Telling Stories

So long away until
hardly do I
know where
to re-enter in
to my
favored writing space.

Still, here it is
lame perhaps
as any attempt
I might make
to excuse my absence.

This small sharing
brings me back in
to move forward
on sharing ideas
that were the brush strokes
over the work that
consumed my days.

The words came and passed
in my time spent
studying other things.
Slowly, now, they make me aware
they still want their say.

Thankfully
I have this space
to give them room and permission
to move off the page
to the screen,
and on into cyberspace.

Today, I’m renewed as
I carve a new space
in my days
for releasing the verses
that breathe
in such synchronicity
with me until
they appear to
breathe for me.

© 2010 Shari Lynne Smothers

I shouldn’t try but here’s my excuse: I didn’t have to stop all the poem posting. The truth is, I really wanted the rest from the mad posting of April. I’ve been in a training program, studying and reading since May. My plan is to take the A+ certification exam soon and pass it the first try—it’s a goal.

As much as I wanted the break, I relish my return and the chance to push the Publish button once again. My apologies for it being so rough, but I’m a little rusty.

I’m tired
so I’m thinking
maybe tonight
sleep will come
to sweep me off my feet.

If not
I’ll lie awake until
it dawns in me that
no matter the worry

there’s no action
I might take to cure it
at two o’clock
in the morning.

© 2010 Shari Lynne Smothers

I’ve spent time away
that I’ve enjoyed
working and beginning
new things that move me.

And even at the back
of my busy thoughts
interspersed in my
times free of tasks,
was the idea
the longing to
return to here to share:

The sounds of the birds
as they conversed loudly
mellifluously
hidden in the leafy branches
heavily dressed by spring.

The late, rapid sprouting
of my honeysuckle plant,
and all the delightful things
my youngest niece does
as she blossoms excitedly
like the lilies in my backyard.

I’m home to the tell you
of all the big events
that kept my full attention
and the quiet sights
that capture my imagination.
Hopefully you’re still willing
to be my companion
traveling through this marvelous
world we live in.

© 2010 Shari Lynne Smothers

My apologies for so long away. I’ve begun studying a new computer course and have been making plans to move. Writing on my other blogs and all the while wishing I could catch up to here. I decided to just do it! I hope you like my newest draft.

And I’ve got a few more that I just haven’t been posting. So, since things are settling down (somewhat), I’ll try to get back to some semblance of regular. I hope you’re reading and writing poems with the some of the great communities online. If you’re looking for communities, check out the banners I’ve got in my sidebar, and my poets blog list.

Enjoy!

When the bough breaks
the man who’s raking is
expected to catch the cradle.
Only he doesn’t know
what’s expected beyond
best practices for his grounds.

Then, sure as the sun
does its thing,
the wind blows
and the bough does break
so suddenly until
it’s all he can do to duck away.

Once the cradle and contents
crash into the earth
through the dust from the
thunderous impact it can be heard:
a baby
is screaming from fear and
possible broken-ness.

Now the groundskeeper
reaches through to the child
unaware of any shortfall attributed
to his own self-preservation act.
Quickly understanding that
he’s in this place to
do what he can after the fact.

© Shari Lynne Smothers

Everywhere I look
I see the poetry
life offers up
for the open heart
to enjoy.

And I do.

Cotton blossom scent
of my favorite candle,
humorously outrageous
contorted faces
reacting to the very opposite
malodorous skunk aroma.
Waving leaves on trees
on an otherwise still day
give the strong impression
I’m watching them growing.

Even the gentle flurry
of the curtain rolling over
the soft breeze
through the open window
makes my mind smile.

All the soft, pretty, pleasant,
quiet sides of being alive
can cocoon me
and I get rejuvenated,
apart from the draining
aspects of my days.

© 2010 Shari Lynne Smothers

So much anger and
hostility blocking clear
thoughts, suffocate creativity.

Ill-fitting ideas
rend us asunder
making life uncomfortable.

We try muddling through
feigning normalcy only
we’re really screwed up.

Bitter little things
fester and are added to with
actions emboldened by

others’ acts that seem
comparatively worse and
somehow lessen their own.

Acting out, abusing
power not really their own.
Unswervingly grasping

for something big to regret later.

© 2010 Shari Lynne Smothers

A poem to say I can’t seems
the wrong tact to take when
aspiring to greater heights than
ever before achieved,
even than ever before attempted.

So, backing up a bit
with a deep breath
and mustering confidence
I don’t feel yet, I’ll say
a poem a day is on its way.

What I will say easily
is, they won’t be perfection
only offered up for you to find
what pleasure you might in their lines.
So not much different than
poems posted here regularly.

Revisiting and revisions are
down the road activities.
You’re welcome to wait
for the sleek, fluffed versions.
But, I invite you
to walk on the wild side,
join me for the adventure
of reading raw poetry.

© 2010 Shari Lynne Smothers

In my favorite dreams
there is promise
of a great future
that could be ours now
if only those most completely indoctrinated
would let go of the hatred,
the seething, contemptuous loathing
for people of different ilk and ideology.

In my clearest dreams,
disagreements
can get loud
but never solicit
violence, murder of children
through slanderous provocative
speech
reminiscent of
    —you remember

or vandalizing buildings
terrorizing men and women
and by relation their children,
all because they didn’t
agree with their opposition.

Today I’m grateful for the haters,
though their vile words are
shouted loudest and from every venue,
from high places, bombed down
on the heads of the innocent;
from below, seeping up and infecting
all who are touched by it;

I’m grateful that, in my worst dreams
just like in my reality
they are in the minority.

© 2010 Shari Lynne Smothers

Every day there’s something disgusting making the news. I’m bombarded with the images that my imagination contrives, based on the vile and scary things I’ve heard discussed. This post is another shaped, in part, by the news. I write it in hopes that I can one day wrap my mind around certain actions.