Tag Archives: early morning matins

Nature’s Alarm Clock: Morning Matins

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Click on photos to enlarge.

Morning Matins

Birds of diverse attitudes
join voice to sing beatitudes.
The stodgiest cannot refrain
from joining every day again—
unrepentant in their choices,
upon awakening, to join voices.
This reunion stirs the world.
Squirrels in their burrows tightly curled,
unwind to greet the light of day
as inch by inch it lifts its ray.
The donkey lifts its voice to bray
and chickens, as they strain to lay,
raise their clucks to join the chorus,
the world’s alarm clock sounding for us.
The whole world wakening, bit by bit,
prompting us all to wake with it.

 

Prompts today are: stodgy, beatitude, inch and reunion. And yes, I know that’s a rooster, not a chicken, but although they didn’t make the poem, roosters are the best alarm of all.

6 A.M., Dec. 24, 2020

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6 A.M., December 24, 2020

All around my room and all around the house,
everything is still and quiet as a mouse.
All the sounds of living are muffled by the night,
as if a large hand censors both my hearing and my sight.

Then the greater world is thrust into my ear—
a single church bell tolling is all that I can hear
signaling the hour—6 A.M. again—
a barrage of fireworks setting up its din

to welcome us to Christmas Eve though it is merely morn.
It is our second  notice that a child will be born.
First the star low in the west—a bauble in the sky
tells the whole world of the day that is coming nigh.

Odors of the pine tree, presentiment of myrrh,
the stirring of the dogs, the cat’s insistent purr,
the roasting of the turkey—the onions in the dressing
bring another sense to transmit the Christmas blessing.

A touch of lips ‘neath mistletoe can’t be far away,
bringing that last sense of touch to calm the worldly fray.
May all the troubles of the world thereby find surcease
and for this brief holiday, may all the world find peace.

Prompt words today are mouse, great, bauble and living. Image by Peter Bucks on Unsplash, used with permission.

Early Morning Matins

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5:30 A.M. Early Morning Matins

Her imperious demands
slice the morning air.
I’ve only had three hours of sleep.
She doesn’t seem to care.
The young cats all wait patiently.
The dogs are still abed,
but the old cat knows her wants,
and she wants to be fed!

Church bells rise up from the town,
the priest’s demanding voice
calls the village folks to church
and they have little choice
but to go to laud the virgin,
for this is her holy week.
Old women crawl upon their knees,
her miracles to seek.

Dark morning air is quiet now,
the people in their pews,
the priest abandoning megaphone
to disperse his news.
The old cat, too, falls silent,
for she knows well her mater.
If I haven’t catered to her wails
by now, I’ll feed her later!!!

 


This is the shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe that the women were constructing in the hotel where we went for breakfast in Acapulco.  Every night, we saw processions carrying their virgins to the church to be blessed.  This is the twelve-day celebration to the Virgin that is practiced all over Mexico every December and what the very early church bells were about this morning. December 12th is her day and it is a bank holiday in Mexico. Five days to go.

https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2018/12/08/your-daily-word-prompt-imperious-December-8-2018/