Saturday, March 19, 2016

"Haiku Experiment"

The Experiment    
distilling daily dreams—thoughts    
one drop at a time    
July 4    
Morning view outside    
velvet red upon green stalks    
symmetrical rose    
July 4    
Daily poetry    
huge mountains of words to climb    
an endless challenge    
July 13    
Twelve days of poems    
forcing creativity    
through the sieve of words    
July 14    
Impatience is gone    
vanishing within a smile    
the mood shifts again    
July 23    
Happiness and joy   
are acorns planted in fall    
and rooted in time    
July 27    
The poetry helps    
by healing my tattered soul    
bandaging worries    
August 2    
Plunge into a book    
evade all-consuming thoughts    
escape tomorrow    
August 3    
Night’s muffled sighs sound    
distant humming of autos    
gentle songs of sleep    
August 5    
Today’s words are forced    
curbed and restrained emotions    
cotton wraps my mind    
August 8    
Retreat into sleep    
play out other worlds and lives    
leave yourself behind    
August 8    
Hold onto sunshine    
gently cup it in your hands    
optimistic thoughts    
August 16    
Sleepy Saturday    
singing soft lullabies    
snoozing silently    
September 11    

Copyright 1999 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman

For a six month period in 1999, I challenged myself to make my journal entries through some form of poetry. Often, the day's events seemed best expressed through haiku. These are just a few entries from my experiment.

Friday, March 18, 2016

"Forgive and Forget"

Over time, the walls of self-defense become chinked with wear   
Overgrown by ivy, flowering each spring with climbing roses,     
The origins for brick and mortar fade in memory     
The enemy’s conniving and manipulation forgotten with each
          passing season     

Over time, the story of the their cruelty mutates     
Into a softer narrative of the human frailty found within their souls  
And the need to forgive and forget their heartless and vindictive 
          natures      
Grows because I must repair my damaged spirit      

Over time, the protective barriers seem superfluous      
My internal longings to belong create false hope      
That “this time” will prove different—better      
That somehow they’ve gentled with time      

Foolish me—to pull down the walls, to retell the tale        
To desire their love    

Foolish me—to provide them opportunity, to crush me     
Under the weight of my forgiveness      

Copyright 2014 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman