April Odds & Ends

too many dreams and
so little time to follow
any to its end

if they don’t bathe in sunlight
daffodils will never bloom

lying on the sand
looking up at Ocean’s mirror
the rain dropping through
brief remnants of the daylight and
their echoes—the stars and the moons

TV noise …
I saw it before
Star Trek reruns eternally

Poems in addition to the ones assigned to April days. Still looking through text files for poems I may have missed along the way.

Liz

April to May – NaPoWriMo Day 22

“A Path to Summer”

At the edge of winter
Promises of spring flowers and
Rising temperatures with sunshine,
Ice hangs from the eaves and
Lies in wait, nearly invisible
————-still, that
Makes the daily walk to the mailbox
An exciting dance of life or death
Yet a welcome break in the routine

Photo by Izzy Park on Unsplash

Transformed – NaPoWriMo Day 21

Truth
Reappears
As the days and hours flow
Night and daylight blend
Sunlight bows to moonlight
Flowers bloom in my imagination
Only to transform themselves
Rest for a time again
Melding reality with impossibilities
All has become new and beautiful
Tied together by love
I rejoice with this new world
Once a barren, endless plain
Now filled with possibilities

Image by Bessi from Pixabay

Sound Barriers – NaPoWriMo Day 20

sometimes life becomes
a bit too full of people
walls, motion, wind, light

hours feel like mere minutes
words turn into jumbled noise

Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash

Saturday afternoon thoughts

tulips emerging from beneath autumn's fallen leaves — Tulips in March, 2021-03-25

winter’s end
watching for springtime
new tulips

sentries on alert
crows in the highest branches
sunrise gathering

long-neglected bricks
melting ice and acid moss
useless…thrown away

people die, cities moulder
all will vanish in the dust

unopened books
left to gather dust
or burn for heat
how does one build the future
as all knowledge dies in flames

faces and voices
people that I’ll never touch
people whom I love

feelings never recognized
fill my mind and heart with light

bitter winds rage
cold ground beneath my feet
just beyond the door
orange tulips trust the spring
to make way for fragrant flowers

Thursday morning thoughts

tulip shoots
covered with spring snow
cold blankets

fragile leaves
still cling to their twigs
icy rain

autumn grass
covered with new snow
spring thaw

sight of morning leaves
with unexpected snowflakes
one more cup of tea

spring’s promise
pending due to winds and snow
seed packets

haiku sans pictures
no paper, ink, or photos
no haiga today

years after her death
i do not write of mother
lest she proof my lines

When peace…

far distant lights
gathering peace among the stars
snowflakes on the wind

Changing seasons

dawn’s soft colors
shades and shadows on the path
falling leaves
Copyright 2020-12-09, by Lizl Bennefeld.

Image by chunli chen from Pixabay

Sunday meditation

morning light
Syrphid’s shadow
wind’s caress

Retasting realities

bookshelves beside my rocking chair — Rewriting the World

So many years, to notice I’ve returned to the place from which I started. A journey not yet ended, but which will end in an hour … or months … or decades from this day. A journey not taken?

streams of thought

and kindnesses not looked for

barely noticed

I saved gratitude for the end

but, thinking now, it should not be left too late

to speak through silent words

written on a screen…a sheet of paper

or the sky’s clouds

gentle rain

tracks

in dust

before the earth is wrung dry

and cries for tears

to dampen it, again

perhaps there is a time…a moment

to stop the flow of thought and reason

to feel what is and mourn

what might have been—

to acknowledge the gaps

measures underweight

until the world’s too light

not to blow away

Day 24 : Just different #NaPoWriMo #GloPoWriMo

complete as me

i’m just me
not alone…but separate
a narrow focus

what goes wrong outside this room
does not change what i can do

Lizl Bennefeld, 2019-04-24

Day 18: topics not discussed #NaNoWriMo

Very loosely based on the Day 18 prompt from the Cuyahoga County Public Library. I am not sure that I’ll go back to rework this after NaPoWriMo is over for this year. I do know that I do not write poetry in four-line stanzas.

‘topics not under discussion’

sometimes I turn around to see
as though from outside human space
the larger patterns…masked by lies

then my heart catches…forgets how to beat
and I find myself hoping that it won’t
remember…how to start itself again

in the longer run the gifts I wield
will make no lasting difference
all will die quietly…fade away in sleep

what I can achieve is to be present
in this moment, acknowledging each
thing that lives and care…until we’re dead

Day 11: Drawn Towards Joy

This poem was posted also on my Quilted Poetry blog.

new, green leaves on a cotoneaster tree in our back yard — New Growth

drawn towards joy
changing of the seasons
gentle warmth
quiet melt of winter’s snow
springtime’s gift of sun and rain

As I write this poem, I am listening to an ongoing spring blizzard that has delivered over seven inches of snow, so far today. We expect another five to seven inches before the storm ends. The tulips and daffodils long since emerged from the warm, damp grown. I am trusting the new snow to protect them from the wind and icy rains still to come.

I have looked at photos from previous years, and April snows are not that unexpected. Still, it is strange to be confined to house and outbuildings by snow drifts, when at the beginning of the week, I was outside barefoot and without a jacket.