

"Broken Fences"

lament
what is meant
a time spent
so many years
frozen tears
layered grief
no relief
lives brief
terminal thief
shaking earth
giving birth
false mirth
wires and posts
false boasts
smoke of life
full of strife
evil hands
arm bands
salutes
heavy boots
hidden fears
lost years
no one can mend
in the end
broken fences

"Silver Threads Golden Needles"

silver threads golden needles
heart strings
Gods words finding eyes
fulfilling your needs
taking the unhappiness
taking the sickness
taking the fear
picking you up
from your fall
when nothing else
can free your heart
and show you the way
all you have to do is ask
His love will fill the cracks

"Music Lesson"

the dancer
dancing to the music he hears
no harmony
octaves of mixed up crescendoes
no rests
following the established rhythm
his notes
a lost routine
last notes
taps
music lesson

"Our Place in the Day"

our place in the day
centering the peaceful instant
detached searching to connect
sunlight shines through
a cottontails pink popsicle ears
looking like wet roses
on a foggy morning
a mother hummingbird
teaching her baby about
red hibiscus
texas yellow bells
hummingbird feeders
and feral cats
intense beauty clear message
fulfilling wanting eyes
quiet still presence
invading impalpable paradise
braiding us still tighter
usurping our undertow
two souls in the breeze
dangling in its clear motion
showing us the way
touching nothing but the day