Long Peonies Poems

When they came to a side hall Joulupukki stopped.
     “Do you feel the magic?”  He said to her.  She nodded.  He stepped around the corner, on the far...

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Our Year Of Months (January - July)

1. Intro

Divided into months is our Earth year;
fixed firm in space to meet with climate change,
relation with our Sun makes it so clear
we will be blessed with seasons that...

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Creative Columbine, rich and vibrant,
In hues of blushing rose, soft
As shadows fading beneath the moonlight,
Glorious sighs, planted in colors,
Black earth, fresh as the dawn,
And basking in the heat of a sun,
Who blazes promises on the...

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ZEN DEATH HAIKU XII

These are my modern English translations of Japanese Zen Death Haiku. 

Both victor and vanquished are dewdrops:
flashes of light
briefly illuminating the void.
—Ouchi Yoaka, loose translation/interpretation of his jisei (death poem) by Michael...

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ZEN DEATH HAIKU IV

These are my modern English translations of Japanese Zen Death Haiku. 

The moon
hovering above the snow-capped mountains
rained down hailstones
—Sekitei Hara, loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Oh, dreamlike winter butterfly: 
a puff of...

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( Song of Solomon 4: 16 )



We Walked In The Garden At Midnight
We Walked Thru The Garden In Moonlight

Among Azealeas & Verbenas & Blue Jonquils
Sweet Honeysuckle, Yellow Primroses & Daffodils
Among White Phlox & Orchids &...

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What softness in silence amidst the cacophony of a spin cycle world war.
Lying next to your glow in sleep's stillness, careful of your bandaged hand.
Watching your breath enter and leave, the rise and fall of...

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"We can't ever fathom, 
     when the ceasing flicker of hope 
                   ...

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destined sacredness in the red of the blood,
intertwined shoots from the wisdom of redemption:

- Woman,
no one has ever trusted us more than the good God,
he entrusted us with all his love, with the seed of...

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“Tall Poppies, Cactus Flowers and a Girl Not Called Betty”



All the Flamingos were called Betty
on a crowded beach somewhere 

Well heeled stuck in the quick sands of time
heads held high

like

Tall poppies 
waving, long stemmed

they are...

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To the legend of silence
that speaks in trembling stillness
I’ve seen your halcyon halo~
that illuminates wilted weeds 
and tilted tendrils 
unfolding perfumed wings,
allowing sizzling seas of stardust to rise.

But something about the way
your soft skin caresses...

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How many years did I plant
 dig and dig up again and silently rant
where a flower placed here, should be moved from here to there
 at first, not well planning where 
this one or that...

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Marcus, as a child heard it all, the oral stories
Ancient in glories quickening his vein. Like blood
Rolling where the Roaring river runs, peonies
Calling up ancestral history in dream and flood
Unfold desires of in streams of...

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Bendy old whales taste like snails doing a backflip. But swarms of over eighty nine peonies are closely followed by nine bulls, an elephant tribe, a beetle colony and a party of laughing butterflies. Whose...

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Amassed in flamboyant Azalea blooms when my garden is free of the cold.
Bird of Paradise, dressed in purple and orange,  wear their colors so bold.
Crocus bloom when the mounds of snow finally melt and...

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Here, I scribble a letter 
to the rhapsodical rose, 
dipping my quill in 
stardust that slips 
like a violet waterfall 
from the tips of 
white oak trees. 
These marigold 
orbs shine with 
shimmering streaks 
of...

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I smile, deceiving time, but my bewitching heart weeps,
In the evenings when loneliness spreads its canvas with sparse stars.
To love you – means I wish you fields of poppies under the illuminated moon,
Means that your...

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*Image of Park Colorful Flower Beds by Pixabay.
A Garden Choice Review

Dawn chanced a lifetime free trial,
aged step heed, reflect takes a smile,
advent ease midst obliged swart rise,
upraised eyelids, greet resumed ties.

Askew motif skirts gracious sky,
root...

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  "Above all I must have flowers, always and always."

                        ...

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My garden calls to earths creatures one and all
  No matter how big, no matter how very small
    Amid ferns green lace to show her humble face
    ...

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When you are 
an agonizing 
echo from a
benevolent voice,
life exhales in
mahogany haze, 
spreading across the
lachrymose meadows as 
scarred rivulets of
sandalwood scents, 
where ceramic 
rhymes slumber in
watercolor coffins 
with opaque metaphors,
weaving hoaxed 
hymns of the nascent...

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‘ Legendary …’  ( Part  3 (of) 4 ) 



… Now, The Earl, had Spies, to keep Intruding Eyes On The Tryst of Secrecy
Beth’s Tresses, like Raven Wings and Eyes Emerald-Green, Became His...

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I turn and run down to the wet places where fawns remedy  their 
thirst from the waterbrooks.  Panting, I fall to my knees and gather buttercups, 
crowsfoots, hellebore and peonies and grind the...

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A winter white blanket melts turning Aspens verdant green.
Buds sprout on mountainsides in a sunlit golden sheen.
Clouds like fresh-picked cauliflower sink low and drift on by.
Distant sun after her show takes a bow in purple...

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The mountains of brown covered with green carpet of trees,
When they nod their heads I feel  cool winds and breeze,
Every time I ask them to come down, they say no,
All at the same time...

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