One day a message will come
Delivered by some
profoundly bored face
Or a voice to trace…
Barely a sentence spared
For such news.
Nobody cared—
Nobody halted, nobody stared…
But one day
a message will come
From the other end
Of the world
—Suddenly all sand—
Spent to the core
And blind
Shutting the door behind.
short or terse or brief
suspended or halted or constrained...
circular or spiral or wavy
calisthenics or yoga or tiptoeing...
paper or rock or scissors
past or present or future...
My poetry!
high winds blow tall trees
water fiercely covers road
driving is halted
The first fulguration stooped to kiss a shard,
Not the thunderhead that boasted of its flame;
A broken bottle in an orchard yard
Held one white filament no night could claim.
The beech unlocked a thousand argent leaves;
Each fern leaned nearer, listening through the rain.
A kestrel loosed the wind from both its wings;
The granite seemed to soften in the plain.
Then lightning missed the heavens altogether.
It entered quartz, wet lichen, antler, thorn;
The river halted underneath its weather,
While moss recalled a coastline never born.
An oak drew brightness downward through its roots.
The fox stood still beneath a hawthorn's breath.
One acorn opened, showing not its fruit,
But rings of summers harvested from death.
When morning searched the hills, the sky was gone.
The birds flew lower, as though nothing changed.
Only the broken glass kept filling with the dawn—
Until the sun looked in, and turned away.
A stillness has captured the air
Movement halted to silence
No thought allowed forming
The past is no more
The future absorbed with promise
Hope hangs like cat hair
Memory fails me
Whispers of what used to be
Fall like smoker's breath
Stale, familiar, almost desired
All behaviors of pleasure
Faded in the fog
Missions completed
Destiny, revealed, in action
The old remains, the new, wanes
The heart almost protests
Against the struggles required
For the victory feast
Laughter seems like honey
Applied to battle scars
Sticky, tainted, despised
No celebration can remove
The raised skin of sorrow
Gained for the sake of LOVE
Written by Trudy Schrader on 05-02-2026
The heartbeat halted,
But the ultrasound didn't,
Blending in the crowd.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
the hush
of a clock’s halted pendulum.
the breath
a streetlight holds
before flickering on.
the weight
of an unwritten letter.
the ache
in a dial tone’s hollow.
a rumor of rain
that never falls,
a door left ajar
for no one.
the absence
has been waiting.
Wild hands
Touch wonder
The Earth shook
I heard thunder
...fault line
Angry words
Whipped about
Lashed at silence
I heard a shout
...fault line
Salty residue
Throat sensation
Music halted
Willing participation
...fault line
Personalities surface
Crazy run a muck
Responsibility dodged
Just passing the buck
...fault line
Working it out
Healing the fracture
Knocking down beams
To restore the structure
...earthquake
It's over
Leveled, scared
No one to tell
About all my affairs
...demolished
Stay away
Don't come near
The TRUTH
Is what you fear
...the New Earth is here
Written by Trudy Schrader on 01-18-2026
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
crystal veins asleep~
winter's tongue laps silently
at time's halted throat
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
the sky bleeds yolk over Saint-Rémy,
a fever-bright wash, thick as summer’s breath.
mountains crouch in indigo, their edges
softened by dusk’s bruising fingers.
grasses shiver—coarse strokes of emerald,
ochre, jade—a restless sea halted mid-sway.
a farmhouse kneels, its red roof smoldering
against the slope’s drowsy violet.
twisted trees claw at the light,
their crooked fingers sketching shadows
across the meadow’s thistly skin.
the fence stands tightly drawn.
IN CRAMPING BOWELS OF SHAME
Defecated bigotry and political rhetoric,
Constipates justice and infects racism
With diarrhea—dehydrating vulnerable humanity:-
Meanwhile, halted here in the heated air of agony,
We sad souls sit here crying in cramping apathy:-
Vaporous Rhymes
Nightfall unbalanced
Dance around a ceremony fire
Thorns cursed vaporous
Body dieth slumber
Death-note written
Alacrity descends
Consciousness unbound
Screams below halted no sound
Graves unsettling
Life soon ending
Bomb fires burning
Sacrifices, unforgiving
Buried with the dead
Emptiness is limitless
Rendered to the darkness
Sins unhinged
Tormented below
Name erased from the books
Guns stop firing, still the hate goes on,
with grievance still burning all along.
Peace talks halted, no hearts in repair,
Just hollow moments, trembling in air.
Need more than stalling, need to claw back trust,
Need to face the truth that inclusion is a must —
Not in the silence, but when hands entwine,
Not to encompass truce, but to redraw the line.
Hear what we're saying.
What we keep telling.
This ceasefire is only pause, not peace.
Guns fall silent; but none are melted down.
Ceasefire? — Just a pause.
Peace? — Takes a cause.
Stop the fight? — That’s nowhere near enough.
Mend the hurt? — We’ve got to do the hard stuff.
No more walls! — No more hate!
Justice now! — We will not wait!
Call it a start, but it’s not the end,
Peace turns a foe a'fighting into a friend.
Don’t pause at stopping, let the healing flow,
Plant seeds to settle; let green shoots grow.
The guns go silent, but the anger stays,
Smoke in riven hearts never just drifts away.
It's called a calm, but it’s just the hour before,
the storm returns, with deadlier power.
All we are saying —
Ceasefire’s not peace.
All we are saying —
Ceasefire’s not peace.
Once adored by beholder,
Soiled doves, fall in no longer.
From garden to minefield,
Avoidance is justified;
Inamoured, favourably yield,
Innocence gone vilified.
Once lured by sweetness,
Penetrated, unable to flee;
Trapped inside glowness,
Choked, unable to glee.
Memories gone masterless,
History, halted unspree;
Living dead and throneless,
To be, or not to be.
A JUNETEENTH HAIKU QUATRAIN
Freedom seed sown,
its's germination halted;
it's reaping delayed:-
The fruit of freedom,
takes a long time to be reaped
and may rot quickly:-
Let's sow Juneteenth seeds
to quickly reap and preserve
throughout our lives:-
Today, celebrate:
fertilizing our spirits,
reaping our glory:-
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