Greenie and Slim are back! The crocuses are blooming! I’ll be fully vaccinated soon. But before joyfully moving on, I think it’s worth reflecting on the extraordinary winter we’ve been through. Have you been perfecting a skill? Mine is procrastination. But I did find myself capturing images that spoke to me in poems. These are in the order I wrote them. I hope you’ll make it to the final pictures, as they will surely bring a smile to your face.
December 30, 2020
Sometimes
The picture you took
Lacks the clarity and color
Of your favorite photos
But holds a memory
Or mood
Perfectly
Gently
As if painted
With a soft brush
And ashes
HJ
December 31, 2020
Romance does not require a lover.
It appears whenever we marvel at the mysteries of love and beauty.
HJ
January 1, 2021
Sometimes
at the end of a cold, gray day
or year
if you walk a little higher
and search the horizon
you can catch the sun
Blazing
as it peeks out
below the ominous cover of clouds
and declares
“Don’t worry
I’m still here!”
before slipping off
to light someone else’s day
and let you rest
HJ
January 31, 2021
Must all the straw be spun to gold
while children shiver in the cold?
A Midas touch is not so much
a blessing as a curse
if all the gold is in the purse
of just the lucky few
and receipt is built upon deceit.
What good are rising stalks and stocks
when grown from earth that cries and dies
in flame and flood and choking spew?
Let the sunrise of compassion
warm the frosty hearts and clear the eyes
too long believing lies
of diamonds in the skies
when all we really need is love and will
to share the health and wealth,
to sow and grow in moral measures,
respect all colors, babes to elders,
our precious once and future treasures.
HJ
February 14, 2021 Love Story "Will you be my Valentine?" Yes, said the bird who unabashedly wears his heart on his breast.
"Will you be my Valentine?" Yes, said the waving snowman, belonging to no-one and everyone.
"Will you be my Valentine?" asked the young red-tailed hawk, lying face-down in the snow. He perked up in the warmth of my home, giving me hope overnight. The Raptor Center did what they could, but sometimes the love that is needed is the hardest love to give.
"Will you be my Valentine?"
Yes, said the deer, posing in the dusk to warm my heart on this frigid night.
HJ
March 13, 2021
How I survived the Winter of Covid
I must confess ‘twas a walk in the park
almost daily ‘tween dawn and dark
no mask did I need in the wide open spaces
with six feet between the smiles on the faces
of people who passed me, happy to be
escaping the lockdown, totally free
but the moments that made my weary heart dance
were the dozens of dogs I met by chance
romping in snow, wagging a tail
eager to sniff out any new trail
but happy to stop and give me some Love
and Joy and Hope and evidence of
the truth in the saying, as souls are changed,
that DOG is surely GOD rearranged
HJ
