I know a place
Where I can go
When I’m feeling lonely
When I’m feeling low
It’s a place inside
Where I can hide
Collect myself
To be by my side
The place inside
Is warm and unique
I love to go there
You can take a peek
My safe place gives me
The time to reflect
To look at my life
And see the affect
I know I am special
I am one of a kind
I love to be in
This space in my mind
And when I come out
The world seems to  be better
And I slowly become
A loving trend setter
So watch me and learn
What I have done before
For I am woman
You can hear me roar

Family
Coming together to make sure
That everyone is safe
And happy
And supported
In their life choices

Family can come
From a variety of compilations
Not always blood related
But heart related
And willing to take the step
To compassion and caring

Family
A unit of love
Support
Compassion
Completion

Haiku
Family as one
Coming together in love
Holy unity

At a crossroad in life
Not knowing which path to take
Do I wander on alone
Or take a chance on love
What is it that holds us back
From our destiny
Or causes us to rush forward
Into the arms of another
With a need for acceptance and love
Should we be more prudent
Or more adventurous
And can’t either one
Take us
Home

My tea is slowly steeping and some coffee I’ll soon make
My early morning habits are what I undertake
To make an early morning flow I always do the same
To repeat what I do every day is really my true aim
For when we repeat our patterns they become a part of us
For learning something that we like is really not a fuss
In order to learn to do the same we do it ‘till it’s ok
Eventually the task becomes a part of every day
So if you find something is hard and you really have concern
Then practice daily all the time until the task you learn
It’s the daily practice habit that soon becomes a game
Because what you are doing daily is truly quite the same
I want to learn to read a book or perhaps to meditate
A practice daily will give all you choose to undertake
So heed my words and give it a try and know that you will win
For all you need to win this game is really just to begin

While all around me
Bombs of hate are exploding
And prejudice
Is falling from the sky
In buckets of tearful wounds
And I watch
Waiting for an opportunity
To express
Innocence and love
We can no longer hide
In our unwillingness to know
We must reach out
And express our oneness
And love for other
As well as for ourselves
Without love
There is no world
Without compassion
There is no peace
Without self
There is no hope
I am
Therefore
I am the only one
That can create
Change

In my body sits unrest
A gathering of hurricanes
And volcanoes and tornadoes
Wanting to express
And
Deep within myself
There is hope
For a better world
And I sit in the mire
Of
Both

Oh my oh dear what should I do
I cannot find my other shoe
The time is getting later and
I need to take a firmer stand
On getting myself some discipline
I need to work on singleton
The voices in my head tell me
The way they think I need to be
But they are voices from the past
And it’s not so healthy if they last
First I thank them for their work
If I didn’t they’d know that I’m a ****
Then I tell them it’s ok
For them to take a rest and play
I can handle all my stuff
It really shouldn’t be so tough
It’s time an adult I must be
If I want to reach my joy and glee
Take charge of all the things I am
An authentic self and not a sham
So I pull up my boot straps and get right to it
Become more involved get healthy and fit
And clean up the place put things in order
Like I truly live here I’m not a border
Things have a place so find them I can
Become a responsible woman or man

It’s that time of year
When the sun is shining
And the warmth on my skin
Causes the flowers to bloom
And the birds to return
To their nesting
And I want to jump and leap
Through the air
With the
Joy of Spring
But alas
I can’t go out
Into my joyous place
By the stream
And watch the birds
Celebrating the birth
Of a new world
I can’t share my happiness
With those outside
As I frolic in the mists
Of a new day
I have to stay inside
Bundled in my aloneness
Shrouded in the knowing
That the world is changing
And I
Along with it

I think
I’m finally coming
To the end
Of my
Streams
Of thought
Finally breathing
Normally
Again
Finally able
To just
Be
In
The
Stillness
Ahhhhh …

I used to like
To sit and read
And eat great things
For ice cream I’d plead
And now I have
Only smoothies that are green
Veggies that are raw
And water that is clean
As I get older
My menu grows small
I want to live longer
Until I can no longer crawl
My hair is now grey
And my teeth they come out
With my low hanging body
My age I don’t doubt
When I was much younger
I never gave thought
To keeping myself healthy
And exercising a lot
And now that my walking
Has taken its toll
On chairs I can sit
On the floor I can roll
Getting up might be harder
Yoga’s not what it was
The bending and twisting
My head’s in a buzz
So aging ain’t what
I thought it might be
I think I’ll slow down
That might be the key

Waiting waiting
We’re almost there
A time for fun
A time to share
All week we wait
Until we’re done
Watching the clock
Till we reach the home run
Counting down
Minute by minute
Working hard
So we don’t get the boot
Our coat is ready
Our cap we have on
We have been thinking
Our plans are drawn
There is something special
About Friday night
Our work is finished
And we feel alright
We hop in the car
Turn the music on
We dance in our seats
From dusk to dawn
And before you know it
Monday has come
We’re back in our chairs
Looking tired and glum

Laugh
Sure laugh at yourself
And make fun of yourself
And truly find humour
In yourself
And then
Maybe then
You can start to take yourself
Seriously
And then
You will be able
To find
Your truth

When I think of poetry
I think of some words
That tend to give picture
To thoughts
I think of the ways
To express all our dreams
It’s just like the game
Dot to dot
We begin with one word
Or a phrase we think of
And try to expand
What we see
We think of the rhymes
And the cadence of voice
Bringing colour
To all that we be
But some in this group
Seem to think that a word
Or two is enough as a dome
I don’t understand how
A daily expression
Can be justifiably
Thought of as poem
There are many different kinds
Of poetry expression
Some rhyme
Others just chain of thought
There should be some forethought
Some real inspiration
Put into this game
That we’ve bought
I would like to think that
Our poets out there
Can truly express
What they see
So please take the time
To make poetry your aim
Give thought to the process
That be
Bring us all to tears
And great jubilation
Speak out
Use the words now at hand
Poetry is our expression
Of life as we see it
Use words well
Speak out to the land

I used to look at money as the root of all evil
I used to look at money as a debt I could not pay
I marveled at how others could keep their books in order
My money used to travel, in my pocket it couldn’t stay
I tried to think of money as a bartering of sorts
I tried to call it friend and to understand its source
Money has a way of speaking I couldn’t understand
I failed to understand its movement and its course
And then one day a teacher said to put it in my mouth
That ***** crumbled paper cloth with print upon its face
I could not would not take that ***** bill from hand to mouth
I would not put it in my mouth myself to now debase
Most money comes from hard work from a job or from a place
It travels through the land from hand to hand from face to face
Money is just a way of saying you’ve earned like most adults
Money is a way of keep people in their place
Countries play with currency with values high and low
Stock brokerage and Wall Street keep our money at a tow
We have no way of knowing if it’s up or if it’s down
We have to learn to pay at source with money from the crown
They play with percentages and valuations infatuation and in flux
Countries loan it out and scream pay back when it’s really only bucks
I want to understand the silliness of paper and coin
I want to shout out stop it when the countries then conjoin
To hold it is to waste it and to spend it then it’s gone
What way is there to understand its brightness and its brawn
So money I will place you in the world not understood
I’d like to give you value if only then I could

Death
Is like a passing
From one stage of life
To another
Like a shedding
Of an outside layer
And a recognition
Of our true selves

Death
Is a letting go
Of one world
And a birth
Into another
It’s a coming of age
And a passing through
With a recognizance
Of what used to be

Death
Is a coming together
Of who we were
With who we have become
And a conglomeration
Of both
A passage
Into a new stage
With a recognition
Of what used to be

Death
Takes us from
The here
To the after life
And beyond

Death
A welcoming
Remembrance

Black hole
******* us in
Making us think
That life here
Is all there is
When truthfully
The black hole
Holds
All our dreams
All our desires
All our wants
All our jealousies
The black hole
***** in the all the light
And
Leaves nothing
In its
Wake

How can I reach you
When your mind is closed
And
You are reacting
From past events
I can’t change
Your past
We can only
Create
A future
Together

Our body truly is a gift
Given from above
Without it we’d be stuck in place
And would find it hard to love
We need to keep this body of ours
In shape and feeling healthy
We need to eat well and exercise
In order to feel wealthy
Sometimes we may feel tired
And not feel like moving so
We need to push right past that block
Allow our energy to flow
We need to keep on wanting health
Our body is so keen
We need to feel we’re worthy
And feel good about being seen
We also need to exercise mind
And our soul shouldn’t be forgotten
Eat well, exercise and meditate
So we aren’t feeling rotten
If we bring our mind, body and soul
Into alignment, into balance
We’ll know we’ve done all we can do
Not fallen into nonchalance
So keep in mind these simple words
Look good, feel good, be good
And do whatever you can do
As you already know you should

I awoke
To the smell of
Rotting fetid stinky
Food
Left over and rancid
And I wondered
When we get forgotten
Will we
Smell bad
Too

Step by step
One foot after the other
We walk our destiny
With sister and brother
We know not where
The journey will end
We plod on steadily
Try to ascend
We go to church
We say our prayers
We lead a life
Learn ours from theirs
Be good, do good
Be one we’re told
They force us all
Into a mold
We try our hardest
To do things right
We try and try
With all our might
Until one day
We wake to find
That we are caught
In our own bind
We reach for end
The prize to achieve
When instead we find
It’s time to leave
Hold on now to
Each step you make
It’s not the end
It’s the journey you take

Death
Divorce
They’re all part of life
Sadness and joy
Happiness and pain
All a part
Of the human condition
How does one cope?
How does one sustain themselves
Through all that life throws our way
With
Courage

I used to think
That life was all
Fun and games
And then
I began to live
Really live
And feel and know and care
And become
And then I learnt
That life contains
Both joy
And pain
And I have to find a way
To encompass
Both

Peace is that which comes into  
The body and the soul
It sits in heart awaiting
And it helps us reach our goal
Peace can be  elusive
And helps us reach out and hold on tight
Peace can be the calming presence
That keeps us feeling right
Peace can be a harmony
Of beautiful dimension
Peace can be a holding
And a space for true ascension
When peace is reached
We feel a sense
Of beauty
And ideation
Peace can be delusion
Or creative imagination
When peace is reached
We know a sense
Of beauty and detachment
Peace can be a letting go
Of old thoughts a dispatchment
Peace is not a common place
It takes work to reach its space
Peace takes time to germinate
Can’t reach it as a race
It takes quiet and perseverance
It takes will and solid grit
It takes Sat Chit Ananda
And the ability to sit
For it’s in the silence
That the magic can take place
It’s in the inner world that we find peace
With silence and with Grace

The world is changing
And I’m not sure
I know
Where it is
Going
The crimson sky
Lands  on the tears
Of fallen soldiers
And the sun rises
On the hope
For a
Better tomorrow
I sit in wonder
At the fanciful anguish
Of death
And marvel
At the
Vitality
Of life
Where is tomorrow
Can we hope?

How does one describe exquisite pain
The longing for the love
That sustains us all
The wanting to be in touch
With the God power
That exists within
Each and every one of us
With tears in my eyes
I remember the moments
When we were together
In sweet bliss
And I long
For those  times
To be ever with me

Birth and Death

I take off my garments
And what do I find
An authentic true experience
Of the limited kind
Its’s not everyday
That we find out we’re not
What we thought we were
And all the things that we got
We’ve experienced a body
Which gives us some sway
And an emotional body
From which we can’t run away
Our mind is quite nifty
Tells us what to do
It keeps right on going
Like an Everyready glue
Our heart does our feeling
At so many levels
And over our shoulders
Are an angel and devil
We wonder how we can manage
Without an instruction book or two
And yet we learn
What we have to do
We keep right on trucking
Until our work here is done
Absolved of our karma
Until we reach the end run
Then quickly and quietly
We reach the dawn of our lives
We’ve completed our journey
And end up in archives
We thought we were born
Into this human life
We thought we’d reached death
Through our struggles and strife
But instead we died here
On this crazy planet Earth
And we’ re born to carry on
Our soul comes to birth

What is change
But a new knowing
Of what life is all about
And the understanding
That nothing has ever been
In stasis
We
Along with all that is
Are forever
Locked in movement
Ever changing, never the same
A lone figure amongst
The many
I hold onto
That which was
While embracing
That of which
I have no knowledge
And I jump
Into the abyss
Never knowing
If I will hit bottom
Or learn
To fly

Being in the world
Is not always as easy as it looks
It takes
Fortification
And courage
And a strength
Seldom found
In the Animal Kingdom
For animals
Never have to worry
About being overtaken
By someone’s mind
Or being taken advantage of
With cruelty
Animals ****
For food
And dominance
And nothing else
While the animal that is man
Kills
For the sheer pleasure of it

Crystalline structures that resemble God
Each one so different, some slim and some broad
They fall down in flurries some fast and some slow
They each catch the sunshine and some start to glow
As you walk on the crystals they sure make a sound
They take over the landscape and become the background
When you lift them up high they’re light as a feather
But they only come out when it’s really cold weather
If you taste them the cold on your tongue can be felt
If you wait for a while they surely will melt
What else in this world can be so many things
From liquid to solid then to gas it does bring
Some people say it’s just some atmospheric vapor
Frozen ice crystals or flakes you remove with a scraper
White flakes that lie on the ground in a layer
Which you watch over as it falls like a real surveyor
What would it be like if snow didn’t fall
If we never had winter or a good snow squall
Then we wouldn’t understand nature and its beauty
Or the shoveling of snow and our natural duty

Life has a way
Of perpetuating
It’s self
And leaning to be more
Than what it was
In the beginning

Life
Harbinger
Of death
We are born
And with each moment we are alive
We are dying

Cell by cell
We are becoming immortal
In our existence
And living
The Wisdom
Of the Ages

Death
Which brings forward
New life

There is a place
To which I cannot journey
It comes from
A long ago time
And
Every once in a while
It comes back to visit
And disturb
My
Slumber

Today
I went back to childhood
And I lay down
And just closed my eyes
And did
Nothing
How good it feels
To be
In a place
Of
Nothing
Ahhhhhh

How can I be what I can not see
How can I hear what is not said
How can I behave in a world of hatred
And continue to love that which is
What will guide me through this life
And bring me to a completion of existence
Guide me home
Open my eyes
Allow my heart to love
To accept
With Gratitude

To the people of Ukraine
We feel your pain
We see you fight
With all your might
We want to support
And we fall short
How can we help
How can we be
How can we become
Your road to be free
No one should come
And take away
The land you’ve built
The place where you play
All life is sacred
And to be safe is a right
And yet you fight
Will all your might
To hold onto
What should be yours
The freedom to be
Without the wars
So hold onto
Your God given right
Patriotic love
Within your sight
And know that others
Walk by your side
Silent and strong
We’ll be your guide

What is a poem
If not a conglomerate
Of words
Put together
To express
A thought
What is poetry
If not a mangling  
Of ideas
Forcing one
To
Set on paper
Thoughts
Commit
To ideas
What is poetry
If not love
Of thought
Of word
Of deed

Deep within me
Is a hunger
A lust for life
An inability
To accept anything
Less than
Love
I stand
At the doorway
Of coming of age
And wonder
Why love
True love
Seems to elude me
I long for the permanence of life love
And
The only One I can get that from
Is
God

Hope
The eternal flame
Of what we wish
We had
Holding onto
That which we want
While letting go
Of that
Which we have
Hope lights the internal flame
Of longing
Keeping us alive
In the solitude
Of
Tomorrow

I walked past the park
And saw the children at play
And tried to remember
What my mother used to say
And I thought of the times
I held my babes in my arms
And I tried to remember
And it set off alarms
For our children are precious
A gift from above
And they need to be raised
With kind, compassionate love
How can our young beings
Take over this world
If all they’ve been taught
Is a hidden dreamworld
The truth we should teach them
What made us be strong
We need to teach them
The right from the wrong
To respect other people
And see them as same
For if wars do continue
It will be the end of this game
So teach your children courage
And strength and true love
And live the lessons well
And hate, please get rid of
Show them that hiding
Won’t bare well for their future
Shine bright in your real self
And don’t be a moocher
Leave the world in a better state
Then how you found it
Make your enemies your friends
Authentic self not hypocrite
For people see through
When you’re not being your self
People know when you’re lying
Shine through, personality wealth
And share all your gifts
With the children you know
And show them the way
Teach them how so they grow
Into the future of this world
Which is changing so fast
Let’s make the future different
Than our soiled, tumulted past

SC  1/7/22

Grieving sadness
So heavy
Weighs me down
And yet, I have to allow
The feelings, emotions, caring
And love that make this possible
For, if I hadn’t loved
I wouldn’t be able to feel the loss

You know we’re not the only ones
Who have a need today
There are some who go days hungry
And have no place to stay
There are some who wander across the land
Looking for food and space
There are some who don’t know where to live
Who look for aid and Grace
There are some who don’t know what to do
To make the hurt go away
There are some who reach out with empty hands
Who have never had a chance to pray
So those of you who know their place
Who’s bellies are full and  hearts embrace
Reach out to those who know not what
Reach out and help from heart and gut
Remember that in this Earth of ours
One shouldn’t be alone or left to starve
Reach out and help reach out with heart
Reach out and give right from the start
And know that you were never alone
In giving you have now reached out and grown

Oh no oh no what shall I do
I can’t cook an egg or make a stew
My stomach is hungry the stores are closed
I don’t know what to do I’ve been exposed
I never learnt how to boil the water
To make spaghetti like I aughter
I can open a can if I can find
The opener I must be blind
I can call a friend to make some stuff
My God this is getting really tough
I can call for a pizza if the shop was open
Oh when oh when will it reopen
Mr google can guide me in trying to cook
The chance of that is like a house chinook
Oh dear oh dear what do I do
I want to bite and I want to chew
The dog food is looking better around now
Should I get down on the floor with the dog to chow
Desperation is reaching me at my neck
A cookbook I think it’s time to check
Aha a salad is easy as pie
I think that I will give it a try

Isn’t it funny
Or interesting
That
In the time it takes
To type these words
I have a quijullion  poems
Running in
My head
How do I capture
The intellect
When it’s running
Like the wind

The time has come for all good  men
And women, to take a stand
To speak their truth and jest their love
And passion across the land
We need a voice that should be heard
By people far and wide
The inner cry of higher knowing
The words from deep inside
Let’s find a place where people care
Where truth is held up high
Deceit gets buried and lies are gone
Let’s all reach for the sky
For we are more than most will live
We hide when we should shine
Let’s raise our voices in unison
Reach out as one divine

Baited breath
And wet nose
Loving heart
And furry toes

Barks so loud
And droopy chin
Soulful eyes
And loving kin

My dogs are here
And getting older
Just as I am
Only they’re much bolder

They sniff back sides
And jump up high
Sleep on their backs
And bark good bye

Catching my thoughts
My experiences
My everything
On paper
And paper no longer
Exists
And time
Doesn’t stand still
And I
Am all
I’m meant to be
in this time
so
why am I
still
running

You know
It’s not so bad
To always have to find
Something to do
I wish
Sometimes I really wish
That I had someone
To share my life with
And then
I remember
How hard it is to be in a relationship
And I think again