Definition #93 Wet Nest

Geese Hatching

Geese Hatching

Geese

by Faith Shearin

A gaggle of geese return to our street each winter
while migrating from one place to another.
They arrive in January, around my husband’s birthday,

and I am surprised to find them behind our house,
honking like cab drivers in traffic. Most leave with
babies but one pair can’t manage to have any;

I’ve watched them sit for years on a wet nest of death,
warming unhappiness. It is only when the other
geese swim past them, proudly displaying

a line of live chicks, that they realize they have
failed again, their eggs silent beneath the love
of their feathers. My neighbors and I don’t agree

on much but we all watch these geese from our
windows, with binoculars sometimes, our breakfast
growing cold on the table. We wish the unsuccessful

ones would have a season of luck, their eggs healthy
and well placed, for each of us has known the pleasure
of spring, the way it feels for something closed

Definition #91 Loss

Sedona AZ Sunrise Jan 6, 2015

Sedona AZ Sunrise
Jan 6, 2015

Six AM dawns empty;

Airport stole my meds…empty

caddy…nutrients.

Home to Albany, NY hoarfrost, snow and ice Jan 11, 2015

Home to Albany, NY
hoarfrost, snow and ice
Jan 11, 2015

Six PM welcome;

Airport stole my coat…freezing

fingers…frozen legs.

Definition #89 Pinon Pointe

Fountain @ Pinon Pointe Hyatt Residence in Sedona AZ

Fountain @ Pinon Pointe
Hyatt Residence in Sedona AZ

Hyatt builds in rock:
firm roots, deep wells, elegance.
hold on: coast through time…

Definition #88 Plots

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Good Stories

by William Greenway

1.
The one where the preacher’s kid
from Georgia, growing up in a house
with no books but the Bible,
became a great poet.

2.
The one where the great poet
remained faithful to his wife
even after her stroke, devoted
to her for fifty years.

3.
The one where he won the Nobel Prize
and finally got to live by the sea,
fishing every dawn
waist deep in the blue-green water.

4.
The one where, near the end,
he found the love of his life
and left behind the child
he’d never wanted before.

5.
Once there was a man
who failed at everything he tried
but wrote it all down
before he died.

“Good Stories” by William Greenway, from The Accidental Garden. © Word Poetry, 2014. Reprinted with permission. (buy now)

Definition #87 Calligraphers

John Stevens' Gothic Selfie

John Stevens’ Gothic Selfie

calling pens, colors,
calligraphers,flourishes
contemporary

Definition #86 Security

Did you say: "Bite down??"

Did you say: “Bite down??”

Security is
Privacy inside-out – up
side down all around

Definition #85 Obsessed

Annika12-14
to be obsessed-or
to be possessed-
that is the question

Definition #84 Woman President

Lucretia Mott Stanton Susan B Anthony

Lucretia Mott
Stanton
Susan B Anthony

Will the USA

find a woman-bonneted

aware-alert-strong?

Mott wrote:

 “The world has never yet seen a truly great and virtuous nation,

because in the degradation of women,

the very fountains of life are poisoned at their source.”

Definition #83 Quenby

Quenby 1975

Quenby 1975

Poem for Quenby
New Years Eve 2014

Big girl panties
Carry you to greatness:
The family sees
its independent woman
and wants to be just like you when  they grow up.

Big girl capes
Carry you farther than all the ancestors-
Even to the shores of Iceland!
it’s volcanos, starkness, and wool dainties

Big girl feet
Step in places ne’er discovered,
Leave illuminated prints
For cats to follow
For wild fairies to adorn
With moss and loam and musk.

Mom

Definition #82 Owen

Owen at 2 years old

Owen at 2 years old

Poem for Owen
New Years Eve 2014

I love the way
you  loved Camden
these many years
And she has trusted you
With all the family pets
who come and go.

I love the way
you build such lovely things
to shelter and give rest:
arms of wood
Cradling with their love.

I love the way
you maintain simple
daily needs:
clean water, fresh bark,
warming fire, cozy niche
to ponder faith, patience and
marvelous belonging.

Mom

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