Pele’s Faith

A poem about doubt and faith

Nature is never rash,
doesn’t deviate from the plan.
Day into Night
Spring
Summer
Fall and
Winter.
Perfect progress
dominates her canvas,
conserves the integrity
of her seed.
She nourishes
her offspring
that worries not
about belief.
Even now
flawless
in her beauty.
Prudently marking time
her cauldrons simmer
beneath fiery lakes
dripping molten art.
Leaving indelible
impressions
vibrant and intense,
this testimony
cloaked in
nothing
save a
crimson smile.

Word Play

Use the following VERBS to write a poem or story-
Racket, Snug, Green, Spoon, Boggle, Snake


I recently returned from a trek
climbing the Haiku Steps
popularly known as
“The Stairway to Heaven”,
seven thousand steps roundtrip
climbing a sheer rock face
exposed to the wind and rain
not for the faint of heart.
My hiking boots racketed
down the metal stairs.
Gloved hands
grasped the rusted
rickety railing as I
silently prayed my
legs would hold up
my cadence, remain constant.

My partner shushed
me, from the trail as he snaked his
way back from the banana patch
to make water, making sure
his camouflage jacket snugged
through the dense undergrowth
boggling the female boar suckling her young.
As she spooned later with her mate
safely beneath the lush fern
jungle,
greening
in the
Hawaiian sun.

Unconscious

(From a poem titled Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold
one of the writing starter’s at Saturday’s Writing Retreat, I used this sentence and crafted a poem (“Ignorant armies clash by night”)



Ignorant armies clash by night
in the darkness of their sin
blinded by the shadows,
forced to march
through the trenches
to save the soil from
a hedonistic fate.
Then reason that they were following orders
not fully understanding the why.
Never, fully understanding
the ramifications
of how, who, and why.
Many return from their tour of duty
and continue
to trudge through
the dark corners of their minds
in a maze of self doubt.
Trudging on toward some
unholy reward
where all
the cheese is
a moulded dark shade
of green.
A place where green rules
the world and the world
is decayed and remembers
little, about other colors
or about truth.

Touring the Seaborne Odyssey

I was invited to tour this ship as it docked in Honolulu on Thursday thanks to Susan F. "a golf friend".
It began its voyage in Florida and is going around the World for 81 days and will finish its voyage in Athens Greece where it will remain to do local cruises in the Mediterranean.


Bright burnished brass and
teak decks scrubbed
fore and aft
brandish old coin,
as it rocks gently against the dock.
The hull unlovely, as it deposits
the flotsam and jetsetters onboard
salty, from the recent rough passage.
Briefly pausing on a world tour
their papers peaking from loose pockets
as they survey the area, set for local amusement.
Led by our guide through
distinguished corridors
vacuumed and polished.
Sampling the owner’s suite
as black caviar on a cracker
settling on the back of the tongue
washed down in the Sky Lounge
with Champagne and Mimosa’s
and an hors d'oeuvre
of delicate
orange salmon
zwieback.

Revision-acrostic

R ewriting I play
E arly in the day, creating
V olumes of
I nspiraton. Just
S econds to uncover
I espy another,
O ld rhyme of which I reprise,
N ew poems to elicit your smiles.

Six Words on Marriage

Husbands rule on the fourth planet.

Wives rule on all the planets!