Tag Archives: BeautyFadethNot

poetry

Lavrans’ Day

”Life is held in flowered holds”

Slender tapers’ light
flickers, sputters, splashes and holds
his dying might
in the evens’ hold.

His life’s loves
and griefs:
a child crushed
beneath barreling bark,
another throws
herself against the ark,
another tied
to sister’s lark,
another sputtered with ne’er
a spark.

All his life spent
‘neath starry expanse,
spent lifting, warring
with word and blade,
is worthless now;
only breath beneath the brow
matters now.

Halberd’s glory, hoary head,
watchers watching
and the priest beside their bed
fade in the light of viaticum;
manna from heavens’ head,
life from life, bread from bread.

Oh, to borrow time instead,
instead of fading,
slipping from
flesh to bed,
from life to dead.

Oh, to forget not
and be not forgotten,
to spin the wheel
and leave some spark,
to leave a fire,
to leave some part,
to be given over
and leave a mark.

Viaticum:
the taste of life,
the taste of sorrow,
the taste of tears,
the taste of blood
upon the spear.

”Life is held in flowered holds”

His gold-haired beauty
pierced his heart
where blade could never stray;
blood poured from open wounds,
open sorrows, open swoons.
Anger flashed and held too long
broke what ne’er before was
broken long.

No matter now,
bridges mended;
babe was loved,
even if his spark
did flash before
the promise sworn.

”Life is held in flowered holds”

Sprinkle life
upon the spent
and with water
mend the rent.

Viaticum.

© rl busséll 2018 – All rights reserved.

Dedicated to Sigrid Undset.

Few novels have an impact beyond the ink and paper, Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid Undset, is one of those novels. If you need a novel to read and you don’t want to waste your time with fluff, read Kristin Lavransdatter.

Links to purchase “Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset” Tiina Nunnally (Translator) from Audible, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble:

Audible
Amazon
Barnes and Noble

Sigrid Undset as a young girl - Photographer Unknown

Sigrid Undset as a young girl – Photographer Unknown

Interested in learning more about Sigrid Undset, here are a couple of posts to wet your whistle:

Fascinating Facts about Sigrid Undset, Author of Kristin Lavransdatter
Modern Mrs. Darcy’s short post on Kristin Lavransdatter

From Sam Guzman Catholic Gentlemen’s Site Kristin Lavransdatter and Your Nordic Medieval Catholic Heart by Tyler Blanski

The Thomistic Institute Podcast Father Snyder “The Drama of Grace: Sigrid Undset and the Narrative of Conversion”

Catholic Stuff Podcast “Kristin’s Resentment”

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poetry

When All Could Be Gold

Crackers, crumbs, and milk in little carton drums.
I held mother’s hand and smelled the day so grand:
Chalk coming off the board in clouds,
Crayons held in new-formed hands, and
Blocks of wood all ready to stand.

All our cubbies lay right by the door,
Where we placed all that we brought,
all that our mothers and fathers thought
would make us what we would become;
all that would set our clay to marble-grand.

The room smelled of hope and bright eastern sun.
The room smelled of wood and bright colored fun.
The room smelled of promise and crisp new clothes.
The room smelled of smiles and pink-colored bows.

Kindergarten socks,
kindergarten hands,
kindergarten lambs
play in kindergarten bands.

These were the days when all could be gold,
when none of our fools showed their true face,
when none of our promise was broken and spilled,
and none of our parents died under their wheels,
when all could be fixed by
crackers, milk and small blanket sips,
when all of our curls were just so,
and no one laughed at our club-footed toe.

We were at the edge of all that could be,
Tree-top houses were in our future, you see.
Jack was sitting on white-painted seat,
Camelot was forming ‘round high-city stage,
and space’s frontier was laid at our feet.

Before bullet sang into President’s pate,
before Junior bled in Egypt’s old town,
before Dick hid the heist from the gate.

We sat in a circle, as we were taught,
as a dark-headed girl edged to the door,
her legs cradled in steel,
her hand cradled in flesh,
her smile cradled in bashfulness.

Kindergarten socks,
kindergarten hands,
kindergarten lambs
played in kindergarten bands.

© rl busséll 2018 – All rights reserved.

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poetry

H Haiku

hawfinch hunches
heavy hoarfrost, hearty haar — 1
halcyon hushes

© rl busséll 2018 – All rights reserved.

Alphabet Haiku Challenge

  • Every word in the haiku must begin with the same letter
  • When written in English, it generally follows the syllabic pattern 5-7-5
  • Haiku/Senryu Poetry – Here is an in-depth description of Haiku/Senryu Poem (also called human haiku) is an unrhymed Japanese verse consisting of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables (5, 7, 5) or 17 syllables in all. Senryu is usually written in the present tense and only references to some aspect of human nature or emotions. They possess no references to the natural world and thus stand out from nature/seasonal haiku.
  1. haar, a fog or sea mist ↩

 

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poetry

G Senryu

gangly gangs grandly
gait gallop grab gain —
gargantuan 1 glass

© rl busséll 2018 – All rights reserved.

This senryu envisions the seconds before the breaking of jewish owned storefront glass on November 9-10, 1938 in Germany and parts of Austria.

“The November Pogrom, known alternatively as ‘Kristallnacht 2,’ also led to the desecration of over 1,200 synagogues and looting of thousands of Jewish businesses and homes.
Following the assassination of a junior diplomat in Paris by a young Polish Jew, the Nazi Party seized the opportunity to incite mass anti-Jewish violence, claiming it was a spontaneous popular ‘retaliation’ against the ‘enemy within’. As a result approximately 90 people were killed and over 25,000 Jewish men were arrested and deported to Dachau, Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen, leading to the deaths of hundreds more in the camps.”3

May we never forget. May God show us more mercy than deserved.

For more information please visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum or The Wiener Library.

Alphabet Haiku Challenge

  • Every word in the haiku must begin with the same letter
  • When written in English, it generally follows the syllabic pattern 5-7-5
  • Haiku/Senryu Poetry – Here is an in-depth description of Haiku/Senryu Poem (also called human haiku) is an unrhymed Japanese verse consisting of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables (5, 7, 5) or 17 syllables in all. Senryu is usually written in the present tense and only references to some aspect of human nature or emotions. They possess no references to the natural world and thus stand out from nature/seasonal haiku.
  1. from Gargantua the name of a giant king in François Rabelais’s 16th-century satiric novel “The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel” ↩︎
  2. The Night of the Broken Glass ↩︎
  3. http://wienerlibrarycollections.co.uk/novemberpogrom/home ↩︎
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poetry

August

Figure. Circles stacked.
August is the eight of months.
Caesar bred these days for himself;
The highest days of thirty-one
Placed within his own form’ed year.
Julius stamped his face upon our days,
Now his garland-faire is ever there.

Brothers come in four, brothers come
Winter, spring and summer more.
Brother spills from coffee pot.
Brother shakes and bakes a lot.
Brother stamped as sire wrought,
Stamped his face on Caesar’s plot.

© rl busséll 2018 – All rights reserved.

For the ‘exalted’ son. May your days be as exalted and your name.

Photo by Ángel Fernández Alonso on Unsplash

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poetry

We’re Safe in Our Space

The early morning drive,
well, the early morning start,
started with us piling ourselves
onto floorboard,
floorboard and seat,
piling with blanket, pillow and bucket
(the bucket, in case my stomach rebelled)
We three, well four, if you count me,
are riding, our cousins, to see.

We don’t have much on the plate.
But it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter our state.
We’re taking a trip, riding on floorboard and seat.
Riding and reading, if our stomach allows.
Riding and drawing, if our pencil stays proud.
Riding and pushing, if our brothers do crowd.
We’re taking a trip, riding ‘round Shasta, quiet and loud.

The miles pass in seventies best,
they’re draped in greens and grays,
and then they are kissed;
they pass with silent rumbling sound,
under our feet, to our left and our west,
while number two clowns, number four frowns,
number one sits with with his eyes to the ground.
and I spread ‘cross the car’s center mound.

We try to play “license plate state.”
There is some “prize” to win if fifty we find,
or for the brother who makes it fastest to zed,
Oh, travel, rumble and sled.
Sightings of Shasta loom right ahead,
that great ice-headed mountain’s rising ahead.

And Grandpa sings “How Great”
as candied peanuts and “Lemonheads” 1
are shared from Grandma’s small plate.
Strong voice and hospitality great,
are shown while moving ‘round Shasta’s great peak,
shown while we nudge to gain room in our little grand place.
We’re with parents-grand; we’re safe in our space.

© rl busséll 2018 – All rights reserved.

  1. A Lemonhead is an American brand of candy, first introduced in 1962, produced by the Ferrara Candy Company. ↩︎

Image from:

unsplash-logoJeff Finley

Photo by Colin McClive on Pexels.com
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(detail- darkened) The Vision of Saint John - by El Greco (Doménikos Theotokópoulos) 87.5 × 76 inch Oil on canvas
poetry

Take a Walk

I take the silent step.
Keep my eyes up,
not looking to the broken ground.

I try to take a walk.
I try to keep from talk.
I try to still the clock.

You know the feeling.
You know that feeling,
when Picasso’s time 1
is spread wide and thick,
when the wind never seems
to go your way.

You try to catch your breath;
and it comes in fits and starts,
and it comes in flames and sparks,
and it comes in warring larks.

And then it fades.

You know the feeling.
You know that feeling,
when El Greco’s stretch, 2
seems real and right;
when proportions’ light
seems off, and not just by a mite,
and your limbs, they scream and bite.

They scream and bite,
and you’re stuck,
forever stuck on the bridge
with Munch, 3
and the screaming never stops.
You know that feeling.
You know the feeling.

© rl busséll 2018

The Vision of Saint John - by El Greco (Doménikos Theotokópoulos) 87.5 × 76 inch Oil on canvas

The Vision of Saint John – by El Greco (Doménikos Theotokópoulos) 87.5 × 76 inch oil on canvas (1608–1614 New York, Metropolitan Museum)

  1. Picasso’s “Blue Period” 1901-1904 http://www.artic.edu/collections/conservation/revealing-picasso-conservation-project/pablo-picasso-and-blue-period↩
  2. Domenikos Theotokopoulos (1541-1614) “El Greco” known for his elongated figures he is believed to be a precursor to Expressionism and Cubism. http://www.elgreco.net↩
  3. Edvard Munch (1863-1944) Norwegian Expressionist his most famous painting is titled “The Scream” (1893) Upon his death he bequeathed all his works in his possession to the City of Olso. Munch Museum was built to house them in 1963.https://www.theartstory.org/artist-munch-edvard-artworks.htm↩
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