Category: Uncategorized

Cloudscapes

Without a doubt, 
one of my favorite
parts of life is
clouds.

The soft pastels
at dawn lift me up
and take me home;
sunset-backdropped,
at day’s end,
I am delivered again,
haloed in gold. 

Nature-ensconced, 
nature-infused, 
nature my lifeline,
nature my truth-school.

I befriend every creature and petal,
explore every infinitesimal detail,
lose all track of time in the macro
finding clues about myself, 

but nothing He has made
entrances me more
than the heaven-brushed strokes
of the cloudscapes Earth-adorned. 

For cloudy days, I thank You, Lord! 

Poem and images ©LauraDenise

Beneath The Magnolia Trees

May Day birthday, one to add
genuinely to my scant album

of joyful memories,

as Time bows down to still itself
and lets me live some moments
immortally

beneath the Magnolia trees

that seemed to have waited
for this occasion
to begin their epic blooming.

So dear to me have become
the velvet ivory,
symbolizing hope
and soul purity,

so many seasons dormant,
waiting and waiting
and waiting so patiently
for me to water
the self-love seeds.

The skies reflect their best blues,
the clouds tone down with humility,
the leaves dance with the breeze,
the sun, between, flickers in winks.

I am the center of the universe;
all planets line up to kiss my cheek.
I could stay here, my happiest place ever,
forever in this heavenly garden

of Magnolia trees.

Poem and images ©LauraDenise

In The Eye

Don’t tell me there is no divinity
when I am looking heaven in the eye,
infused with the essence, soul-transfixed, lifted,
swirling upwards as colors become light,

and the ingress solicitously entices the spirit
as form sublimes, shapeshifts until undefined,
and passes through the full transfusion of serenity
through the glowing portal in the after-pouring sky. 

Poem and this evening’s photo ©LauraDenise

Sunrise In The Brass

Sunrise in the brass
unlit lamp,
gold upon gold,
collision of nature
and made-by-man;

the outdoors
reach in.

Sunrise in my heart
leaps up to receive
good morning kiss
upon bashful cheek;

Mother Nature
greets. 

Sunrise cycle,
diurnal darkdrape drawn,
degrees of golden
contingent upon 

perspective-clouds
at dawn. 

Axis-hinged, we all
spin on. 

Concrete Daisies

Concrete daisies 
veiled in silhouette,
shadows upon the crushed,
colorless.

Wind-caressed
nonetheless,
the mood of the kinesthetic,
interpretless,

no witness,
for every glance
is upon the source
hues and scent,

the cast-shadow dance,
musicless. 

I fall into a trance
watching all the ways
the whispered stories 
on the side non-stage
are artistically portrayed
in the concrete-daisy
ballet. 

Poem and image ©LauraDenise

Of Wildflowers

In the texture of petals,
in the lifelines and veins,
I silently read the private stories
in the evaporating, evanescent after-rain. 

In the ones with the audacity 
to rise and bloom where they please, 
defying borders and surviving pesticides, 
I feel myself for the first time breathe. 

In the tiniest, overlooked complexities, 
I scrutinize worlds within,
chosen and privy to the revealing
of the fantastical magic kingdoms.

In the golden-light when the first or last rays
highlight the most delicate paired buds
in their mutual vulnerable opening,
I feel the blessing from the heavens
upon the greatest of humble love
stories unfolding.

In the darkest of thickets, surrounded by thorns,
I witness the miracles of mysticism
when the beacon checks in on the meekest first
faithfully after every storm.

Walk the manmade paths
through the planted gardens:
I will always be watching my step,
one with them, in
the uncharted, shifting lands
of wildflowers.

Poem and images ©LauraDenise

One (More) Prayer

Blinded by tears,
but sight not needed
when folded in prayer
and the heart is leading

through the dark,
no darkness able to extinguish
the soul’s pilot light igniting
the vigil of candles
in a community’s deepest wishes,

one prayer
all I’ve ever believed
to be needed,
but at the same time,
what if one more
is all that’s needed…

when any fellow brother or sister
is pleading
to the stars and moon
and higher powers
to feel the tourniquet
wrapped around the bleeding.

Some prayers in my most lonely hours
were mine alone for another,
and I always hoped it was enough,
just my solo anguished heart lifted up

to God.
I think one is always
enough,

but just in case
yours makes the difference
in jumping the threshold,
let’s pray together,
let our heard and unheard
hearts unite
as one.

We can go back
to being distant
when we’re done.

Or we can hold on
to the memory of this moment
when we joined
the angels’ solemn song.

Let His will be done.

When the Lamp Goes Out

Natural and manmade
silently juxtaposed,
constructed poles
off the mark,
crooked, leaning, 
despite attempted anchoring, 
branches gravitating 
in the right direction, 
toward the Light
of the World, 

rooted in belief,
faith running deep,
grasping earth,
dirt, free of 
concrete, 
sand and soil 
offerings
supporting vertical
inner growth
to break ground,
breathe air,
sprout, bloom, reach,
embraced,
loving whispers
saying you are
beautiful.

When the artificial light
goes out, 
I am able to clearly
see. 

Obstructed view,
no view, 
no proof:
nothing needed.

Even after
the sun retires
from rising, 
inside the seed of me 
will be found this
unshakable

belief.

 

Poem and this morning’s sunrise image ©LauraDenise

The Gardening

I saw a miracle,
or how a miracle
would be explained
by scientists
ignorantly:

I saw a wish
become a dream,
then belief
birth it into
reality,

deep feelings
igniting all synapses 
in a total firing, 
a supernova
of the heart,
a soular sunburst
with only doubt
dying,

for when the purest
of whispers
get heard by 
benevolent Night,
legend has it
the stardust falls
to earth as seeds
from the sky,

and in the last
of the day’s rays,
Sun conspires
to highlight
the wishie
sent individually
to each to inspire

the closed eyes
and active breath
to start the 
miracle process,
as the angels
all about us

continue the collection
and sprinkling,
their glowing silhouettes
sometimes detected
in that golden hour
of gardening. 

Poem and images ©LauraDenise