Rhythm and Blues and a few Country Western Haikus
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This is a Peace Poem
dwelling in the canyon of red sand stone we marked our houses with characters befitting our desires if we were sad w...
Saturday, February 26, 2022
Saturday, January 29, 2022
Alchemy
i am red
Friday, November 5, 2021
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)
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
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.
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
Saturday, February 1, 2020
Brigid's Day Poem
Friday, November 29, 2019
Let There Be Grace
Saturday, November 23, 2019
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
Thursday, August 29, 2019
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
Sunday, May 12, 2019
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
Ships and tides flowing in and out
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
Which isn't always easy
considering the times we're in
One to laugh and one to cry
I have been of two minds lately
Relearning ways of being
I have been before
The Universe has a heart
Unsure if it beats for me
I have been of two minds lately
That death can take away
This becomes a way to pray
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