peace is the fruit of winter
that solitude cloaked in white
that silence hushed by the wind
the temperature that dips down low
the calm that isolates the heart
and gives it space for convalescing
AP: 2nd place 2025
Submitted on April 7, 2025 in contest YOUR CHOICE K sponsored by BRIAN STRAND - RANKED 5TH
Half-dressed trees
dance in an April wind-shuffle.
New buds learn how to shake
raindrops off.
Winter’s skeletal joints
are a lightly applied moss green,
a mild mannered climate
now simmering bark and branch.
To jump right into the heat of summer
would be a greenhorn maneuver,
March’s wayward proclivities
may have yet more to say.
Spring steps slowly into a newly-lit ring
testing for sink-holes in a blue tinted sky.
Many are recovering, convalescing,
mending the torn tissue,
patching up ice-bitten dreams.
Today a nursing breeze foretells of fat fields,
of less demanding times,
of harvests and an fruiting glut.
Time to break the frosted walking stick,
to rise up in the rosy cheek and sinew -
tell the lazy cat on the warming step
to go catch the coming sun
and bring it home.
Translation
~Her Attentive Daughter~
Before winters sun; she awakes.
A nice, warm, shower, is her habit.
In plaid slippers to the kitchen she
then goes.
To prepare breakfast for her family
The dog also begging to be fed.
To see how her convalescing Mother
is doing!
In this California land, touched by the
lightest of God’s earthquakes.
Daughter is attentive to make sure her
Mom takes vitamins and tablets.
Later, they watch choice movie shows.
To her , their love is primary.
Then, after a short walk places her
lovingly in bed.
She realizes, not, it leaves her Mother’s
grateful heart leaping.
Rhyme end scheme as follows in both
stanzas:
a,b,c,d,e,f
12/18/2021
I cried my heart out
For i am hurting, but no one pays attention
Ozone depletion my signature symptom
But they wouldn't let go
I cried out until until my tears caused floods and stirred storms
My piercing cry caused droughts
I changed the times and seasons
To let you know that I was tired
I needed rest all along, but they would let me be
Trees fell like spent match sticks in a bin
Smoking chimneys like the dragons of old
I cried the more yet no one heard me
Then 2019 came calling Corona virus,
Wuhan set the place and the tone
Then they heard my cry and shut down the factories and the cities and the tanking cars.
The burning gas ceased, the place of consumption slowed the pace.
Ozone's healing in place suddenly
Nature's respite claimed.
The air smelled better,
The rain fall a reminder of the yonder years.
The Artic and Antarctica rejoicing
Temperatures going South
The rainbow and the sunshine
My convalescing signature
Natures circle is turned full cycle.
Covid-19 a blessing in disguise.
(Written on the 14th May, 2020)
So I finally let a new girl in
Convalescing and vulnerable
Tired of playing the field
Wanting to remember how to feel
And yes she made me feel
How she did make me feel!
She picked me up
And healed me
Refilled my cup
When she kissed me.
Smart and enjoyable
Beautiful, shockingly so.
Funny, but not mockingly so
Cute and adorable
She infiltrated me
As I penetrated her
Entwined me
As I grew into her
Pressed against me
As I pulled her to me
Ensorcelled me
As I clung to her
Made me laugh as the roots
Of her tickled into my smiling mouth
Made me listen as the tendrils
Of her wiggled playfully into my ears
Made me desire again as the fruit
Of her inflamed my mind
Made me feel again as the flowers
Of her exploded color in my chest
When I came to
There was music in her voice
The smell of honey in her skin
I had absolutely no choice
I was in love once again
And far before I knew
My friends are convalescing
In their beds they lay
The truth there lies before me
Future come what may
Aches are my companion
Pain a faithful friend
Rigor mortis is a buddy of mine
He’ll be there in the end
The nurse is such a sweetie
Gives me what I wish
I know she means so very well
Just wish she spoke English!
The future is so bright
It glows an urgent red
It’s supposed to call the doctor
The janitor came instead
I guess I better stop right now
I think its best I pause it
Seeing I went number one
Inside the clothing closet!
David Kettler
1/06/19.
MY LIFE IN VERBS
by
JOHN M. ARRIBAS
Nothing, Something Treading, Swimming, Navigating, Vibrating, Penetrating, Dividing, Multiplying, Forming, Shaping, Moving, Kicking, Exiting, Crying, Breathing, Seeing, Sleeping, Being.
Suckling, Creeping, Crawling, Walking, Talking, Running, Growing, Playing, Adjusting, Adapting, Complying.
Enrolling, Attending, Learning, Reading, Writing, Socializing, Growing, Formulating, Postulating, Rejecting, Rebelling, Calming, Weighing, Accepting, Working, Earning, Idling.
Enlisting, Training, Deploying, Ambushing, Engaging, Killing, Wounding, Bleeding, Shaking, Praying, Repairing, Convalescing, Moving, Discharging, Homing.
Enrolling, Attending, Studying, Learning, Graduating, Working, Earning, Managing, Enriching.
Searching, Finding, Wooing, Marrying, Parenting, Guiding, Counseling, Bragging, Encouraging, Steering, Babysitting, Gloating, Watching, Glowing.
Retiring, Cruising, Visiting, Traveling, Tiring, Resting.
Aging, Slowing, Aching, Suffering, Failing, Ailing, Fading, Dying, Stiffening, Freezing, Cremating, Scattering, Nothing.
I HAVE A CALL ON MY LIFE
A CALL ON MY LIFE
BY DIVINE NATURE THIS IS WHY
THIS IS WHY
WHY
HOLY BLESSINGS CONVALESCING
BE TRUE INTERCESSION
I HAD (I HAVE A)divine intervention
I HAD A DIVINE INTERVENTION
I HAVE A DIVINE INTERVENTION
INTERVENTION
I HAVE TO BE STILL IN MY LIFE
BE QUIET ALLOW THE LORD TO BE IN MY HEART
BY DIVNE NATURE THIS IS WHY, WHY?
I HAVE A CALL ON MY LIFE
A CALL ON MY LIFE
BY DIVINE NATURE THIS IS WHY
THIS IS WHY
WHY
HOLY BLESSINGS CONVALESCING
BE TRUE INTERCESSION
I HAD (I HAVE A)divine intervention
I HAD A DIVINE INTERVENTION
I HAVE A DIVINE INTERVENTION
INTERVENTION
WHY
HOLY BLESSINGS CONVALESCING
BE TRUE INTERCESSION
I HAD (I HAVE A)divine intervention
I HAD A DIVINE INTERVENTION
I HAVE A DIVINE INTERVENTION
INTERVENTION
05/10/2011
Written by James Edward Lee Sr.
from analogy "Inspired" 2011
Talking of obscenity
you were undressing
to show the scars.
It was and it was not
a display of is. Little
raw wound.
The lungs will not take
this insult and scream
in full horror.
One collapsed faith, after
the god failed him
to climb a ladder.
I am still convalescing
from the gunshot injury,
when you fired at a blackbird.
Satish Verma
There is a spy within me
tapped into suspicions
one eye zeroed in
round the clock
There is a ward
of smuggled wounds
convalescing in my notebooks
smudged so badly
that only I can decipher
their blood
I wake early
before family commotion starts
before the endless
mandible chatter
rips apart the silence
because my mind is groggy
standing before sunrise
because birds flutter
in such a manner
that my center loses grounding
My eyes are sky
pulled away from my brain
morning fog stuffs my head
I am an old basement
damp and dripping
Maybe a yard sale is in order
to rid myself these shabby feelings
these ragged doubts
--------------------------------------------------
from my 6th book-length manuscript
©dah / dahlusion 2016 all rights reserved
"Yard Sale" was first published in
'Chicago Record Magazine'
i let myself go and accept the blessing
you unveil my inner self to view
i feel as if i am needfully convalescing
for this feeling is so rare and few
Black russian; White russian If
you dare o0zing sex on the beach
strolls down mem~o~rized long
Island ice tea left me stranded on A
one night affair.
Impacted viberations through
bloody mary's vines quenching
her thrusting thirst for one more
blow~job If you pleaz!!! He Asks.
Convalescing bodies hit the floor
like A G-6 Screaming death
spathums roar....
His Pensive innercourse ; gave
her nothing but gin n' tonic
explossion of self desire on
slippery nipples and A ding o'
ling Rides the roller~coaster
fling.
He now must leave her
with wet dreams
of exotic pleassures......
She stops him for a moment
and asked just one more please
before you go! Good Sir.
He replies: no my lady
Thank~You and goodbye!!!
Drunken Master.... vixen.