Scrapbooking

My favorite hobby has always been scrapbooking
It's such a creative activity to do
For pictures and poems, I'm always looking
Forever scanning magazines through and through

I look for pictures of people and places
Some happy, some excited, some tired, some sad
I try to find real emotional traces
And whatever I like, to my scrapbooks I add

Over the years many books I have made
Scrapbooks of poetry old and new
Old web sites and online pictures I raid
Some of my scrapbooks are happy, some blue

Certainly, on this hobby you can say I'm hooked
There's nothing like it to keep me involved
No one would believe how hard I have looked
For rhymes and riddles that will never be resolved

I started this past time at our church
Each Wednesday all the ladies would look
Each one in her chair quietly perched
Consumed with finding the perfect hook

Everyone knows that you  must create ideas
Inspiring and intriguing to reel in a person
Someone who will cast off all their fears
And stop to read your poem for a life lesson

I love scrapbooking, it's so rewarding
It brings childhood memories back to me
School days when with friends consorting
Times that were so happy and carefree

Often I reread through my many books
Books I've created  by myself
Sometimes I find things that I've overlooked
Words that reveal how I once felt

Poems about family and friends so dear
Poems about God's creatures so lovely
Poems about Nature, Seasons, and Fears
Poems about things you can't buy with money

I'm planning on leaving my scrapbooks all
To my kids and grandkids after I'm done
When this life with its troubles are just a sad pall
And all they have left is the legacy I've begun

I never had many pictures or prose
Left me by parents or other relations
That's why I suppose I strive to compose
Scrapbooks to leave to younger generations

I want them to always remember me as
The Grandma that loved them so
I hope they realize that I had pizzazz
Even though I can't leave them much dough

The things that are important in life
Aren't always the things that are seen
When you live through all the sorrow and strife
You'll understand just what I mean

A love of poetry is what I will leave
For my children and grandchildren too
For what is a life and to what will you cleave
If great poetry is missing from you

By Julia Shaw
May 2020

Everyone is worried more and more
A  deadly virus is on the loose
It has invaded the USA from shore to shore
Millions of germ cells have been introduced

Social distancing is a new concept
We all have to embrace these days
People need time to process it
All the hand-washing really will pay

It seems that oldsters are the most in need
As they can't easily fight this virus dread
As well as the younger people indeed
It seems many hard days lay ahead

Schools are closing their doors earlier
Then they had ever planned to do
Also restaurants and department stores
Are shuttered up to stop this flu

It is hoped that we all can strive
To treat each other with care
In a few months, we all hope to arrive
At the end of this pandemic scare

Let's all lift our hands and hearts together
And pray that we soon will be free
And hope our economy will weather
This awful disaster from sea to sea

Let's join hands to help our brothers
The homeless and destitute in many lands
Refugees and kids without mothers
Living in tents on hot desert sands

Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia  is an illness that often besets
Women and men who can not help themselves
It's a syndrome that causes great pain and distress
It even causes its victims to feel overwhelmed

And cold damp weather only increases the chance
That muscles will cramp and increase the stress
And though one looks the same at a glance
They really are in pain that no one would guess

Often people are misinformed and act so curt
And expect us to address everything at top form
When each small movement inflicts such hurt
That often we just can't even meet the norm

I, for one, am tired of people telling me
Get out of bed and do your part
When I really want to depart and flee
And hide my sick and broken heart

They can't see I'm trying my best
To hold onto some kind of life
But all their scoffing makes it a test
When will I be done with this awful strife

For me, each day is a long hard trial
I sometimes find life hard to face
I often think it's not worthwhile
Running this kind of pain-filled race

Nightmares are dreadful things
They creep into subconscious minds
And tear at sanity's fragile strings
Turning our thoughts to things unkind

I was a teacher of children quite small
And loved the years I spent with them
But soon after leaving  teaching I recall
My nightmares started to brim

The sweet ones eyes began to glow
Within my fevered brain so fraught
Red demon light seemed to flow
From every eye that I had taught

Then even stranger thoughts assailed
As each child grew in size
It seemed to me that their fingernails
From my body sought a prize

They gouged my eyes and ripped my skin
I could not seem to escape
Although I tried to stop the din
Alas it was too late

Another time a stranger dream
Came to me late one night
It was worse than any nightmare had seemed
It caused me a sinister fright

I was in my old frame school
Twenty-five students joined me there
But one small boy had broken a rule
And slipped a gun in on a dare

We teachers never checked the hooks
Where all the schoolbags were sorted
We thought them filled with pencils and books
No weapons had ever been reported

But in this dream he took us all hostage
Then brandished the gun about
He placed in front of us a blockage
So no one could get out

With all my heart I entreated him
To let one small child go
It seemed that even the room went dim
As he looked at us row by row

At last, he motioned with hands spread
That I should walk one child
Out the door and down the hall
Outs where children and parents reconciled

So one by one I went with each
Dear student held that day
Until they all had safely reached
And end to their great dismay

Then S.W.A.T. moved right in sync
And whisked that  boy away
I never knew what to think
Because suddenly I was awake

I jumped up from my bed undone
And ran frightened with a scream
I grabbed a phone to cal 911
Before I realized it was only a dream

Nightmares can be ever so real
They'll make you do strange eerie things
Nightmares always  my dreams seem to steal
I wish they would all take wings

Now watermelons are a wonderful treat
They're the very best food that I like to eat.
I wonder why we save them for special days
As for watermelons, I would gladly pay.

I'd pay whatever the cost might be
Just to savor the flavor of that delightful treat
Just thinking of them gives me shivers to my toes
There's nothing else that can even come close.

Their sweet juicy flavor just melts in my mouth
On a hot summer day, I just want to shout
As I feel the juice trickle down my dry throat
It's the very best feeling a food can evoke.

Watermelons, watermelons I'll praise you forever
You're the one dish I'll pass up, not ever, no never
When I'm thirsty and feeling ready for a drink
It's only of watermelons that I start to think.

It might be an icy cold winter day outside
But that doesn't stop me from wishing inside
Of ripe, red, tender watermelon flesh
Even though I know I must wait, I guess.

Wait until summer comes round once more
With its hot hazy days and humidity's high score
To see watermelons piled up to the sky
All ready and waiting for me to buy.

Now I'll tell you a funny story that happened to me
I was only twelve or so at the time, you see
Visiting a lady friend my parents had made
She  had two children about my same age.

She took us all down the freeway a ways
Til we got to a farmhouse with garden and hay
Beside was a river, fast-flowing and cold
The day was so hot we all made a bold

Run for the water to cool ourselves down
We had great fun splashing around like clowns
We jumped and screamed 'til so tired were we
We fell on the grass to rest and to breathe.

And then my eyes saw a rare surprise
The farmer began piling watermelons high
Watermelons, watermelons come one and all
It was a great party, as I readily recall.

We ate and ate as much as our tummies
Could hold of those watermelons, so yummy
We ate till our stomachs started to pop
It seemed that of eating, we just couldn't stop.

It was time to go home down the freeway so far
So we all hopped in my friend's beautiful car
But after just a few minutes of traveling along
Every one of us children sang a brand new song.

The song was quite funny, but no one was impressed
All we could think of was giving our bladders a rest
Bathroom, bathroom we all in chorus sang
We sounded like the little rascals gang.

But on the freeway, no exits were found
No ramps to see if a bathroom's around
What in this world could one conceive
To find some relief for the children that grieved.

Well, to make a very long story short
We found a bathroom but learned not to resort
To overeating watermelon when far from home
Too much watermelon makes your bladder groan!

I dread the winter's coming on
The trees without their dressings
I fear the winter's dark, cold moan
Long shadows without blessings

Bare tree limbs are upward reaching
Where the sunlight seems to fail
I hear the sound of great owls screeching
Trees look like witch”s fingernails

I hate the cold that winter brings
Dark, dank weather for each day
It seems as if I'll never sing
Or see again sun's lovely rays

My body aches and hollow feels
Furnace and fireplace are roaring on
But to me they don't seem real
No heat can reach into my bones

Oh, winter will you last so long
With dreary rain and colder mist
Oh, how I wish that you were gone
And Spring would put on me it's kiss

Pain

Trying to check my email today
I sit at my computer when I
Suddenly feel shards and rays
Up from my feet sharply pry

I rush for my pills to stop the awash
Of pain that I had not expected
It came on so fast that I was tossed
Into agony so deep it was never suspected

It seems to get worse day after day
Though meds I've been given
Docs don't have the guts to try and assay
The horrid world of pain that I live in

It seems new guidelines have been set
That keep docs from treating chronic pain
But their families won't feel any pain I bet
They'll have relief from going insane

While the rest of us must try and go on
With our pain-filled lives forever
I wonder if life's worth this dreadful song
Should I try and pursue this vain endeavor

Truly in Christianity, I sincerely believe
And have paid all my many dues
I ask God this painful condition to relieve
But so far all my prayers are refused

Nor for pity do I beg of you
But what is the right answer
Must I endure such a life untrue
I would rather just die of cancer