A PERSPECTIVE IN LIFE’S UPS AND DOWNS
Late last night, I was
Parallel to the full moon:-
That changed this morning:
I am perpendicular
To another day’s sunshine
Glory be to God
Another surviving night,
And its rising day:
Me ready for all of life’s
Up and down tribulations:-
In life’s ups and downs,
Let’s forever be in God’s
Labors of His love:
Seeking true equality
For all of humanity:-
In life’s ups and downs,
Let us pull down injustice;
Raising up justice:
Don’t be blind to injustice,
Up there, pulling down, justice:-:
Much more could be said,
But it’s parallel time now—
Tomorrow waiting:
May God see fit to have me
Perpendicular again:-
He had a 1000 watt smile
And an explosive personality
But not in a destructive disturbing way
In a disarming delightfully charming way
He was always smiling never sad or down
Despite being a toddler with Down’s syndrome
His bright eyes could peel paint off the walls
With their concentrated energy during nap time
Eventually the music we’d play would
Serenade his high spirits to sleepy land
Only recharging his boisterous body
Cannon always had a runny nose sleep or not
Being born caramel with challenges are his cards
But Cannon was a kid who could play his hand
He was intelligent and as cute as he was smart
He seemed to know it with his attentive smile.
I haven’t seen Cannon since he was three
And a student in my cross category class
But I often think of him and the other kids
And then a smile slides across my face
With every fall there is also a rising
The man in the elevator, alas!
Struck a small talk with a lady of class.
Was dealt a bad card,
Was sucker-punched hard -
Dared to ask if she will go down, badass!
We tend to realize the older we grow
how in life there is a definite ebb and flow…
How sometimes the sun will shine
making the landscape clear and bright
and other times our eyes have a hard time
adjusting to the darkness of the night
When it’s bright outside…we laugh and play and run
we try to enjoy and store in our memory
every moment in the sun.
So when darkness falls and we can’t tell night from day
we’ll have those memories in the sun to help illuminate our way.
When sadness darkens our world
memories of the sunlight help us overcome our fears
reminding us there is joy out there
Floating…in the wake of all our tears
Reminding us somewhere in our sorrow
if we look for joy…we’ll find it
and that every dark cloud…
will one day surrender…
to the sun …waiting patiently behind it.
As the maestro meticulously draws sound from the strings,
Feelings and sensations the music brings.
A skilled violinist performing with skill,
Can lull your heart and make it still.
The maestro has a story to tell,
And with his violin he tells it well.
Quickly rising with a higher pitch,
Then fallings again as in a ditch.
Bow across strings faster and faster,
A building crescendo by the master.
Then the soothing of a softer sound,
A sense of release the artist has found.
It’s much like life with its ups and downs,
A revealing balance of smiles and frowns.
Processing grief is an overwhelming process
of momentous highs and lows -
which can bring the joy of a wonderful
memory and the next moment
brings the lows of the crushing loss
but HOPE shows itself as life continues
The whittle mind of self-reflection
Within a tiny bit of self-doubt
Coming from a stressful day
Life has its ups and downs that way
Can't say I enjoy it
can seem to do without it
Just another up and down day oh well
You look at life differently
With total inside wit
get ideas and let them flow
which life has one doing some days
Can't seem to do without them
Once again you feel funny
run around with money
Again it has its ups and downs
Seem to always turn it around
Chorus....
Life has many ups and downs
Personally more ups than downs
A happy life with many more years
A bunch more smiles than frowns
Surely one of the fortunate ones
The genes were a very huge factor
Nine girls and me at a baseball team
Each game we had our own sector
Yup nine girls and then li'l ole me
The talk of our little old berg
The Ellison's have finally had a boy
Biggest news our town had heard
Dancing in the streets all night long
A celebrity at a tender young age
So spoiled with all those girls around
To fawn over this sweet wee babe
Turned out to be a stunning specimen
Can still bring it at eighty-nine!
It's getting to be a lot tougher though
But that's it I'm feeling just fine!
Written: February 24, 2025 For Brian Strand Contest
*********************
A lifetime swings good, bad, and back
Toil shows us what we lack.
Brave lessons learned
hard earned,
grasped by
how high we fly,
determined by the will
to work, whatever sweat we spill.
Note: Pendulum is an invented verse form with graduated line lengths. Etta J Murphy created it and it first appeared in Calkins' Haiku Highlights (July-August 1970). The Pendulum is an 8-line poem with a syllable count of 8/6/4/2/2/4/6/8.
Rhyme scheme: aabbccdd.
A Simultaneous Existence,
Exists Within us.
Making a difference,
Different than you Think.
Connecting Emotions and Energy,
Silently driving Society.
Quietly Implying words you Say,
We blindly pave the way.
Navigating Physicality,
Through this Maze of Reality.
Trapped By Desires,
Wrapping us In Fire.
Smoke Obstructing,
Suffocating our way to be.
Feelings of Negativity,
Run Rampantly.
Simultaneously up and down,
Through Humanity.
Effecting Everyone you see,
Tainting their energy.
Changing So Slightly,
You start Sinking.
Thinking,
Digging up the dark.
Caverns of Patterns,
Connecting our lives.
Unaware how it Drives,
Crashing Energy into Matter.
Feelings Splatter Space,
Surrounding the place.,
Invisibly Existing,
Simultaneously,
Sharing,
The Ups and Downs.
I navigate through the portal of life
Walk past the corridors
Where light and shadows play
Welcoming each twist and turn
Accepting the ups and downs
Guiding my path to my destiny
Facing life's storms
With fortitude and resilience
Crafting me into who I am
The echoes of the past
Reverberates across the hallway
Where the past and present meet
Handing me his laptop
my older brother Ray says:
“Hey, look at this!”
The screen goes black
so he mutters:
“What'd y'do now?
Here, give it back.”
He fiddles with something.
My back hears his cold hint from the door -
“Just look at the picture,
DON'T touch the screen.”
But…
I’ve walked away without a word,
thereby leaving his put-down
where it belongs
in his lap.
Took me a long time to learn
I don’t have to listen
to arrogance or condescension.
I’ve learned to put down put-downs
with ease.
Why wait for the name-calling like
"Ignoramus!" Just ignore Ray.
I quietly close the door.
A hillside of walkers gathering slow
blend with the gold medal fields all aglow.
Kites finding freedom, flutter and flow
as looping Red Kites begin to swoop low.
Families with picnics bask in the sun
whilst ice-cream smeared children playfully run.
Dogs chasing frisbees bark at the fun
as strolling events are just about done.
Rooks search for scraps on the Downs chalky chest.
Footballs pace quicker as if on a quest.
Hypnotic gliders hover like rest,
drifting away, along with my stress.
Serenity cycles. Smiles are on tour.
The wonder of nature is what we’re there for.
The café embraces a coach trip or more.
Benches remember all those gone before.
I view all the tissue-like clouds move along
whilst hearing the skylark sing beautiful song.
The smell of contentment is fragrant and strong.
Our Dunstable Downs is where I belong.
Velvet verdigris
solid static tsunami
mounded muscle mass
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