For the Love of a Fisherman

My Bathroom

Smells

Like the ocean

Deep, salty,

Briny air

Even clean

His wet clothes

Smell of fish

And sea

My kitchen sink

Is full of shells

With critters

Still intact

The fisherman

Has brought them home

For his sweetheart

Who loves them both

The salty seaman

And the wild ocean

And i am witness

To their love and hate

Their comings

And their goings

Their separations

And togetherness

As turbulent

And peaceful

As the ever changing

Ocean

Alchemy

 

i am red

fire engine red

flame red

full of desire

a plump passionate

purple red pomegranate

i am rock hard red lava clay

older than dirt

porous from heat

and aloneness

blood red

devoid of blue

water sky river sea

a phoenix without the ashes

without the heat

without the fiery sun

frozen corpuscles

red

blue

purple

none of the above

a colored paradox

i am red

i am blue

i am undecided

ambivalent

my own knight

in shining armor

my garment dyed

with the berries

of the forest

red

green

black

all of the above

below the red

smolders

the still unbidden

flames of desire

i must breathe

life into the embers

fire into my soul

longing into reality

red to gold

Pattra Burnetto Monroe Sept 2000

Whetstone

Adversity can hone us

Water on rock

Sharpening a knife

Water on stone

Shaping a blade

Cuts to the quick

Ice on fire

Fire on ice

Constant adversity

Can pierce the heart

Carving a valley

Deepening the abyss

Breaking the heart

Open

~PBM 2004 (revised December 2021)

Particles of Light (composed on Brigid's Day, February 2020)

This poem is for you, Dear Maggie. Thank you for being our sister, our songbird, and our friend. You are loved and remembered. Thank you for your legacy of music and laughter. 

January 20,1952 - January 20, 2020

Particles of  Light

Shattered

I pick up the pieces

Jagged edges

speak to me

of our history

Here

we played hide and seek and

Once 

when we were still

very young

we touched tongues

intrigued

by the thought

of french kissing

Years later

watching how fire burns

we huddled together

on the beach

as the night sky

suddenly revealed 

the constellations

You could name all 

but one

Scattered

like the stars

I picked up your ashes

knowing the dust and the sand

aren't you

but holding them

just the same

Pattra Burnetto Monroe 2020

Brigid's Day Poem

Particles of  Light

Shattered

I pick up the pieces

Jagged edges

speak to me

of our history

Here

we played hide and seek

Once 

when we were still

very young

we touched tongues

intrigued

by the thought

of french kissing

Years later

watching how fire burns

we huddled together

on the beach

as the night sky

suddenly revealed 

the constellations

You could name all 

but one

Scattered

like the stars

I picked up your ashes

knowing the dust and the sand

aren't you

but holding them

just the same

pbm january 2020

Let There Be Grace

Trees in open trunks

Going to peoples homes

To become brightly trimmed

In celebration

Of Christ's birth

People without homes

Don't wish for trees

Or turkeys with trimming

Anymore than you or I

In tribulation

They wish for shelter

from the cold

A moment's warmth

A minute's peace

An hour of hope

A home of their own

Pattra Burnetto Monroe 

December 1995

The Visitors

The joy
you brought to me
still lingers
I'm dancing
in the
afterglow
Laughter illuminates me
Look
I've become
a wood nymph
a sea sprite
a dandelion
in a child's
breath

Pattra Burnetto Monroe 

Light Years

Light Years

The stars have been singing to me lately 
Yet they have not been singing 
The blues or a sad lament
Or even a sappy romantic ballad 
From the past
Instead, the stars have been 
Singing me the truth
That was once mine in childhood

The stars have been singing a song of hope

Humbled in their presence, I am awed
By their radiance and their glorious abundance
I hear their song and I feel
Small and insignificant
Lost for a moment in the vastness of this wonder
Then, as I inhale deeply, I find myself expanding


I find that I am a part of all that is

This swirling mass of light and dark
A part of this magnificent starry night
And as separate as each star appears
They are all held together by the night sky

And even when dawn comes and for a moment
The stars seem gone
I remember the milky way
The breast of infinite possibilities 
And I am nourished
By the thought that I am not alone
But just one piece of the puzzle
The mystery unfolding
One atom
One nucleus
In a vast and wondrous universe

Pattra Burnetto Monroe

Two Minds 

I have been of two minds lately

In this month of May

And even while distracted

I have felt the sun and moons influence 

The sway of the tides
Pulling and pushing
Carrying me away
I have been of two minds lately
One to laugh and one to cry

The seasons they keep changing
Revolving round the sun
An oversimplication of how 
my heart has grown

I've watched the river lately
Ships and tides flowing in and out

Breathing Tonglen for us all

Breathing in the sorrow
Breathing out compassion

The seasons they keep changing
Revolving round the sun
Duality brings both confusion and a bit of clarity



And I've listened to the Angels lately

Trying to avoid the news
Which isn't always easy
considering the times we're in

I have been of two minds lately
One to laugh and one to cry

I have been of two minds lately

One to give and one to receive
Relearning ways of being
I have been before

I have been unpacking lately

Finding evidence of life and love

Believing that
The Universe has a heart
Unsure if it beats for me
I have been of two minds lately

One of hope and one of dread

Life contains so much lately 
That death can take away 

In looking for the blessings
This becomes a way to pray

I have been of two minds lately

One to laugh and one to cry

Then a friend told me

There is no right way to grieve
Grieving knows its way
I have been of two minds lately
One to laugh and one to cry
And one to pray

written June 7, 2007  revised 9/9/11 revised again May 12, 2019
By Pattra Burnetto Monroe