Give your mom a Very Happy Mother’s Day!

Diane and Mom 11-24-09

Happy Mother’s Day!
She was there when you were ill,
there to comfort you.
She was there for that first step, first book, first date,
there to cheer you on.
She was there to teach you things,
there to help you up when you fell.
Now, she waits for you to be
there for her.

 

Not My Day to Die…….by Diane Tegarden

Not My Day to Die
By Diane Tegarden
04/03/13

It’s not my day to die today,
I’ll tell you how I know,
I went to post a letter
so I crossed the street real slow.

I looked both ways for traffic
making sure they could see me,
I felt safe as I noticed
a lady in her great big SUV.

She had on her turn signal
and her foot was on the brake,
she was looking in her lap
to busy for trouble to make.

So I started to cross the sidewalk
making sure she didn’t move,
when suddenly without warning
into the crosswalk her car drove!

I yelled and held my hands up,
admonishing her to stop,
luckily, she hit the brakes
as across the street I hopped.

I could see the other drivers
shaking their heads in doubt,
one stopped to see if I was OK,
and I told her “I’ve no need to pout”.

The accident was averted
there’s no need to cry,
I’ll live another day
because it’s not my day to die!

Author’s notes: This just happened last Wednesday and it made such an impression on me that I sat down and wrote a poem about it. It didn’t upset me or anything, I just realized that when you’re meant to die, you’ll die, until then, all manner of nonsense can happen to you, but you’ll survive!

31 Days of Notable Women- Frances Cornford, English poet

Frances Cornford, was an English poet. She was the daughter of the botanist Francis Darwin and Ellen Crofts Wordsworth, born into the Darwin—Wedgwood family. She was a granddaughter of the British naturalist Charles Darwin. Her elder half-brother was the golf writer Bernard Darwin. She was raised in Cambridge, among a dense social network of aunts, uncles, and cousins, and was educated privately.

Frances Cornford published several books of verse, including Poems (1910), Spring Morning (1915), Autumn Midnight (1923), and Different Days (1928). Mountains and Molehills (1935) was illustrated with woodcuts by her cousin Gwen Raverat.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Cornford

31 Days of Notable Women- Kathleen Jessie Raine, British poet

Kathleen Jessie Raine was born in London in 1908, where she grew up; taking on a number of unsatisfactory jobs. Through one of her later jobs she met the nephew of the Indian mystic Rama Coomaraswamy Tambimuttu, who invited her to contribute to his new magazine, Poetry London, she did of course, and soon developed a lifelong passion for all things Indian.

Source: http://www.poemhunter.com/kathleen-jessie-raine/

31 Days of Notable Women- Isabella V. Crawford, Canadian poet

Isabella Valancy Crawford (25 December 1850 – 12 February 1887) was an Irish-born Canadian writer and poet. She was one of the first Canadians to make a living as a freelance writer.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Valancy_Crawford

Poem by Lord George Gordon Byron

sun peeking through trees

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.

Poem by Lord George Gordon Byron

This is musical and meaningful, a restful sigh in a forest of squawking voices…

Broken Wing…by Diane Tegarden

This is from my poetry collection “Light Through Shuttered Window”.

Broken Wing
by Diane Tegarden © 2007

Infallible, invincible, an angel of quiet mercy,
that’s who I thought she was.
Hands and arms to hold me,
to smooth my angered brow,
to hush my tears
and cool the fever of deepest pain.

Childish dreams,
broken on the wheel of my father’s self-hate,
the wheel crushing all those around him.
Who would dare
to question his judgment,
his actions, his words?

I would dare.
While those around me
would stare into their empty lap,
agreeing ever so silently
(With me?)
(With him?)

Yet in truth, the silence was their acceptance
of his awful, all encompassing authority,
his ignorance, his guilt.
Since only my voice
was raised against him,
I was the target of his rage.

Red hot and uncontrolled,
his hand would breach
that impossibly wide
gap between us.
He hit me in the face.
I had dared.

His hate, restless, mere violence no outlet,
he would verbally stab
at my every character weakness,
feeling strength in sounding my deepest wounds,
he would stab again and again,
screaming vicious, cruel lies at the tiny child within.

I believed him.

Eventually, after his anger was spent
after his fury had savaged my childish senses,
my protecting angel, would finally appear by my side,
to
silence
me.

experimental poetry….”on one hand” by Diane Tegarden

Poem- On One hand-An Experiment in left-handed writing
by Diane Tegarden
(C) August 4, 2005

One day while waiting for a meal in a restaurant, I took out my ever-present writing pad, and decided to write a poem, the first half with my left hand and the rest with my right hand.

on one hand …

the alienation.
the external Gift of an
ancient, hollow life,
the remnants of civility
finally cast aside.
no more lies.

naked truth
is for the callous.
we need a blush of fantasy
to color the
starkness
of our inner canvas.

I turn the page and a chorus of music came to me:

paint your body
paint your mind
you can only fool yourself
about some things
some of the time.

I turn the page and put the pen in my right hand.

On the Other Hand …

I speak to you in
clear crisp terms
this way
I’m sure to be heard.

I don’t bother with
popularity.
I demand respect
and get the final word.

********************

Author’s Notes:

I purposely ignored the correct punctuation for the left-handed writing and reverted to formal punctuation with the right-handed writing as a device to separate the left and right functioning of the brain and to show how the Experiment affected my own writing style.

The Crystal Heart- original poetry by Diane Tegarden

The Crystal Heart
By Diane Tegarden
1984

Once I was a child, laughing at the world.
I knew that I would learn and love,
to live and give,
and- win!

I boldly walked, then danced, then ran,
so free and strong and brave.
I knew that life was full of wonder,
and I was not afraid.

The child went out into the world,
the world that really is,
A large and somewhat frightful place,
where you must earn- and sin.

The paths I took, well, some were hard,
the ways of innocence, severed.
The child
a woman became.

Then I was a woman,
hot, bright and full of life.
But years of living dangerously
turned wishes into strife.

Many times I’ve made mistakes
giving of deepest self.
It finally tore my heart from me,
it sat upon a lonely shelf.

A man whose story matches mine,
had such a crystal heart.
He bound it in a place of steel,
to hide the emptiness.

Then when we met, we saw a light
reflected in each other’s eyes,
embers of fires burning low.
The glass begins to fill again-
we know.

This poem, and many others, can be found in my book “Light Through Shuttered Window” a compendium of my collected poetry, songs and stories.

Have a Hopi Holiday!!!!!!!!!!!

Have A Hopi Holiday!

It is true, much time has passed,
a year has flown away.
The season changes colors,
with red, greens and gold,
the festival of lights hold sway.


Yuletide is upon us, time to think of friends,
to be thankful for all of
our lucky happenstance.
To remember good times
in grateful abundance.


I wish you all a Heartfelt Holiday,
no matter what you are calling it,
anyway!
Be it a Holy Hanukkah,
a Spiritual Soyal,

a Captivating Christmas,
a Kickin’ Kwanzaa, or
the most wondrous
Winter Solstice!

 



If you live in Australia,
it’s summer solstice,
the longest day of the year.
If you live in the northern climes
the night is longest here.

 

But no matter where you are,
whether
planetside
or
star……

All I could wish for you
is
peace
(internally),
and a larger worldwide view!

By Diane Tegarden (c) 2007