One of my mother's poems

This Is The Place

Below The Hill

Where Tragedy

Occurred

A Spot Of Blood

The Ruffled Snow

A Sign

Of A Wounded

Bird

Here Is A Heart

Where Love Has Died

A Tragedy As Deep

Yet Never A Sign

Of Weary Years

Nor Spot To Mark

The Pain And Tears

Only Eyes That

Weep

  Marguerite Day Burnetto (December 16, 1923 – December 3, 2004)

Enlighten Me

If it is darkest before the dawn

then let the rooster crow

I cannot continue to struggle

against bonds I cannot see

Images of love are lost

nothing feels real

So pathetic in my suffering

the tears that can't be shed

Sowing what we reap

fearing what we dread

I'm blind to my part in this

and crippled by feet of clay

Frozen in my tracks

in this my darkest hour

While waiting for the rooster

I've forgotten how to pray

Pattra Burnetto Monroe January 2000

Inanimate

What do I do
with the passion
I feel for you

I do the dishes
hot soapy water
rushes
washes
over my hands

as I listen to blues
on the radio
these hands
that want
to touch you

baptizing you
in sea foam
and sand

Yet, I cannot
touch you
this we
understand

still,
what do I do
with the passion
I feel for you
 
Pattra Burnetto Monroe (Revised 2010)  By changing just one word, the whole poem and meaning is altered.  Interesting.

A Quiz: Who am I

I am blue-yellow, but not green
I am long and thin, but not lean
I am a wild horse, but not a mustang
I am an old reliable ford
On my good days
I am a strong force to be reckoned with

I am my mother's daughter

I am slow & fluid, but not graceful
I am a bird song in the morning,
But I no longer mourn
I am a haunting melody, without a warning
A siren searching
A Lorelei
Forsaken, but not easily forgotten
My days are numbered, but I am not

I am not my father's son

If I were furniture, I would not be a sofa or a couch,
But I could be a divan -- sprawl out on me,
But do not get too comfortable
If I were food I would be spaghetti,
The leftovers tasting better than the day before
Play with me, slurp me, but do not desert me

I was once a playful child

I am the flute song
Floating on the perfumed river
I am the weeping willow
With my roots entwined in the earth
I am serious, my intent is genuine,
Although my actions are sometimes feeble
Inexcusable or nonrenewable
They are livable, the choice was & is mine
I did the best I knew how to do
At the time

Each act forgivable or not
My expiration inevitable
Does being born feel a bit like dying
I don't remember either
yet

I fear living fully sometimes
And other times
I can be fearless
And sometimes alone
at night
I fear drowning
In embryonic fluid
Or sometimes I fly above the earth
And then I awake & forget
Who I am

Who am I
A) am I the born awaiting death
B) am I the unborn awaiting rebirth
C) both A & B
D) none of the above


By Pattra Burnetto Monroe

Things Happen
Pattra Burnetto Monroe
      Things happen when you're in the shower, all kinds of things.  Today was no exception.  As I was holding the shampoo bottle in my hand, I realized it said "Revitalize" on the container and while the warm water pelted my body, I thought of Emoto* and his experiments with water. 
      My oldest daughter, while still enrolled in college, said that his experiments were fiction according to her science professor.  He told her that, "They are pure fiction, good fiction - but fiction none the less."  I found myself doubting her and her professor’s wisdom only because I felt such powerful emotions when I saw the photographs of his work.  The images of water he had photographed made a deep impression on me.
      The first time I heard of Masuro Emoto and his experiments with water was while I was watching a movie, 'What the Bleep Do We Know!?' and when it came to the part about Emoto and his experiments, my mouth dropped open as I watched the screen with great attention and wonder.  Dr. Emoto had taken water from various different sources such as rivers, waterfalls, and even tap water and had photographed it under a microscope.  Then he labeled the water with a word like peace or love and re-photographed it after labeling it with the written blessing. 
      The contrasts between the before-and-after pictures were amazing. The once ugly water became beautiful after the application of a word, just one single word like love, peace, or gratitude.  Delicate, unique crystal snowflake patterns appeared under the microscope and each photograph became a testament to the power of words and the power of thoughts and the power of love. “If thoughts can do that to water, imagine what our thoughts can do to us.”**
      Fiction or not; good science or not, I’d like to believe that Emoto's work expresses a higher truth that might benefit all of us and the world we inhabit.  Such a simple thing to do… to bless something with a word. 
      “Even I could do this!” I thought to myself, “Even people who don’t believe in God or prayer could do this, if they chose too.” I wondered, “Do we indeed create our reality with our thoughts and words as readily as we create it with our deeds?
      My shower was intended to wake me up, make me a bit more practical, not more dreamy; yet I liked the direction my thoughts were leading me.  I continued to daydream as I applied the shampoo to my hair.  I envisioned my thinning hair becoming revitalized just as the bottle implied.  While shampooing, I could see my hair growing thicker, longer, and more luxurious with each movement of my hands through the frothy foam. It felt wonderful!
      My imagination kept conjuring up better and better scenarios.  When I got out of the shower and looked in the mirror I almost expected the gray to be gone, replaced by the hair of my youth instead of the salt & pepper hair that I see in the mirror each morning.  The color of my hair did look a little darker, but my daughter would be the first to point out to me that it looked that way because it was still wet.
      Pushing that inner voice aside, I let the believer in me come back to the surface while I dried myself with a towel.  Then I took an eyebrow pencil and slowly wrote T - R - I - M across my naked belly.  After all it couldn't hurt anything and stranger things have happened.


*The Hidden Messages in Water by Dr. Masuro Emoto

** Quote from the movie: What the Bleep Do We Know!?

Once in a Blue Moon

Two Minds

I have been of two minds lately

In this blue moon month

And even unaware

I have felt it's influence

I have been of two minds lately

One to laugh and one to cry

I have done some good things lately

Like singing in the rain

And carefully picking wild flowers

To make a bouquet

Or wading in the water

And writing down the pain

I have been of two minds lately

One to laugh and one to cry

I've listened to the Angels

Singing in the wind

I've seen the birds flying

Riding the thermals in the air

And felt their joy and despair

I've watched the river flowing

And the tides come in & out

And I've even gone to work

When I didn't want to

Discovering I still knew the way

Feeling better for it

None of this has been in vain

I have been of two minds lately

One to laugh and one to cry

I have been unpacking lately

Finding evidence of life & love

I have been crying and weeping

And crying some more

From a well I thought was dry

I have been of two minds lately

One to laugh and one to cry

I didn't know I could shed so many tears

I thought I'd cried all there was 

I thought my grief was over

I thought I'd closed that door

Only to find it open

The floodgates extended

The damn broken

while I sat upon the floor

Among the buried treasure

Of photographs and more

My brother's army hat

A letter from my sister

My mother's silly poem

About the cat that kissed her

My father's diary and their union pins
My firstborns baby bracelet

Tiny bits and pieces

I thought that I could keep

To hold their memories in

Scattered mementos carefully packed

Hoarded against the day

When my memory

began to fade

Life contains so much that

Death can take away

I have been of two minds lately

One to laugh and one to cry

I've wondered about my mind lately

Because I never know quite where or when

The crying would begin

Or when that lonesome feeling

Would find it's way in

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
And when we discover we feel alone  
We are because  

We have lost the ones we love

In crying I acknowledge that

In laughing I do too

And find that the loves I thought I lost
Are just a thought away

And are brought nearer to me
Whispering in my ear
I love and support you

And I feel them all around me

Once in a new, blue, or full moon

I have been of two minds lately

One to laugh and one to cry


written June 7, 2007  revised 9/9/11
By Pattra Burnetto Monroe

Germination (1999)

lying dormant in the garden
are the seeds that have been sown

winter hides the flowers
deep within the ground

cloistered within the depression
lying dormant in the earth

are disembodied dreams
protected in a state of silence

numb and warm
are seeds awaiting germination

like the silent sleeping beauty
awakened by the prince

my loves awaken me
with patient little prods

beckoning me to surface
come sing to us they call

come fix me something to eat
laughter, rain, and sorrow

each calling for attention
each seed seeking its perfection

no matter what state
dormant or awakened

or lying buried in the ground
appearances can be deceiving

and love can still be found

Pattra Burnetto Monroe

Definition by Pattra Burnetto Monroe (1997)

DEFINITION

I AM NOT

A PERFORMER

A WRITER

A POET

A DANCER

A SINGER

A MUSICIAN

OR AN ARTIST

BUT I DO THESE THINGS

ACT

WRITE

MUSE

DANCE

SING

PLAY

AND CREATE

BECAUSE I AM

A WOMAN

A CHILD

A MOTHER

A LOVER

A FRIEND

ALIVE 

AND BREATHING

AND BECAUSE I CANNOT

NOT 

WRITE

LAUGH

SING

CRY

GROW

AND CHANGE

pbm (1997)

Light Years

“All the loneliness, All the loneliness,
A broken Maraca of Stars…”
Bill Shively (an American Writer & Poet)

Light Years

The stars have been singing to me
Lately
Yet they have not been singing the blues
Or a sad lament
Or even sappy romantic ballads from the past
The stars have been singing me the truth
That was once mine in childhood
A song of hope


Humbled in their radiant presence
I feel small and insignificant
Lost for a moment
I take a deep breath
And find myself
Expanding
Reaching into the vastness
I find that I am a part of this
A part of the stars
A part of this magnificent universe
And as separate as each star appears

They are all held together by the night sky
And even when dawn appears
And for a moment
The stars seem gone
I remember the Milky Way
The breast of Mother Earth
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 ~ October 2009

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

pbm