Laural inspired others to be creative, especially in writing.
This poetry section of Summerlands is dedicated to her everlasting
inspiration.
"EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON"
by Colbycat, MoonDancer
There is an old, old saying, we've all heard it many times.
"Everything happens for a reason," and for a long time,
I could not figure out why.
If everything happened for a reason, then how could you possibly
explain,
all the many, atrocities in life, that cause us so much pain.
Like prejudice, war and hunger, domestic violence, and child abuse.
I didn't care to explain it, there was really no excuse!
Then one day, something happened, that forever changed my life.
A single event, I thought for sure, would fill me with anger and strife.
My mother was taken from us suddenly, in a car accident she died.
At first I said, "This makes no sense............A
reason?......Goddess, tell me why?"
Suddenly, on my shoulder I felt a loving hand, and my mom said, very
clearly,
"Don't panic...I am in the SummerLand."
"Sit down and relax my dear, for me, there's nothing you can do,
but our family, and friends will need you...and to them you must be true."
Before this wretched day happened, my mother's health was ill.
Illness of the lung was taking her life, ...slowly... she tried to make
the best of it, but she suffered from it still.
"You know mom, you might try some oxygen to help you catch your
breath."
To that she said, "If I had to drag a tank around, I'd much rather be
dead!
That conversation came right back to me when my Mother "sat me
down."
That in fact, it just might be a blessing...and there were other things I
found.
There were some things between us that made it very hard
for me to take charge and make my play, when the Dealer dealt the cards.
The things she tried to do for me weren't helping me at all.
She always kept the secrets, instead of letting me stand tall.
I came to believe that even though my pain seemed so terribly hard to
bare,
I was better to think she left this world quickly rather than not able to
breathe and be scared.
You know, there just might be some Heavenly truth to that saying we
were talking about,
because suddenly I saw the reason why she didn't live her whole life out.
She could not hive me what I needed to make it in this life, and that
would never change,
and, she was much too good a person to die in so much pain.
So the One who is in charge of things, decided the schedule to
re-arrange...
Five fleeting years have quickly gone since my wonderful mother has
passed.
My life has changed...I'm accomplishing things that I never would have
guessed
And not one single day goes by that she herself does say...
"Everything happens for a reason my child, and I know, it was
much better this way."
["Written for you, mom, on the 5th anniversary (Aug. 5,
1999)
Of the day you taught me the most important lesson of my
life.
I love you,
Colby]
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"Folk Music" is not a poem in the normal sense of the word.
Nonetheless, it expresses my feeling and my expectation.
Folk Music
by David B. Urquidi
They lift their heads and their souls ascend into the sky on
the wings of a wailing howl. The chorus sings a funeral dirge to the new moon,
hovering in the darkness above. Swift journey, Sister. Swift return. For, as the
dark moon will wax again to full so shall your face, once again, be seen running
with us and your voice, fresh and newborn, be heard at the grand opera of the
full moon.
What time has taken from us, time will bring again. Swift
journey, Sister. Swift return. Now and then, in your memory, we will burst into
song.
******
A Flower in the Desert
by Scott Wilson
[Dedicated to Merrill A. Miller, humanitarian and
desertologist]
Once in a hundred years,
Once in a lifetime,
A flower blooms in the desert.
It is no small wonder
That you found one
And preserved its glory
In pictures
For future generations
Of bright young faces
Dazzled by the splendor
Caught in your photographs.
Their names are not recorded
In the heavy tome
You called your bible
Filled with the friends
You grew throughout the world.
But their hearts will feel
The flowering of your spirit
And the stories you told
Will rise to greet them
As those who knew you
Repeat them
To eager listeners
Both young and old.
The flower you captured
Now lies dormant
As does the heart
That recorded the moment
The centennial cactus bloomed.
But once again in a hundred years,
Once again in a lifetime,
Your flower will bloom in the desert.
Until then, we shall water it
With our joy and with our tears.
******
Isabel
by Don David Scott
It is you, Isabel
And not the sunrise
I await upon this stone
For my heart takes flight
In a moment, one breath
When we almost touch
In the twilight
Of our lives
When the cry of the hawk
And the howl of the wolf
Melt into one
An conspire
To sing together
For all time.
Your talons pierce
My beating heart.
It is you, Isabel
And not the sunrise
I await upon this stone.
******
Before the Dawn
by Sal Amander
Something arouses me in the darkest
night
Something which presages the coming light
When I'm curled up in the cradle of
nature
Wrapped in silence like a shroud
Snuggling alone with deepest cold
It slips its fingers in my mind
Something touches me in the darkest
night
Something whispers of the coming light
Something stirs me in the darkest night
Something calls with a rare second sight
Dark eyes snap open, face a curtain of
black
My heart pounds out an ancient beat
As the forest fragrance fills my lungs
I rise to greet the stars
I crawl on hands and knees
Past the sleeping bodies of mankind
To the circle, the dead fire-ring
To face the sky, to watch it sing
Uncountable millions of dancing lights
Cast a spell upon my eyes
While the sleeping giant, nature
Brings me down to size
Something chills me in the darkest night
Something whose fingers hold me tight
Once I saw the new moon rise
A silhouette against the eastern sky
Followed closely by the sun's yellow rays
It left me speechless, in a daze
Who are we to think we rule
Rule all the grows, breathes and feels
As we walk upright on the earth
Shadows under a canopy of sky
That morning, under the sun's glowing
reign
The moon disappeared in the heavens again
The shrill cries of jays soared in the air
Campfires stirred, voices murmured everywhere
That dawn lies behind me now
While a new day looms ahead
Yet the vision of timeless, starlit skies
Slips comforting fingers around my heart
My spirit cries, my spirit calls
To these sterile surrounding walls
Something waken me tonight
Slip your arms around me...
Dance with me in the moonlight
******
Child
and Butterfly
By N. Scott Wilson
As a child I walked restlessly
Along
the shore of expectation
When--all at once--you caught my eye
I watched you flutter by, O butterfly
Your wings brushed my lips
And you came to rest on my heart
Then the rain began to fall
And I saw you dance
Never have I seen one
So entranced by the rain
So free and open
And graceful in flight
For a time I knew only you
And we shared those moments
As if we were one
Then I gazed at the sand
As if pushed by some unseen
hand
I began to build sand castles
While you flew round and round me
(But I was lost deep in thought)
Each time you came into
view
It seemed I saw something new
And when you vanished behind me
You were gone from my mind
Each castle I would
construct
Was more elaborate than the last
I heard the soft flutter of wings
Which seemed like whispers
Then you hit me head on
With the full force of your body
Yet you could not move me
Though you tried and tried
The sky began to darken
And the clouds rolled in
As
the ocean came toward me
You
quietly flew
away
The tide came in quickly
The
castles vanished in the sea
A
cold wind whipped the water
And a chill came over me
Something was gone forever
But I could not remember what
That day I turned my back on beaches
That day I began to shun the rain
Now I am much older
I recall who I lost that day
I know why I feared beaches
I know why I hated the rain
For once I held your
fragile life
In the palm of my cold hand
But one cannot both hold butterflies
And build castles in the sand
I can't believe I let you
go
That day on the shore
And I wonder, butterfly O butterfly
Do you still celebrate the rain?
******
Fairies and Moonbeams
by Marc Flavius
Fairies and Moonbeams
Bring little girls dreams
Of romance
Dressed in hopes
Their fragile hearts dwell
High in golden castles
Where the magic, Love
Lifts them on clouds
Of desire
But time is no friend
Of Fairies and Moonbeams
So Knights come and go
Taking frail hopes in tow
And shining armor
Turns to empty promises
In their aging hands
Little by little
The castles descend
Until clouds gather over the heads
Of those once little girls
Those once dancing hearts
Who now stand alone
Backs to the doors
Where no Knights pass
And the only armor that remains
Is the steel in the eyes
Once so full
Of fairies and moonbeams.
******
The Sketch
by D. Bruce Urquidi
My hand longs to draw you near
But all I have is a photograph
So my fingers quietly pen
The feeling I have for you
I sketch your lips with the smile
That held me captive so many times
And paint your eyes with the sparkle
That said "I love you" again and again
I wish I could erase the pain
That put shadows on your lips
And blot out all the teardrops
That have clouded up your eyes
Yet a picture, once painted, is done
And, my love, I can't remove the ink
If only I could have new parchment and pen
I would start all over again.
******
The Weavers
by D. Tiermann
Back to back
The weaver's weave
Webs of destiny
Like bolts of cloth
They snatch glances
Over hunched shoulders
Spying the other's work
There's no time
For idle chatter
Where silkworm words
Lace their dreams
And the spinning wheel turns
By the pounding heart
Until squinting eyes
Open owl-size
And heads snap 'round
Fingers flying to the races
To change the designs
The other weaver traces
It is crewel work indeed
For the tailor whipstitches
The seamstress chain stitches
And their aching hearts twist
Impaled on needle point.
******
Tin Man
by Luna N. Geminae
To you, this home may seem deserted
To you, this man may seem alone
Yet a gathering of ghosts line these walls
Buried securely within sharp panes of glass
A hearth fire always burns there
At the altar of his heart
Where the faces of hope keep turning
In a everlasting kaleidoscope
The past, colored by tears and laughter
Fills every corner of each room
The present sets fire to his feelings
Like a torch in a just discovered tomb
He once sang siren songs of high ideals
But he never carried a tune for long
And those who set sail through his life
He left abandoned on the shore
One after the other, like shadow targets
In a shooting gallery
They passed by
Those impassioned spirits...
But his dark eyes chose to wander
And narrowed on the next target
Focusing on a higher score
Leaving the one, looking for more
And--snap--one by one
The precious hearts in his life went down
Into the background shallows
Where they faced eyes as dead as glass
No. Life is not a circus.
And the human heart is no target
Yet, in his heart stands a gallery
Once brimming with life and dreams
Bright eyes, now dazed and distant
Warm feelings, chilled to ice
Hot passion, burned to charcoal
Lost love he keeps under glass.
******
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