Thanksgiving

I want to wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving. Here is my Thanksgiving poem. Artwumyn~~~

Thank you God that the sun rises each day

Intent on it's journey across the skies

Oblivious to the grateful and the ungrateful

Shining down upon the earth without judgment

Through millions of miles of silent space

Thank you God that the moon orbits the earth

From time unremembered, it's faithfulness reported

Counted on, clocked, marveled about, and written down

Steadfast in the heavens like the stars and the planets

Never mocking the great cities that rise and fall

Thank you God that the earth has withstood

The eons of shifting continents, volcanic blasts

And asteroid impacts, ice ages, drought years,

Devastation of entire species, and devastation of

It's precious dwindling resources by one species

Thank you God that though we are like the storms of the earth

Violent in our changing natures, seemingly intent on destruction

Of all that is placed before us, unforgiving of the weak and helpless,

You have given us the example of the sun and the moon

The stars and the planets, the galaxies and universes.

In our short lives, the blink of an eye in timeless time

They appear unchanging, and somehow we are comforted.

Thank you that by your unending mercy, we have withstood

Since our creation from the atoms of the universe.

Thank you God that we can count on the sun to rise

Though we cannot count on peace to fill the earth

Thank you that we can count on the rhythms of the moon

Though we cannot count on lives without pain

Thank you that we can count on the heavens to stand

Because sometimes all the earth is quaking within us

And you are the only One able to calm the storm

Artwumyn

©2002

Eons

Powerful forces
Forcefully claimed
Eons of decadence
Shamefully gained
Crushing all enemies
Without the reign
Cruel reinforcements
Breakdown and maim

Rigid entanglements
Severing thighs
Slashing the topmost
Of heavenly ties
Bleeding intangibles
Heartily slain
Proven superior
Profiting pain

Rebels evolving
In numerous spots
Grating on slates
Driving out toxic plots
Motif in innocence
Merciful hate
Shoveled integrities
Broiling insaite

Furious weathering
Storms at the gate
Tyrannical hypocrites
Rush to relate
Volumes of ordinances
Dictatorial plate
Vomiting dog-eared cards
Proving ingrate

Gathering clouds
Blacken skies overhead
Frightening selfish thoughts
Chosen in stead
Silvered redeemers
On golden steeds ride
Clash armors violently
Pushing back tide

Present day strategy
Peasants to bore
Grief stricken from the books
Hollow aged lore
Bloodlet from infancy
Stricken from flame
Rescued from sacrifice
Risen from shame

Tyrannies swallowed
Secrets well kept
Silently brokenness
Purities swept
Meekly inspiring
Strength in duress
Smilingly generous
Fervently press

Diligent fortresses
Skillfully made
Built on foundations
Incorruptibly laid
Slowly innumerably
Followed by one
Each rebel factor
Increasing in tongue

Forces of evil
In foolishness named
Fall into irrepair
Convenience is blamed
Conventions of terrors
Inventions in chains
Empowering innocence
Womyn now reigns

Artwumyn

©2002

What If...A Nightmare at 4:30 A.M.

What if you woke up one morning

and the sky was red

instead of blue?

The trees were gone, the grass

was white and all the flowers

stared at you?

What if you opened your door

to go outside and get the morning

paper, like you always do,

only there was no outside

your door

and no paper any more?

What if you turned on the TV to find out

what happened to your view,

And all the programs were talking

about you?

What would you do?

If you could do nothing about it

because you had no voice,

because you had no mouth,

And no sight, because you had no eyes

And no sound, because you had no ears

And no smell, because you had no nose

And no touch, because you had no body

Would it bother you?

Or would you just go back to bed?

What if your worst nightmare,

wasn't yet?

What if you died,

but weren't dead?

What if you didn't go to heaven

when you died,

or to hell,

but somewhere else?

What if every thought you had

ran down the pages of the telephone book

and smeared all the numbers so you couldn't

find anything fast anymore?

And then you forgot what that thought was?

What if the internet was reality,

and you weren't Tron

What if new research finally proved,

once and for all,

that eating

was the true cause of all sickness

and all death?

What if reality was finite and you found out

you were infinite

and infinite meant you would forever be

in error?

And no one cared anyway?

What if no one could ever ask inane questions

again because reality demanded absolute

obedience to the laws of Ohm?

And you didn't remember what Ohm was?

What if science fiction wasn't

And science fact wasn't

And evolution didn't

And creation never

And your mother and father truly loved you?

How would you explain your schisms?

If there were no therapists, no Freud, no Jung, no psychiatrists, because no one was crazy,

except you?

What if everyone took you seriously

when you were angry

and shot you on sight

for the things you said?

Would you be sorry for being dead?

What if every unkind thing you have ever done

was done to you

in one day

on your birthday?

Would that make you feel sad?

Or glad?

Or would you care?

Or would you just go back to bed?

At least you can sleep.

What if...

Artwumyn

©2002

Worrisome Things

Worrisome things bother my mind

Troublesome tumblings trying to find

A weaseling, slithering, sneak hole within

To set up an outpost in hopes they will win

And sabotage once again my right to be

Peaceful, encouraged, hopeful and free

With trembling insides I venture forth

Slowly, in tentative steps, a new course

Of broadened horizons stretching my mind

Bringing along my spirit in kind

Showing my heart a new path to walk

In faith that things longed for are more than just talk

I gather my resources honed throughout life

And sharpen my senses for things that devise

I lift up my prayers unto God for the grace

To lovingly temper my fears with the faith

That all that can be will unfold with a plan

As I meditate and do all that I can

To honestly, lovingly, kindly ensure

That I bring to the table fruits that are pure

Cleansed from all pettiness and uncaring schemes

Leaving only the truest of heart's finest dreams

That therein the harvest when feasting's begun

Will nourish and fill kindred souls with it's love

Artwumyn

©2002

Foundationally Speaking

Foundationally speaking

Fundamentally tweaking

Intentionally seeking

To turn a head or two

Irascibly leading

Irrationally pleading

Fastidiously needing

To follow every clue

Felicitously feeling

Figuratively revealing

Innocuously appealing

To counteract the view

Irrepressibly sowing

Innumerably growing

Superfluously knowing

To supplicate the few

Artwumyn

©2002

Deep Thoughts Haiku

Time is Endless, Fleeting

Time is endless and

Fleeting but nevertheless

Time is on our side

In Darkness I Wait

In darkness I wait

Timing each sound's rhythmic beat

Imagining sight

In a Looking-Glass

In a looking-glass

All the images appear

Closer than they seem

Intuit

Intuition is

Seeing from the inside out

The feeling within

Quiet Thoughts

Quiet thoughts settle

Deeply in pools of nature

While minds ponder life

Wisdom Seldom Speaks

Wisdom seldom speaks

Without a lesson given

As an offering

Artwumyn

©2002

The Doorway

Standing in a doorway
One can see both sides,
But not fully

It takes a step either way
To enter a room,
Or to exit another

Standing in a doorway
It may be easy to imagine
What is not really there

It takes a step either way
To find the reality
Of one's decision

But sometimes one has to
Fully enter a room
Before it's beauty can be seen

Sometimes one has to
Cross a room before
Another doorway can be seen

And sometimes another doorway leads
To a room one has been seeking
When standing in a doorway

Artwumyn

©2002

When Deep Comes to Surface

Deep in the ocean where the light never shines
Colder than winter and the pressure is high

Deep under mountains far beneath any mines
Hotter than Hades and the pressure is high

Deep into space where the wind never blows
No place for breathing and the pressure is high

Deep into loneliness where love never flows
Devoid of feelings and the pressure is high

Deep in the mind where the madness grows
Filled with confusion and the pressure is high


Deep into pressure cracks appear in the lines
Come to the surface before it gets too high
Deep comes to surface when it gets too high
Cold cracks the surface
Heat melts the surface
Space haunts the surface
Loss dulls the surface
Deep lack of surface breaks the lines in the mind

Come to the surface, the pressure's much too high
Come to the surface where the water is fine
Come to the surface where the earth is kind
Come to the surface where sunlight shines
Come to the surface, put your hand in mine


and let love flow~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Artwumyn

©2002

Soul Cleansing Waters

Cleansing soul

Crystalline waters
Flowing downward
From the headlands
To the sea

Tumbling over
Rocky ledges
Sifting impurities
Left behind
As soil
To be aerated
serrated
alleviated
seeded
feeded
weeded
watered
sunned
thinned
rethought
grown
with measures
of truth
for harvesting

By the soul
Crystalline waters
Flowing downward
From the headlands
To the sea

Artwumyn

©2002

Soul Search

I sit, I wait, in silence best
I center down my restlessness
I think on all life's mystery
If understanding come to me
I gratefully thank the one who is
For granting life and joy to give


I seek to find and entered, stay 
In fellowship with ancient ways
Whose wisdom is it's own reward
In truth, in love, in living toward
A path of peace where I must go
To journey towards the river's flow


For rivers flow both deep and wide
Their waters rush and sometimes hide
What lies beneath the flood and then
They sometimes hold their waters in
And stand in pools while levels deep
So life renews while rivers sleep


To understand the river's flow
One must beneath the surface go
To learn the depths and see the land
Through which the river's path must wind
For gently flowing rivers laze
Across both field and forest glade


A time for fish and insects like
To raise their young and live their life
Then when time has come for change
The river roars to life again
And taking with it in it's cage
Are all the deaths to which it sates


Until it's spent and pours it's breath
Into the sea and lies in death
And thus it ends, the river's life
And I in contemplation, rife
Through all I know to understand
What part I play in river's hand


I sit, I wait, in silence best
My soul renewed and now at rest

Artwumyn

©2002

It's Your Choice

Choice

Rare

Medium

Well

Grade

Prime

AAA

AA

A

what, no D or F?

Curve

Bell

Half-less, hapless

Half-more, mores 'smores

change partners

Date

Year

Month

Day

Less

Less is more

More or less

Is lesson learned

Learned mind-set

I don't mind

Set

Set

Up

Down

Stage

Door

Exit

Entrance

Enter

Entre

Entree

Dinner

Lunch

Munch a Bunch

of Brunch

Bruncheon

Luncheon

Eon

and Eons

Ago

Ergo?

~~Artwumyn

©2002

Ah, Wisdom

Ah, wisdom

I love your name

It speaks to me of ancient ways

To love, to seek, to know, to be

To give one's self to higher things

To set aside all worldly cares

To center in on all that shared

From life eternal, universal

Then flow forth like streaming water

From a fountain high upon

A mountain's visage

Hidden from the world below

Given freely to the seeker

Who dares to climb

Your path to heaven

~~Artwumyn

©2002

You Are in Our Thoughts and Prayers

The Dogwoods are in bloom

And I thought of you today

Spring is here already

You were in my prayers last night

Easter will be coming soon

A yellow ribbon marks your chair

The choir is rehearsing songs of praise

And we all miss your voice, your laugh

Your presence in our midst

But we hold you close beside us

In our thoughts and in our prayers

My children have a new baby girl

I'm a grandmother now times three

I went to see her on a sunny day

And I thought of you way over there

In sand and heat, in danger's way

And in my heart I said another prayer

That God would bring you safely home

That He would hold you in His hand

That you would feel His Presence near

While you are in this foreign land

The white and pink of Dogwood trees

Have given way to leaves of green

I held the thought of early spring

And sent it on to you

With baby scent and children's smiles

With laughing friends at bar-b-ques

Oh, and by the way,

Your cat and dog are safe and sound

Although they miss you too

We're doing all we can at home

To keep things running smooth

And each day in our thoughts and prayers

In everything we say and do

There is that thread connecting us

Even through the miles that separate us

No matter what you may be going through

We here at home are holding you

And the sacrifices you're making too

All the while you are over there

You are here in our thoughts and prayers

Thank you,

Artwumyn

c.2003

Cancer is, verse 1

Cancer is

Invasive
Pervasive
A bad dream
That won't go away

Horrendous
Tremendous
A nightmare
That stays in the day

One minute you're normal
Relatively speaking
Next moment you're shrieking
To relative strangers

And relatives come
To be with you and hold you
But when they go home
You can't go with them

Because you've got cancer
And cancer has got you
And now you are different
And nothing's the same

Cancer is

Hateful
Ugly and spiteful
Full of dis - eases
That give you no rest

Cancer is

Tiring
Exhaustive, expiring
You just want this nightmare
Of daytime to end

Sometimes you're lucky
And cancer is vanquished
Cut out by ruthless
Surgeons with blades

But you are still thankful
For scars that run crazy
Because for the blades
The cancer would spread

But cancer cut out
Is not cancer over
There is no peacetime
Once wartime has ceased

Because of a small chance
Or maybe a large chance
That cancer may come back
Or linger within

So you never rest easy
No sleeping as babies
For once cancer has you
It never lets go

Artwumyn 2008

Haiku For Two

Intuition is
Seeing from the inside out
The feeling within 

In darkness I wait
Timing each sound's rhythmic beat
Imagining sight

Artwumyn 2002