Within minutes, a gentle wave comes to nudge your consciousness
Stars appear bluer than you remember
Globus, the lump in your throat is gone
Memories emerge that remained unthought for years;
A strangely lit corridor;
A den in the woods
Back in the present, all is still
Nothing just happened
And it is a gift; a comfort.
The world is tinted back to the colour you understand
You feel your heart beating in your fingertips
Your hands are steadier than you have ever known
Your skin is attached just right
Up to this moment, life has provided you with just the right amount of destruction
To let you Understand.
Past injuries can be observed with detached interest
Sunlight behind closed eyelids glows in reds and oranges
Lay back and experience
A swirlycap high
5 cups of shredded beef
2 cups of caramelized onions
6 T of minced garlic
1 cup of minced green pepper
3/4 cups minced celery
5 cups of sliced mushrooms caramelized
2 cups of mixed provolone and mozzarella
1 teaspoon each of thyme,basil,orgango,,paprika
1 cups of sour cream
2 cups of beef broth
1/4 of nutty brown roux 1/4 of flour+1/4 cup of butter
4 teaspoons of toasted sesame seeds in 5 T of olive oil
2 T of cayeene pepper
10 cups of cooked rice ( 5 cups of white and 5 cups of wild rice)
toast seeds set aside add cayeene to olive oil remove from heat pour over seeds set aside.
sauteeveggies celery, onions,garlic, dset aside, sautee mushrooms remove from pan.
in a sauce pan make roux add broth add sour cream add seeds and cayeene. don't thicken set aside add the cheese.
mix cooked beef and mushrooms and rice in a large bowl
add the sauce and veggies
toss and mix evenly. add to cassorole dish and bake at 360 for 20 minutes.
serve hot and enjoy
I have been sitting around for fifty-two years in strife
Still in the box, wasting away, claimed by no one
Other merry mushroom canisters have had a life
but not me, I am afraid. I have had no joy or fun.
But wait, there is hope, says a spoon in a sleeve.
I have a feeling there might be a reason to say hooray.
Merry mushroom did not react, no reason to believe
He was sold on Ebay and put to use that very day!
The spoon was sold to the same buyer, and they became friends.
At night they told their tales, and laughed, glad to have come to these ends
not so deep in the meadow lives the strawberry mushroom faerie
her thoughts are not frivolous; not silly, not baseless or aerie.
She goes by no names, but some of secretly call her Mary.
Her loveliness is well known, this kind, wonderful young faerie.
She will do whatever you need to help you feel good.
If you want to know how behave, watch her from behind the wood.
She is no show off, but she does helpful things that we all could.
If we were more generous and giving, most of us would.
He never meant to become a mushroom man
Just a simple guy, our hero, Dan
Fell asleep in the forest, slept fifty-two years
Woke up in the morning, hearing crows' jeers
because he had turned into a shroom, fun they were poking
he was all kinds of morels and round tops, psychedelic smoking
Tried his best to find his relatives, but they were long gone
He went back to the forest and became part of the flora and faun
Misty morning
Under a canopy
She sits quietly
Happy to be alive
Relishing in nature's bounty
Oblivious to the cold
Open to what comes
Managing the monsoons of the month of May
Sturdy mushrooms making the best shelters
AP: Honorable Mention 2026
(“Feed Your Head Merit Badge”, 2011, original oil
"Conceived in Light", 2017, original encaustic)
Under the harvest Luna
Big and bright and silver
With the hunger
Of all humanity
We stuff and stuff
On magic spores
Until we’ve had enough
To remain in light
And when our belly’s burst
We split our sides
Released in time’s collapse
And wash upon the shore
Wave by wave
Of primal particles
Spread out in films
Of bioluminescence
Dancing in the night
Until the golden
Dawning Sol
Revives us
With His sight
(1/18/26)
Sears and Roebuck nailed the canister market in 1978
When they brought out Merry Mushrooms; they were great.
Every other kitchen in America probably had these on hold.
Or sitting on their counters, whimsical, big and bold.
These canisters were sold with matching pieces, sixty or more.
If you did not have them all, you were considered tight or poor.
one delicacy
poisonous doppelgangers -
tasty mushroom stew
I'm a caterpillar on a snail-back ride.
I've approached mushrooms from every side.
From every angle, they're just the same.
It's radial symmetry (in a name).
The only good sides a mushroom's got 'em
is the top and also the bottom.
In the 1970’s, merry mushroom canisters were offered by Sears Roebuck
Many of us put them into our wish lists, along with a sponge-holding duck later I learned that mushrooms meant pot, but at first I did not know
I cherished these canisters for their earthy whimsy; I truly loved them so….
So nervously, upon this earth I tread.
Don't let me, again, go out of my head.
My fragile mind persisted yet unbroken,
ignoring all harsh words as they were spoken,
until shattered with a sickening shriek.
Done in, I was, as I heard a mushroom speak.
Mushrooms don't have many frills,
but they seat frogs and they have gills,
so, I don't dismiss them out of haste,
especially considering their taste.
our home grown monarch
shall swing open war's hell gate~
h r
s o
u o
m m
c l o u d s
i n
b l
o o m
12 when I wrote this, from the perspective of a mushroom.
My gills grasping at air, but the grass is not too far;
My scales glimmering stupidly to shine through watered tar.
And in the gaseous tarmac world, I shine here far too bright,
And oh, the air, too stale if for my gills to get it right.
I long to build a house and make a living off of sticks,
Press flowers to make bookmarks. Feather ink dips.
And for one day, to hear ... a knocking or a rattle
Of rats and pigeons at my door. To me, should they grapple
I wished to fly away with birds, claws ripping flesh and all
To find my new roots in the sky: frail, delicate, tall.
I wished to burrow in the ground when I must collapse.
I wish to hide me from the world. I wish for a relapse.
A tingle down my stem, my gills no longer pulchrify
My dirtied shine, my residue: I tell you, "eye for eye."
This vivid tarmac world around me, perfectly reflecting
How little you appreciated when we were worth defending.
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