Blades

I love to walk but what I love most is what I get to look at. Today the tall grass caught my attention. I walk on a path next to a dike, takes almost an hour. There used to be an owl that greeted me but seems s/he moved on. Now the ducks are swimming around with their little train of babies behind them. So, a poem came to me and I didn't have my little writing pad, so the last 10 minutes of the walk, I was memerizing my own poem and when I got to the car, got my tablet and wrote the poem on the hood of my car as I was doing my stretching . The gentleman in the truck next to me sort of looked at me but I just smiled.

Blades

Tall grass peeking ferns

Nature's slender green salute

Goes to seed and back

2010 Rozanna Landavazo

Shawl Sisters

I just had a really fun visit with my sis from Minnesota. I got to thinking about us and our special relationship and about shawls and how I have shared a sister shawl with her for a few decades now. I thought about the Native American shawls, the Spirit Cloth, the Buddhist Kessa, the Jewish Talith, the Family Healing Cloth, the Mantra Prayer Shawl and on and on and it's like we have shared a sisterhood shawl forever. I picture the different types of shawls sisters can share depending on their relationship with one another. Some relationships are of course started in birth families and then some later in life with the women we refer to as being like a "sister". Here's my attempt at expressing some feelings about this in a poem.

Some shawls are light and lacy
some keep the sun out
and keep the dark in

Some share a gardening shawl
with string bean fringe
lettuce frills
radish baubles


Some share church shawls
no farting, snorting, belching
be your nasty comfortable self cloth
but piety trim
finger interlocking prayer
smokey incense
Rite Aid perfume mingled
with Chanel
religious yawn
quiet linens
choir fibers that transcend
and transport us to
church ceilings
angelic vapors, holy silks

Some share mourning shawls
hiding in the damp
folds of the heart
whispering sips of light
brushing by shadows
tucked in, ironed in place
for awhile

Some share silly shawls
My shawl is prettier than yours
Mine cost more
The design was inspired
Yes, well mine was
delivered from Lilith
Oh, sister, don't cry
Your shawl is prettier than mine
but mine smells better..

Sometimes sisters throw off
their shawls at the ocean
exposing their darling
baggy selves
little wispy chinny chin chins
fluttering about in the wind
tousled hair exposing roots
splashing in ocean verse

Sometimes shawls get torn
the fabric wears away
and nothing is left
but to bless the
memory and let it go

Sometimes shawls become wounded
wet spots from tears
stained spots from remorse
soft spots from forgiveness
thin spots from pulling, tugging

Thank you shawl sister
for the quilt of love colors
for the design
for the patches, the changes
the shape, the size
for it is huge
it covers our worlds
and all those in it.....

2010 Rozanna Landavazo

Lobo

Howling Lobo whiff
wolf paws down on forest duff
predatory aim

2010 Rozanna Landavazo

Recession

Sometimes
grief wells up
and bursts
from the seams
of your soul
and sprays those
nearest

Sometimes
grief sneaks out
like fine mist
a fairy kiss

Sometimes
grief goes on
stage and
acts as if

Sometimes
grief is torrential
and hails on
those nearest

Sometimes
grief just keeps
flowing behind
wet eyes

Sometimes grief
ambushes you
like a sneaker
wave

And then
recedes
into it's own
private
cavernous pool....

2010 Rozanna Landavazo

Defiance

Riotous bamboo
untamed perennial growth
reveling roots sprawl

2010 Rozanna Landavazo

Conductor

Willow tree hair swoons
Cherry tree pinks undulate
Wind orchestrates all

2010 Rozanna Landavazo