O Come All Ye Faithful
One who worships fashion puts all her faith in clothes.
Each item of adornment is something that she chose.
She displays it from her earlobes to her well-shod toes,
expressing her devotion everywhere she goes.
Who dares impugn her simple faith? Is it more inane
than a ranting prophet, increasingly insane,
expostulating, raving, posturing and vain—
using his religion primarily for gain?
The artist paints his testament and proudly signs his name
to truth he has depicted on canvas, in a frame.
The truth he finds is holy, he means not to defame
the belief of any other, and he hopes we do the same.
Those who protest the loudest their faith’s the only one,
in worshiping the moon may overlook the sun.
Faith cannot be enforced with a rule book or a gun.
A true faith takes in all the world and seeks to make us one.
Prompts for today are protest, frame, impugn, worship and clothes.
Guru
So many worship at your shrine you should consider syndication.
You could make a pretty penny if this queue’s an indication
of how many have decided that you are a modern prophet.
I believe you’ve found a sure way to turn prophet into profit.
Is it central to their growth that your followers contribute
all their worldly goods for their guru to distribute?
We’ve listened to your bark, so now we’re ready for your bite—
that you need a bigger mansion to bolster your insight.
If only you had taught your hordes to look through their own eyes,
they might see their Messiah as a shyster in disguise.
Prompt words today are: bark, central, worship, decide and indication. Photo by Hal Gatewood on Unsplash. Used with permission.
I decided I liked this plant with all its warts exposed. These ladies grow in profusion from large round black seeds hard enough to go through wood that were once used successfully as shot when troops ran out of ammunition. The next year the battlefield was covered in India Shot Lilies, thus giving them their name. What nature does with what we do to it…amazing. (Also called edible cannas.)
For Cee’s FOTD
Rain
Gives an excuse
for that bright orange umbrella
and yellow overshoes
toppled over in the hall closet,
yet it is nighttime and I am old.
I lie under blankets on the sofa,
content with its comforting
rat-a-tat
on the plastic skylight
overhead.
It is a friend knocking
insistently,
calling me out to play.
Six years old,
Imprisoned by summer,
we were given occasionally
the refreshing release
of a hard summer rain.
Bare feet splashing,
we raced dry leaf boats
manned by our imaginations
through the caves of culverts,
down to those ultimate puddles
magnificent in their magnitude.
Sixty years later,
I am caught up in the currents
of that sudden rush downwards
and backwards to
a plastic umbrella
abandoned on the sidewalk
as we opened like flowers.
Rain
hides tears.
Forces growth.
Cleans up our messes
and provides glorious new ones.
Washes away today
and grows tomorrow.
Picky
“Prompt” does not associate with “tardy” or with “lazy.”
Those that are more “languorous” think “quick” people are crazy.
Life is made of opposites. The “sad” think they are right
and “cheerfulness” a symptom of someone not too bright.
“Smart” does not associate with “dull” or “dense” or “jocks.”
“Artistic”merely hangs around with other folks in smocks.
“Stolid” does not socialize with “lissome” or with “breezy.”
“Health freaks” eschew contact with folks “drippy” or “sneezy.”
It seems to be a symptom of our modern day and age
that “with-it” folks just hang around with others “all the rage.”
“Breezy” jogs with breezy. The “stagnant” prefer bars
where other stagnant people hang, or buzz Main Street in cars.
Knights hang out with their orders while polishing their lances,
giving men less “chivalrous” condescending glances.
Thus do the cliquish congregate, each thinking it’s the rightest,
not seeing that the hoi polloi are actually the brightest,
accepting the diversity that mixing-up can bring,
seeing what life offers and trying everything.
Life is not a single dish hoarded at the table,
but a mixed buffet where one should taste all they are able.
Prompt words today are breezy, lance, quick, symptom and associate.
This arete plant is holding on. It has been blooming for more than a month. Love it. You can increase the size of the photos by clicking on them.
ForCee’s FOTD
My friend Judy Reeves brought this excellent essay by Elizabeth Marrow to my attention. It deals with how to stay positive in these most trying of times. I’d like to share it with you.
This jungle forms a privacy wall between my neighbor and me. Good fences make good neighbors! We love conversing back and forth over this one. If I’m in my gazebo and they’re on their high balcony porch, we can see each other, but I can still skinny dip in perfect privacy.
For Cee’s FOTD
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 