Dreamwish 2013

Street art - Seattle, WA

photos © Jennifer Wagner

...

if your dream

doesn’t fit the page

color outside the lines

... 

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

Linking to imaginary garden with real toads and d'Verse.  Happy 2013!

New

in awe of His promise

to make all things new

even me

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

New for Haiku Heights and haiku my heart

Happy New Year :)

Inspiring Blogger Award

The lovely and amazingly gifted poet Janet Martin, who writes at Another Porch, has nominated me for the Inspiring Blogger Award.  What an honor!  She inspires me. 

So if I understand this right I am to give 7 facts about myself and then I have the privilege of nominating some bloggers for the award as well.  

My 7 facts:

1. I’m pretty good at Texas Hold ‘Em, if I do say so myself.
2. In my opinion ‘I Love Lucy’ is one of the best TV shows.  Ever. 
3. I enjoy Agatha Christie mystery novels.
4. My favorite food is a tomato right off the vine.
5. I (heart) baseball.
6. I do not (heart) squirrels. (don’t ask…)
7. book, blanket, fire = happy, happy me :)

You know how you get excited to see what some bloggers have come up with in every new post?  Here are a few I consider to be inspiring.  My nominations:

Margaret Bednar at Art Happens 365.  Poetry.  Photography.  Inspiration.  And she’s a mom of 6!  What can’t she do?  Amazingly brilliant lady.

Lolly at Look for a Lovely Thing.  Hers is a newly discovered blog for me.  She absolutely nails the ‘haiku moment’.  Her haiku are among the best I have ever read.

Yelena at moonlitpoetic.  Every time I read something she’s written I feel as though I’ve just witnessed something incredibly beautiful and delicate.  What a poetic gift she has.

So again, thank you Janet!  I’m honored and humbled and smiling straight from my heart!

Snowdrops and Sleigh Bells

snowdrops splashing

like citrus squeezed

onto feathered ice

---

snowdrops

dripping from the tongue

of the moon

---

sleigh bells

and a hush of snow

almost silent night

---

sleigh bells jingling

even the snowman

smiles and waves

---

the sky flinging snow today

just to hear

children laughing again

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

Haiku Heights 

Winter Solstice

frost sparkles on

maple leaf confetti

autumn’s party ends

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

haiku my heart 

Wintertide

snow,

heavy,

slush-like,

weighing down

burnt orange leaves

raked

and scooped

and heaped

in hardship

wishing now

to pull them out

turn them green

glue them back

one by one

onto trees

to rustle softly

an enchanted echo

hushed

in winter’s tide

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

For Three Word Wednesday where we were to use the words echo, hardship, and softly...and for  Poetry Jam where Brian had us take a walk and write.  Here's what I came up with.

26

26 reasons

to remember why

He came

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

It’s Christmas, but I find it difficult to feel celebratory.  I know most are probably feeling the same way with hearts heavy and broken from last week’s devastation.  And yet I am reminded of why He came.  He came not because He wanted us to decorate trees and drink egg nog and rack up credit card debt giving gifts.  He came because we are in darkness, and He is the Light of the world.  John 8:12  Come, let us behold Him.  Perhaps we have never needed to more.

 

Frozen Yesterday

I tied his little-kid size 12 gray converse shoes

while he crunched almonds

and bragged between swallows

about beating me at Go Fish.

I hid my grin

and tried to look disappointed

for losing.

Zipping up his green hoodie

we left

for afternoon Kindergarten

at 11:55.

He was concerned

that his friend wouldn’t be at school—

he’d made a paper Christmas tree

and put it into an envelope,

scotch-taped a blue candy cane to the outside

for a little present.

Walking him to the line,

I said “have a great day, buddy,”

then waved and watched as he walked through the doors,

backpack almost as big as he is, bouncing.

I thought of how many parents did this today,

leaving their hearts

in a five year old body

on cold tile floors.

And I couldn’t leave the parking lot.

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner 

Dear God, dear God…more tears than words for all who are gripped in this horrific tragedy in Newtown, CT.

Got the jump on this prompt with Brian’s post yesterday.  Linking up with the amazing poets at dVerse Poetics.  I'll also be linking to The Poetry Pantry.

When words are few, perhaps there is a song.

Ornament (Beauty for Ashes)

adorn me with your breath,

i will flower and grow

underneath the overgrowth

of black trees

that bear no fruit

and needle the ground

sleeping

in winter’s graveyard

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

Letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

The pizza delivery guy

drives the pizza to my house.

I tip him,

though he had nothing to do

with making it.

And I’m sure he keeps it all

for himself.

Next year I’m writing to the elves.

Signed,

New Perspective

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

For Words Count with Mama Zen at Imaginary Garden with Real Toads.  The challenge:  A 50 words or less letter to the big guy.

Slave (The Calling of Manumit)

One lung full while the other

constricts,                      

shrivels,

crushed beneath this weight

I can’t think, can’t  resist,

weakened

by the purchase of screws

I held myself down for

and bled my tears

listening to the

sweet sound

of mourning doves.

I have forgotten You

and I confess

sometimes I think You are gone,

abandoned me

for greener fields

of those more faithful.

But You say I am Your temple—

chained as I am to memory,

so please keep holding out keys

to this puzzle of wings

I am putting together

to fly away from ghostly apparitions

that visit me in my dreams.

They kiss me on the forehead

and keep me from the tiny living temples

that matter at all to me.

Serpent of haunting,

you’ve bitten, but you are crushed,

and I, while breathing in a whisper from the moon

through windows

streaming enlightened threads

in reflection of daylight,

in the back of my mind

I hear it

in each pump of blood

from my heart

I know

I know

I was meant to be free.

 

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

I'll be linking this to Poets United Poetry Pantry

Forest

chestnut-backed chickadee

on the hemlock branch

chatters my arrival

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

for haiku my heart friday at recuerda mi corazon

Hollow

deep in the wintergreens

of twilight

it grows

 where birds of song

vacate homes in season’s passing,

gathering shadows of keeping;

 and berries, frozen—

are bejeweling 

the trampled floor

of the forest wide and deep

 of her glacial heart

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

Poets United: The Poetry Pantry

Frost

a dusting of diamonds

sparkling on evergreens

winter’s oracle

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

haiku my heart

In Winter's Sights

she placed snowshoes on the mountain,

a shine to the lips of heaven

in a musical crunching of white

with peek-a-boo pine cones and twigs

it was in moments like this she felt it,

breathed it

when douglas firs and lodgepole pines

held a shimmering of frost

and a barn owl’s low hoot

gave her a sense of mulled cider

when the fire is just right

and so is the world

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

Offerings:  The Poetry Pantry and dVerse

Interview at Poets United

I've had the honor of being interviewed by the talented Sherry of Poets United for the Life of a Poet Series.  If you would like to read it, go here:  Life of a Poet - Jennifer Wagner.  Thanks Sherry, I was truly surprised and honored to be featured!

Firegold

dusk

is a notion

of half-closed lids

in yellow flicks

of candlelight

against your bluegreen eyes

where

despite or because of

that lonely space between us

you pull me into

it

reaching for that tender

part you save for me

until i believe

i am the jewel

upon your hand

you always say i am

and melt like gold

in your palms

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

The Poetry Pantry

Not a Circus Fan

Circus me a frown

clown in neon blue

with stripes

I see in my sleep

Oscillating, like a cyclone

like that time

after too many mango margaritas

in Cabo

Heave-ho

pirate clown

black and white

and stubbly beard

I hope he won’t hug me

scratches, Patches

and his scent

like bourbon on Santa’s breath

Now there’s a clown

asking if “mommy” would like to sit

on his lap too

Watery eyes, seen too many

bottoms

of glasses

And cigar smoke

fingering the suit

I make for

the other end of the sleigh

feeling a bit like sequins and legs

and hope for more

of stale popcorn

and less of

the inexplicable circus peanut

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

For Poetry Jam: Under the Big Top 

Storytellers, Poets, Dreamers

shining, twinkling—

winking morse code

in the cold clear of night

                

peering toward hills

graced by tempered moon

and gathering breaths like visions

in baskets of words

illuminated,

holding gold, like dust—fragments

in upheld palms

releasing them to jump gracefully

spin, twirl like fireflies

climbing in the tenebrosity

and falling like stars 

on shoulders

whispering to hungry ears

a glittering of seasons

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

dVerse OpenLinkNight

The Truce

sitting in the dust

accusers round her, thick—

with pride and spittle

dribbling their bearded chins

fingers pointing, fists shaking, rocks in hand—

the ground trembling with cries for justice

‘such women’ they yell, violent distaste rolling

off their tongues

one by one, they felt the mirrored shame in His words

until only one accuser remained

as she waited for the airless moment to pass

and a stone to pierce her

the two of them breathed slowly together, seconds ticking, until

she put it down, rose up, and began to pardon herself

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

*His words

For dVerse, Armistice/Truce/Making Peace with Poetics

Settling Upon November

The artistry of SueAnn.  Used with permission.

Damp yellow leaves

and a hanging gray

settled upon November

with sharp scents of burning wood

and smoke encircling chimneys.

Head down, she trudged ‘home’

rain splattering her jacket

and hiding bright tears.

November, the month

she knew more than leaves

were dying.

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

For dVerse Poetics: Through the Artist's Lens 

Night Witches (Nachthexen)

They flew in the cold,

in the pitch-blackness of an evil sky,

riddled with bullets.

No radios.

No parachutes.

2 bombs.

Engines cut

on the Polikarpov U-2,

to creep

up on sleeping monsters,

to visit their dreams

with light,

and bring the Reich and Reign

closer to hell.

Started them up

in mission, resolute,

crawling out on the wings,

on a limb,

for the rest of us.

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

 

Did you know women flew airplanes in combat in WWII?  I didn’t until I visited the Flying Heritage Museum recently.  The 588^th Night Bomber Regiment was made entirely of women who flew the PO-2.  They would sneak up on the enemy by cutting their engines, drop bombs, and then restart their engines to get away; even crawling out on the wings, mid-flight when necessary, to get the props going.  And then go and do it all over again throughout the freezing night.  Truly heroic.  The Nazis began to refer to them as Night Witches because of the terror this tactic inflicted.  Seemed like the right time of year to write about them.

The photos:  (top) a few of these amazing aviators.   And (right) the PO-2, the tail number honors the 23 who earned "Hero of the Soviet Union" citations. And (left) the lettering on the fuselage translates into "Revenge for Dusya," a tribute to the first Night Witch to be killed in combat.  30 of them were lost in all.  If you click any of the links here I recommend the "Revenge for Dusya"...really some fascinating reading from the book A Dance with Death.

Linking up to OpenLinkNight at dVerse, an amazing site for poetry.

Gloom

cobwebs thick upon your hands

dirt underneath your nails

embedded deep

buried

            alive

you feel the crust

of tears and dirt

stuck to your lashes

            your nostrils

choking

you make shallow breaths

repeat your name

you are

not                   dead                 yet

remind yourself

to come back

to the living

keep scratching and clawing

out

of

the

dark

someone will need

your survival story one day

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

For Ella's prompt at Poets United: Web 

Wild Peaches and the River

 She tucked me into bed,

wrapped me in

an age-worn quilt

and I slept like the baby I nearly was.

When I woke,

I pulled the quilt around me

and tiptoed across the old wood floors

covered with braided rugs.

Rubbing sleep from my eyes,

I entered the kitchen

and watched her sitting at the farm table,

with a cup of steaming coffee, slicing a wild peach.

Her hands were still strong then;

and even now I never see a peach,

smell one, taste one,

without thinking of her.

She laughed, her mellow way, eyes crinkling,

when I said how much I liked the sweetness

but not the fuzzy skin which poked

like a prickly moustache against my mouth.

Overheard her saying, later

that she ‘got tickled’

when I’d said the pigs rooting in the pen

looked like they had ribbons in their tails.

When I’d trailed her

to the rabbit cages

and saw a mama rabbit

eat her own baby

she didn’t shield me

from the horror of it,

but let me ask the hard questions

and answered them, best she knew.

‘Fascinating’ is what I’d called it,

when asked about it back home.

And she was, too,

though I never said it.

Except at the cemetery overlooking the river

when I wished her back

to see me enjoy the sweetness in my life,

to bring lightness when it poked;

and because the questions

have only gotten harder.

But mostly, to hear her ‘tickled’ laughter

one more time.

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

For Grandma.  Rest in peace, we so often rested in yours.

Submissions:  dVerse OpenLinkNight and Theme Thursday, Cemeteries

Puddle

raindrops

puddle bouncing

i want to play too

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

recuerda mi corazon