world afire

Had we only raked the forest floors
we could have stopped the fires.
If we built a higher wall,
tear gas wouldn’t cross the border.
There is no global warming;
can’t you feel the cold rain
falling on the fallen?

Anger rakes across my senses,
fire ravages my gut.
Walls can’t contain the pain
or hold back the tears.
The earth burns with desperation
as hearts grow ever colder.
And all the while, it is snowing in Russia.

stump


dverse Poetics: fire up that creativity

Discovery

discovery

I wanted to get away from it all, even though
I didn’t know what “it all” was exactly.
I just knew it wasn’t where I was,

and it wasn’t
sitting within the same walls and
looking out the same windows and
thinking the same thoughts and
falling into the same rutted patterns
of my daily existence.

I searched for someplace remote
but near civilization,
rustic
but with amenities,
in the wilderness
but not too wild…

and I found it:
a cabin
in the woods
in a forest
that I had thought only existed
in my dreams,

and it was
sitting on a porch
with my closest family members
looking at wildlife and tall trees and mountains in the distance,
thinking more expansively in the vastness of the forest,
falling into new patterns of peaceful companionship,

and while getting away from it all
I discovered that “it all”
is actually a matter of perspective and
is always
exactly where I am.


The Daily Post Discover Challenge: Designed for You
The Daily Post daily prompt: Learning