Ancestors

forests and meadows
places where my ancestors
and their reindeer roamed
flat prairie and dry rivers
can’t compete with mountain streams
Copyright © 2021-04-01, by Liz Bennefeld.

Photo by M on Unsplash

Day 29 – On the occasion | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

dragonfly on a Sweet William flower — dragonfly

BIRTHDAYS

measuring time—
twenty-five or thirty-some years
yet to go … or less
looking at past records
of family births and deaths

my dad felt a hundred years
was too long to stick around for
my mother thought that ninety-four
was quite a bit too short
neither was pleased

don’t know what I’ll think
when my world and I transform
when time becomes eternity
maybe I’ll notice, or perhaps I’ll
forget what came before

Day 24 – Butterfly Memories | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

cloudy skies
threatening late-autumn snow
leaves on the wind

memories of butterflies
flower pollen, gentle breeze

Day 23 – Listening | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

no more ideas
nothing to be done with that
but to keep still
listening from my silence
to the heartbeat of the world

Day 22 – Between Seasons | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

b+w leaves on snow

in-between weather
too warm to wear the snow boots…
too cold for slippers

Day 21 – A Powdered Sugar Day | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

powdered-sugar snow
too small to descend slowly
tumbles through the wind
blowing under inside doors
filling outside’s tiny cracks

Day 6 – Autumn Leaves | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Autumn Collage

leaves in the front yard
brown, windblown collages
snow melted and gone

looking forward once again
to icy streets and soft snow

Filling in for a missing day.

Day 18 – From Solid Ground | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Skyscape

from the mountaintop
I was always looking down
in dells I look up

peaks provide a heady view
but in valleys, heaven’s light

Written to #RonovanWrites #Haiku weekly challenge prompt: Valley & Peak

Day 5 – Pleasure | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

puppies on my bed
keeping warm my feet and heart
sheltered from the cold

Prompt for day 5: “pleasure” poem

A bit of catch-up, here. Still behind more than a few prompts.

Day 14 – Respite | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

shaded river path
rippling water’s cheerful song
soft grass underfoot

nature’s essence soothes the heart
calms the sorrows of the soul

Written to #RonovanWrites #Haiku weekly challenge prompt: Nature & Nurture

Image by Tim Hill from Pixabay

Day 13 – Unsettled Winter | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

pile of brown, fallen leaves on top of the snow in the front yard — **Intermission**

restless leaves dance
across the newly white grass
never still for long

errant winds stir them around
shaking off the falling snow

Day 12 – Nature’s Puppeteer | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

black and white fallen leaves on the ground — Autumn Dances

swirling on the path
fall leaves dance to nature’s tune
just before the snow

Day 9 – Wardrobe Salvage | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Prompt: article of clothing

kibbles…then dessert
threads tangled in teeth and paws
my sock in his mouth

Day 8 – Cupcake Winter | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

more than a dusting
but not a second layer…
frosting on the path

Day 7 – Perspective | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

clouded sky

leaves upon the road
farther, the first quarter moon
clouds and tree branches

wayward breezes stir the waves
moonlight is lost in the sky

Day 4 – Sky on Fire | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

warning sirens howl
baying at a veiled moon
mingled mist and smoke

Prompt: RonovanWrites Haiku Weekly Poetry Challenge for 2019-11-04. First posted to my Quilted Poetry blog on WordPress.

Day 3 – Stage Fright | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

standing on a stage
without a script or cue cards
feeling out of place

I wonder, what comes next?
when the final curtain drops?

Day 2 – Happily Ever After | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

a view of a lake inlet from the top of a hill — At Peace

Happily Ever Afters

Live ever after
with the happilies you find
Cherish the memories
that leach the pain from grief
Turn from dead regrets
to each experience
of presence freely given,
in joy still received

Day 1 – Growing Up, Learning | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

View of Village Cemetery — Hawley Cemetery – 2008

what’s the capitol
of the Peace Garden State?
where’s the garden at?

we learned all the answers there
working for Dad, clipping grass

When we were children (there were seven of us, and I am assuming that others got roped into this, each in their turn), Dad hired us during May and as needed during summer school vacations to maintain the grounds of the village cemetery where he was the groundskeeper and sexton. He didn’t retire until he was in his 90s. There was particular need for us children to prepare the cemetery for Memorial Day and to refurbish things after the influx of visitors during the following months. My brother Tim and I worked together, being close in age, and we would pass the time by challenging each other with such miscellanea as state and country capitols and other interesting trivia.

My mother died three years ago, this month, and my father followed her three-and-a-half months later. Their ashes are buried next to the family monument, near two siblings whose lives were measured in days.

Warming up for NaNoWriMo, Day 2

and why would I live
beyond all kin and kindness
absent to their eyes

so, one leaves a friendless warmth,
braving winter’s storms, to die

The many deaths of those most dear

within the past three years… Suddenly, I’m homesick

for a place I’ve never seen.

Mourning seems to come in waves. In the midst of happiness, remembered losses beg not to be forgotten. That’s a trap, I think. The insistence of the mind on revisiting those intense emotions, long after one has moved on. The bittersweet taste of loves and friends and family set aside until time ends, or else, renews all things.

Warming up for NaNoWriMo

I am once again planning to write 30 poems during November (NaNoWriMo)—hopefully, more than one a day, but we’ll see. November and December are cluttered months. Nonetheless…

Today’s and tomorrow’s poems are warm-up exercises. During this poem-a-day exercise, I am hoping not to resort to canned prompts, but to find poems in life as it happens.

the years and the days
ephemeral, but endless…
looking for the end

End of April’s Na/GloPoWriMo poems

I have written two of the last three poems for NaPoWriMo 2019. Laid low by an infected wound, and just now feeling up to writing, again, three or four days into a seven-day script for antibiotics. I hope to add the third poem to this page sometime before the end of Friday.

as I slept, the sun
appeared and warmed the ground
I woke to tulips

Prompt from Na/GloPoWriMo, Day 29: Write a minimalist poem.

rocks steam haze
clouds obscure the sun
no starlight

too wet, sleeping on the ground
but all the trees have melted

Brewer’s prompt for Day 20: Write a dark poem.

Day 27 Late-Season Snow #NaPoWriMo

cocker spaniel playing in the newly fallen April snow — Late-season Snow Storm

Prompt: “Take one of your poems and, in three places, insert a parenthetical comment…” I used only this much of the prompt found at Cuyahoga County Public Library website. Only three more days to go!

late-spring storm
{by now, I shouldn’t feel surprise}
snow on puppy legs…face…tail
{how did he get snow plastered THERE?}
don’t sit in my lap!
{ah, well! there’s towels}

Day 26: An Everlasting Pause #NaPoWriMo #GloPoWriMo

Prompt for Day 26: Write 10 one- or two-line poems on one subject, however loosely related to the subject. Put them together, arranging and rearranging, and title them as one poem.

An Everlasting Pause

Only eternity lasts forever

              Be still and know

There are many mansions

              and the perfect one is set aside for you

Passage of time and distance of place…

              all is present in the Now

I cannot conceive of a moment of perfection

              that never ends or varies

One thing that puzzles me is whether eternity is

              a continuity, an instance of existence, or an object of art

Clarity persists in haunting the mind of the bemused

The eternal Here and Now overlooks the ebb and flow

              of distance and time, not counting minutes or the miles

Satisfaction is a state of mind independent

              of circumstances or the company we keep

Experiencing the tides of now, the gentle inflow and recession

              of being and not being

Hypnotized by sensation and waiting for the feeling

              to come again

Lost in the eternal pause between nothing more

              and everything

Day 25 Springtime Joy #GloPoWriMo #NaPoWriMo

tulips in the side garden — Joy in Springtime

warm winds and raindrops
filling up the tulip cups…
sliding down long leaves

Copyright © 2019-04-25, by Lizl Bennefeld.

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

Quote

Day 23, Waking Early #NaPoWriMo

dawn light scattered
trembling green-gold sparkles
dewdrops in the grass

Day 20 : Night’s Darkness #NaPoWriMo #Glo/NaPoWriMo

photoart by Elizabeth (Lizl) Bennefeld. All rights reserved. — Peonies

night’s soft cloak
sun’s lingering warmth
cloud-clad stars

summer’s breeze is redolent
with scents of sleeping flowers