Tag Archives: Not a Puente

After, Now, and After

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JMW Turner, Seascape with Storm Coming

After the storm–
ask if the sea recalls
how death-winds whipped the waves–
or if now, in moonwake, there is only light

and you

watch as the luscious peach-pink glow
of tomorrow shines, yet hear the heartbeats
of time’s whispers, aching music,
the cries of love and loss

over and again

the stars sing, and wing their colored gleaming
streams, simple truths, obscured in dreams,
what was is here,
heart-held and blood-carried, ever-lasting, within.

My poem in collaboration with the Magnetic Poetry Oracle. Jane Dougherty used a Turner image the other day, and he also appeared in a novel I was reading. I wrote the poem first, but I’m pretty sure the Oracle was nudging me to include a Turner painting with it.

Recall Your Dreams

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Sunrise at the end of December ©️Merril D. Smith 2020

I am after beauty–
searching for it, an old friend
who vanished, but returned

~in the glorious pink of dawn~

the moon sings farewell
as she sets over the blue river,
and a heron soars white

~in a soft wind-whisper~

I hear life,
in shadowed language, full of ifs,
it murmurs,

~recall ~

your dreams,
the scent of summer rain,
the light after the storm clouds part.

It’s been quite a year, hasn’t it? And it may get worse before it gets better. But I decided to consult the Oracle, and she’s given a hopeful message. Happy New Year to all of you!
(This started as a Puente, but it just kept going, sort of like this year.)