winter haiku
snow crackles
beneath my feet
an icy carpet
trees
hibernate
motionless
© Elouise Renich Fraser, 2 February 2018
Photo found at all-free-download.com
Telling the Truth
connecting the dots of my life
Tag: Nature
Video | February 2, 2018
January 31, 2018
Carolina wren
Carolina wren
pierces dawn with song-burst
I smile and hit snooze
***
© Elouise Renich Fraser, 31 January 2018
Carolina Wren Song found on YouTube,
posted by the American Bird Conservancy
January 29, 2018
evening tide ebbs
evening tide ebbs
gently wipes the beach clean —
an old woman smiles
***
© Elouise Renich Fraser, 29 January 2018
Photo found at pinterest – Portrush Beach, Ireland
January 25, 2018
raindrops
sparkling raindrops
fly headlong through sunlight —
cascade of diamonds
It happened so fast I almost missed it. Leafless trees shaking off fresh rain highlighted by a sudden burst of blazing sun that captured millions of diamonds flying through the air. Within seconds the sun had retreated behind gray storm clouds and everything looked as it was before. Wet.
It made my day. One of those sudden gifts, unanticipated, fleeting, and rare. Everything lined up just right, including my head turning to look out the window. Except for this. That’s not my photo above. It’s a substitute for the real thing stored in my memory.
© Elouise Renich Fraser, 25 January 2018
Photo found at staticflicker.com
January 23, 2018
feeling unnerved
a foot bridge beckons
park lights pierce dark midnight
the way ahead fades
***
Feeling unnerved tonight
wandering through my mind
not sure where I am
or what to do next
Life happens quickly
though it feels like slow motion
so little time to listen to myself
much less to You
It’s almost midnight now
and I’m still not sure where I am
or where I’m going
Would You be offended if I
just follow in Your footsteps
wide awake or stumbling
wondering Where and Why?
Many thanks to my blogging friend John for the photo at the top. It was taken in Caulfield Park at about midnight after a sweltering hot day in Melbourne, Australia. The ambiguity of the photo grabbed my attention, and John kindly agreed to let me use it for a poem not yet written.
John has followed my blog almost since its birth. You can check out the post about his midnight walk right here:
https://paolsoren.wordpress.com/2018/01/20/night-time-in-the-park/.
John’s posts are Australian to the core, full of entertaining, thought-provoking, irreverent, hilarious and enlightening insights. All dished up in his native tongue. I’ve told him at least a million times I wish I’d had him as a teacher. Somewhere along the line he got the gene. Now he’s retired, wandering around here and there with his camera, or pulling out old photos about the way things were when he too was very young.
© Elouise Renich Fraser, 23 January 2018
Photo taken by John (paolsoren) in Caulfield Park, Melbourne, Australia, January 2018
January 22, 2018
setting sun
setting sun
kisses cold western sky
clouds blush
The magic lasted only seconds, and this photo captures but a reminder of what my eyes saw. And still I’m drawn to it. A magnificent flame-out at the end of the day.
I wonder, are we not meant to flame out in the last years or moments of our lives? I picture the human spirit about to set off into another world. Sometimes in dire circumstances, yet always still a living human being. Never without beauty even though our eyes may not know how to see it.
Do I know how to see beauty when the photo or the reflection isn’t beautiful by my standards? We seem to have become a race obsessed with beauty. Searching for it, measuring it, trashing it and moving on quickly if we don’t find it in the moment.
I’ve often felt disappointed about what I see in the mirror of my life. Not all of it, but significant chunks of it. These days I’m beginning to see it differently. I see the reflection of a woman making her way slowly, yet surely, from one revelation about herself to another. The kind that often come at the end of the day. Beautiful to behold.
© Elouise Renich Fraser, 22 January 2018
Photo taken by me with my IPad, 21 January 2018
January 19, 2018
chilled to the bone
chilled to the bone
night’s deep silence descends
winter drifts through cracks
***
Disconnected from feelings
Numb and disbelieving
I want to write
So many unknowns
So much at stake
So little time left
Will I or Won’t I?
Sooner or Later?
Is Never still an option?
This week brought unwelcome news in a couple of areas. No catastrophic accidents. Just the knowledge of things I didn’t want to hear. About a friend and about my health.
Yesterday we drove through Valley Forge National Historic Park. Outdoor temperatures were subfreezing. Snow was on the ground, covering a thin layer of frozen sleet. We saw one brave soul walking his beautiful dog along one of the paths that circle and cut through Valley Forge. Everyone else was in heated four-wheel vehicles driving through the Park.
I didn’t write the haiku above after that drive. But it captures some of the angst and foreboding perhaps encoded in the few remaining buildings and cabins still standing here and there throughout the Park. Remnants of a winter nightmare followed by springtime diseases that took more lives than winter took.
They thought they would be going home to their families and friends.
foot paths meander
through fields of wartime sorrow —
home to the fallen
I want to find my way home. Don’t you? Life is filled with breathtaking beauty. The kind that makes leaving it breathtakingly painful. Right now I’m being invited to play life in a different key. And my cold fingers are stumbling around a bit, learning to be at home in what doesn’t always feel like home.
© Elouise Renich Fraser, 19 January 2018
Photo of cabins at Valley Forge found at history.org
January 17, 2018
frozen branches
frozen branches
bent beneath iced snow –
blue-green brilliance
I can’t help thinking about the frozen beauty that resides in each of us. Waiting for a thaw. Hoping to make it through the harsh winter. Perhaps relieved when snow and ice transform our everyday into something magical. And grateful for the sun that eventually melts and softens us, one small drop at a time.
© Elouise Renich Fraser, 17 January 2018
Photo taken by DAFraser, December 2013
January 13, 2018
blustery wind blows cold
blustery wind
blows cold against my face –
shadows lengthen
I’m just back from a brisk walk outdoors with D. In freezing temperatures, with the bright sun in my eyes and an unpredictable icy wind gusting at will. Imagine the sound of waves against the shore on a stormy night. That’s the sound of tall evergreen trees being tossed around by winter winds.
Almost the moment I finished writing the haiku above I thought about the current sound and fury of winds of change if not warfare.
Our airwaves are full of blustery wind these days. The kind that gives me a chill. I don’t laugh easily or often at political ineptitude. From my perspective, it feels like I’m shrugging it off, defanging it, or even giving up and not facing it for what it is. Which right now includes facing the reality that Mr. Trump’s presidency isn’t going away anytime soon. Nor will we ever return to the way things were.
This isn’t necessarily bad, except for this. The damage done by Mr. Trump’s bold ‘initiatives’ is going to trickle faster than predicted. Not up to the good of those who most need help, but down (yes, down) to the ‘good’ of the most wealthy corporations, men, women and families in the USA.
Shadows lengthen. All the laughter and bluster in the world won’t cover up growing disgust, betrayal, and in-your-face nastiness being dished out to immigrants and to citizens of this nation, many of whom voted for Mr. Trump. The fact that I didn’t vote for him doesn’t make me righteous. We’re in this together, and are already paying the price. One way or another.
Even so, nothing will take away the grandeur of a walk outdoors with D in brisk cold weather, the sun in my face and the wind whipping around me. It’s a tangible reminder that Mr. Trump does not own or control the sun, the wind or the temperature. He is not now, nor will he ever be the Creator of this universe. Much less its Savior.
Praying you have a wonderful Sabbath rest, if not a lovely walk outdoors in the freezing cold!
Elouise♥
© Elouise Renich Fraser, 13 January 2018
Photo found at staticflickr.com
January 11, 2018
Counting the hours
A small
Limited world
Greets me
With a question –
And what of today…?
Indeed –
What of it?
With or without me
It will cycle by
Rehearsing its hours
Yet again in a chain
Of semi-predictability
Without need
For me to sit
At this window
Watching the day slip
Before my eyes
Through fingers chilled
By winter’s dull sky
And frozen vegetation
Waiting for spring
And release
Life is in a different key these days
I’m still not sure what it is
Or how to play it
© Elouise Renich Fraser, 11 January 2018
Image found at ytimg.com
Telling the Truth 