Monday, May 24, 2010

Caring For Mother Earth

Last week I participated in Earth Fest in Kanab, Utah. I played violin with The Symphony of the Canyons. The event is trying to bring awareness to the dire need for ALL OF US to honor and preserve our environment.


This marvelous woman dances with the environment
TO SAVE IT (Maida Withers,age 73)


This man is using all his savings, hoping to bring awareness through the arts to 
SAVE OUR PLANET
(Hans Ehrbar)
James Westwater brings awareness to the environment through photochoreography.


This man is a conductor and violist who takes community orchestras and gets the heart and soul out of whatever their level of playing is.
This is Peggy Robinson, the daughter of the woman who put me up in her house. This poem was on the wall and I love it for many reasons, but on this trip it brought back to me how much we owe to those who paved the way for us. The least we can do is preserve the land and the environment for ourselves and generations to come.

I am of strong descent
I know
They whisper in my dreams
And I hear their courage
In my own voice
I am of strong descent
I know

I know
About the great
And the great great grandmothers
Who went hungry
So their children could eat.
Who put their lives into the land
And their dreams into their children
And when the time came,
Put those dreams on a boat to a foreign land
So that those they loved could live better

I know
About my own grandmother
Who nursed men to health in World War II
Who raised children against the kansas corn
And watched her own setting sun,
Battling cancer with the courage of a soldier
Leaving her children with a Legacy of patience

I know
About my own mother
Whose whispers are the strongest
Who taught me quietly
How to be who I am
Who told me I was more than this
When I needed that
And who said so softly
"Believe"

I am of strong descent
I know
And tonight in my dreams
When they whisper
I will whisper back
"I will not disappoint you"
I am of strong descent
I know
picture by Lee Teter

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Clouds


As the sky holds clouds,
so must we
carry sadness
with ineffable grace.

© 2010 by Kathryn Feigal. All rights reserved. 
(to read more offerings about Grace, visit Bridget Chumbley's blog here: click link

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Collaborative Comment Poem

Poetry moving forward
gets the heart thumping
in a flari maravillosa tea party.


Poetic kindred spirits
and politicians manage
to throw out a challenge.
They tell us the way it came
about is what we wanted
all along.


The scrim is covering
a once apron,
a time
when wizardly candidates
were poets 
able to gift us and
tie perfect strings 
to our hearts.
Dave King said...politicians manage

Helen said...able to gift us   


     Eryl Shields said...scrim is





Vicky said...poetic kindred spirits



Leslie said..flari tea party, poetry moving forward

Alesa Warcan said...once apron a time
N. Davis Rosback said...the way it came about
Paul C said...gets the heart thumping
Jan said...perfect


Standing on my head said...maravillosa!


Tag said...throws out a challenge. 

Collaberative Short Poem


One Moose Trumps Seven Deer


Backlit on the apron of the forest,
the scrim of daylight shadows fading,
the mushrooms snore, the ferns curl,
all but the meadow sleeps.

(Title by Jan. 1st 2 lines, Kass. Last 2 lines Sherry. Be careful. What you say in comments, may turn up in a poem)

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Happy Mother's Day

Growing up, I always thought I had the most beautiful mother. As pretty as a movie star.
She read us stories ALL THE TIME,
and took us to fun places.
She has always had a wonderful sense of fun,
and is full of fun phrases - like:
"Let's whistle and start over."
"I'm about to have a shizacal fit."
"I can't place his face, but his breath smells familiar."
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, MOM
Love, Kass

Friday, May 7, 2010

Spring was late: I saw its first greening

Every time I go to my mountain home after the thaw, I end up taking the same picture from the upper deck...
...and the same picture from the top of the hill -
I keep hoping to see the fairies that live in this hollowed-out burl -
...and when I'm out walking with granddog, Lola, I always try to see what she's seeing -
I'm always shocked and delighted when we run into wildlife. Sherry posted about seeing 7 deer and said, "The earth as we know it stopped spinning. No one would believe me about Time stopping to sit down in my driveway and saying 'Sherry, go ahead and soak up the moment.'" This is how I felt at the sight of the moose; how I feel when I see life asserting itself through matted-down layers of leaves. It seems like a revolutionary miracle every spring.
The Arch of the Year


High summer's sun raked and cratered the earth
Disinterested, implacable
As you were implacable.


Early frost and some wind bent and stripped the trees
You did not could not bend.


Snow bandaged the hill
But not the sage
And enfolded in its soft slight embrace
All your time and times.


Spring was late: I saw its first greening
I know you smelt the jasmine but did not see the rose
I saw the rose but not the hawthorn.
You did not could not wait for summer.


We waited
And are parched.


Gwendolen Gittens, 1990 (age 67)