Poetry

Fruit of the Season (also my 1,000th post on this blog)

| Sandra Pavloff Conner
jelly-beans-939754_1920
Courtesy of Pixabay.com

`
Jelly beans are such a happy fruit.
What? You say they are mere candy, not real food?
Why, I beg to differ, sir.
Their nutrition strain is pure:
Refined sugar granulated,
Artificial color sated,
And at this time of the year, so fresh and good.

You can pick them fresh right off the shelf;
In any store, you reach right out and help yourself.
Like the grapes right off the vine,
Clustered tight with their own kind,
Plump and juicy, sweet and tasty;
To discard them don’t be hasty;
Munching them in times of stress aids mental health.

~~~

A Time to Seek

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

ENGLISH COURTSHIPIn love.
I’d like to be.
I miss the fluttering
And thrilling expectation of
A touch.

I miss
The twinkling eyes
That say much more than words;
Th’embrace that quiets, yet excites
The soul.

Romance
Serves mankind well.
It is the vehicle
By which both heart and soul can show
They care.

So wake,
My slumb’ring heart!
You’ve been in dormancy.
Throw off your sleep of grief! Go seek
New love.

~

Valentine Cinquain

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

HEART W. GOLD ARROW w. # 1Would you
Want to be mine?
I need a Valentine.
It’s lonely in this cold, hard world.
Would you?

*

HEART W. GOLD ARROW w. # 2
Love waits.
It’s not pushy.
It just loves — with patience —
And gives both time and space for love
To grow.

*

HEART W. GOLD ARROW w. # 3

Ah … well …
‘Tis sad indeed:
The one I love’s in love.
But not with me. With someone else.
I cry.

*

HEART W. GOLD ARROW w. # 4
Heart pounds;
Palms sweat; mouth’s dry;
Can’t seem to concentrate.
Is this some rare disease? No, wait:
It’s LOVE.

****

Thanks, Mom & Dad — Cinquain

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

MOM & DAD'S WEDDING PIC - CROPPEDParents
Pass on talents.
Their gifting’s in their genes.
My parents gave their writing gifts
To me.

I’m glad —
Grateful that each
Imparted separate gifts,
Now multiplied in me. I owe
Them much.

For if
I could not write
To share my heart and soul,
I could not bear the emptiness
I’d know.

To write —
To share true thoughts
And honest emotions —
To freely give myself in words
Is life.

~~~

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star?????

| Sandra Pavloff Conner
STAR = FREE ANIMATED CLIP ART
http://animatedclipart.blogspot.com/2010/04/free-star-animated-clipart.html

Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
No – wait – that isn’t what you are.
My first-grade teacher set me wise:
That stars are really angel’s  eyes
Peeking through holes in pie-crust skies.

So many years have come and gone
Since that odd day when it was done.
When teacher stood before our class
And told that lie. I wanted to ask,
But never would I my teacher sass.

So I kept quiet, but wondered long
About how teachers can be wrong.
Not that she didn’t know the truth;
She did, but relied on our youth
To carry out her unkind spoof.

Thank God that I did not believe;
I’m not so easy to deceive.
For though so young, I had insight:
God’s truth had shed in me its light,
And to that truth I did hold tight.

Now, older, I still ask myself
Why grownups have for ages felt
That, for some reason undefined,
We must plant lies in children’s minds.
When truth would be so much more kind.

We mean no harm, but still it’s lies.
And I have known some children cry
When truth was finally revealed,
And hurt at such betrayal sealed
In little hearts where trust was killed.

Dear grownups, let us stop and think:
These young minds tremble on the brink
Of glorious wonders to be learned.
Their eager minds to us are turned –
In trust – and by truth, trust is earned.

~~~

(First line borrowed from Jane Taylor’s poem “The Star,” published in 1806.)

 

First Poem of the Year

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

newyears_7_bg_123102Ho!  The new year is upon me!
Its first poem must be penned.
I have a new beginning,
And I must to it attend.

Oh, I do not take it lightly
That I have another chance
To reach for goals before me,
To learn a brand new dance.

To dream some happy new dreams,
To reach out loving hands
And touch new hearts with my love,
To help my fellow man.

Ho! The new year is upon me!
It’s running swift and free.
So I must ply both heart and soul
To give it all of me.

~~~

Merry Christmas in Verse

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

Christmas TreasuresK'S GINGERBREAD -- TIGHT TRIM

Gingerbread and stockings …
Christmas trees and holly …
Loving friends and family …
Peace and hope and laughter …
These belong to Christmas.

God’s rich love for mankind …
Word made flesh incarnate …
Coming for just one purpose …
Dying that I could have life …
Christmas belongs to me!

~

Longing For Them Now

CHRISTMAS CAT - SEARS - 1962 - LARGERBright flashes of blissful moments,
Fluttering pages of Christmas memories
Drifting through my mind.

Pages of memories of childhood beam
With living, expectant Christmas dreams.
Longing for them now.

Remembering how each page was able to ignite
My imagination, which brought each one to life.

Oh, happy, happy days!
Bright daydreams and wishes,
Make-believing magic,
Found within the pages –
The Christmas catalogs.

~

Who Is This Babe of Bethlehem?

MARY, BABY, LAMB - EDITEDAt His birth,
A tiny, helpless child;

At His death,
A lamb so meek and mild;

At His grave,
A conqueror supreme;

At His coming,
Universal King!

~

Christmas Cinquain

Exif JPEG# 1

Carols:
Floating music,
Making merry sound waves,
Singing happy tidings from God
To man.

# 2

Stockings
Hung with great care.
Tots on best behavior
Wake on Christmas morn to find them
All filled.

# 3

Kissing
‘Neath mistletoe,
Icing Christmas cookies,
And hanging lights with tinsel bright
Make fun.

# 4

Christmas:
I wonder why
Some call it by false names.
It’s sole identity resides
In Christ.

~

What Will Christmas Bring?

MANGER AND CROSS - NO WORDS gold“What will Christmas bring, Mom?”
“Why, Son, ’twill bring you lots of toys and joys.”
“What else will Christmas bring, Mom?”
“Well, fun and games with other girls and boys.”

“But later on in life, Mom,
Will Christmas mean a lot when I am grown?”
“Oh, yes, it will mean more, Son.
For as you grow, a great truth you’ll be shown.

“You’ll learn that Jesus came, Son,
Not just to be a babe in manger sweet,
But to grow up a strong man,
Horrible death and suffering to meet.

“He came to take our sin, Son
And pay the price for it on Calvary.
So God could look upon us all
And shout, ‘From sin and all its curse you’re free!’”

“But I love the little babe, Mom.
I don’t want to think He died for me.”
“That’s what makes Christmas grand, Son:
That Jesus came and died to set us free.”

“You mean, the little baby, Mom?
He had to die and never live again?”
“No, Son, on Resurrection Day,
He rose victorious o’er death for all men.

“This truth of Christmas time, Son –
I now think you begin to understand.
It was the birth of death to sin,
And of eternal life for every man.”

~
STAR & PATH OF LIGHTHis Star

Wise astrologers did travel from the East.
“We saw His star and followed to His place of peace.
We bowed ourselves before Him there on bended knees
And offered homage to the Babe, Creation’s King.”

Throughout the heavens, multitudes of brilliant stars
Have burned for centuries and led men near and far.
But only one celestial light can guide the heart,
And men who would be wise still follow Jesus’ star.

~~~

~~~

Christmas Bells

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

On Christmas Day, 1863, in the midst of a war that was ripping apart the very country his own forefathers had sacrificed to create – a war that was stretching his own personal faith in God to its very limit – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow penned words to a new poem. This Christmas, in the face of what looks like a world being ripped apart by that same kind of evil, may the solace and renewed faith that Longfellow found and shared be rekindled in your heart as well through his words:

 

CHRISTMAS BELLS - GOSPELGIFS
“I heard the bells on Christmas Day,
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet, the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along th’unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

soldiers-and-copter-for-blog
And in despair I bowed my head:
‘There is no peace on earth,’ I said.
‘For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.’

DANCING MUSICAL NOTES WITH STRIPES
Then peeled the bells more loud and deep:
‘God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.’”

 

~~~

The Heavens Declare

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

Exif JPEG
Behold the morning brings the message:
Jesus paid the total price.
And again at close of evening,
It is written in the sky.

Day to day with joy resounding,
Grace and mercy new supplied;
In the face of sin abounding,
All its power at once denied.

Where the heavy heart and weary,
Shadowed by the awful curse,
Suffers pain and tumult daily,
Having life with God now lost,

There the sunrise, at day’s birthing,
Spreads the scarlet of His blood,
And that same bold crimson bloodstain
Rules the sky at set of sun.

 

~

 

Christmas Cinquain — You Knew I’d Have To Do It

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

Christmas Village.JPG - larger

# 1

Carols:
Floating music,
Making merry sound waves,
Singing happy tidings from God
To man.

# 2

Stockings
Hung with great care.
Tots on best behavior
Wake on Christmas morn to find them
All filled.

# 3

Kissing
‘Neath mistletoe,
Icing Christmas cookies,
And hanging lights with tinsel bright
Make fun.

# 4

Christmas:
I wonder why
Some call it by false names.
It’s sole identity resides
In Christ.

~~~

A Cinquain Complaint

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

SAD_FACEI can’t
Figure it out:
Why WordPress is so dumb.
Each change they make just makes things worse.
It stinks.

We try
To let them know.
But if they hear us cry,
They just ignore our humble pleas.
But why?

And now
It’s much, much worse.
Could be I’ll have to move
And take my blogging students too.
So sad.

 

~~~

Islam the Elephant

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

Dennis O’Brien is one of the best poetic satirists and social commentators I’ve been privileged to know. Once again, he’s given us the perfect description of the mentality of the liberal West. I wish I could say this much in so few words, but, alas, I usually need at least four or five times as many to make the point. I’m proud to consider this man my friend, and I hope his work finds more open doors and more avenues through which to prick the consciences of the Western Governments.

Dennis N. O'Brien's avatardnobrienpoetry

“Call me Islam!” The elephant cried.
“I am here in the room, tall and wide.
My sharp tusks! – Can’t you see!
Over here! Look at me!
My existence cannot be denied!”

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Getting Away With It

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

HAND WRITING.JPG - greenWriting provides a means of misbehaving.
Subtle opportunities to break the rules.
To do and say some things the trusty conscience hides,
Writing offers handy, beneficial tools.

Create a story set within the printed world,
With characters who get away with awful deeds.
Or frame a poem lightly metered, gently rhymed,
That tells a ghastly tale, or implants evil seeds.

Making use of words that in our normal life
Would get our mouths washed out with bitter soap.
But placed within the covers of a published book
They’re labeled art while huddled safely between quotes.

Our guys and gals can get away with awful crimes:
Can steal, molest, and plunder, rape, and kill.
Atrocities abounding can be made life-like,
Yet all is well if readers get a thrill.

Yes, in real life, we have to mind our manners well,
And smile and bow and act as though we’re saints.
But on the printed page we can write brazenly
And be forgiv’n for throwing off restraints.

 

 

~~~

 

 

 

Cinquain On the Brain

| Sandra Pavloff Conner
Courtesy of Jon at pdphoto.org. (Edited for post)
Courtesy of Jon at pdphoto.org. (Edited for post)

SENTRY

Darkness.
Black storm clouds roll.
Wind-driv’n waves hurled at land.
But high on knoll, sentry stands firm:
Lighthouse.

~

BLOWING KISS editedREWARD

You call,
And, servant like,
I run to do your wish.
‘Twill always be, and all I ask:
Your kiss.

~

HOLDING HANDSSECURITY

Please take
My hand in yours.
It’s warm and strong and sure,
And when you hold mine tight, I’m not
Afraid.

~~~