Sometimes I have to remember

How gently the wisteria trees

Sway in a sunshower.





How the gossamers built with patience

Must sometimes be built again,

And again, and again without complaint.





I have to listen for the laughter

The one you'd almost miss if you were

Too worried about the symmetry of the seams





On the dress your mother sewed

And you re-sowed. “Be at ease.”

That lithe voice whispered, smiling.





I imagine there on the front porch

A child with golden hair and

Sapphire eyes, planting a huge basium





On the family pup’s nose, and they both

Turn shyly and grin at my future.

“Mommy, let's play,” she says, and I know it's everything. Everything





I ever wanted. To play. To delight

In words dancing on pages and

Make the dirt at my feet into ballrooms.





“It's not a tempest, my dear, only

A little rain, swaying the wisteria

Blooms.” My mother again holds my hand.





The hand that would one day

Write about what howls in the depths

Of silence, penning softly.





I taste the brackish thoughts,

Salty on my tongue, of the Sea,

The Sea that takes all.





And then I imagine those

Precious gem eyes, interpenetrating mine

With an interference of calm.





I feel light, almost pneumatic.

Nevermore will I worry about perfect lines.

This life, I live like the vines.





Play, and sway, and grow again.





--





Mad Words List 4.17.18:





Howl

Gossamer

Lithe

Sunshower

Nevermore

Serendipity

Brackish

Interference

Seams

Suffice

Symmetry

Basium

Gold

Interpenetration

Pneumatic

Wisteria

Tempest





--





Writing, and life itself, is all about the choices we make. My first attempt at writing this poem with this word list was going to be a very harsh poem. I focused on the words "interpenetration" and "howl" and "brackish" at first. It was going to be called "Mind Rape" and I promise it sounds exactly like it sounds and you don't want to read it.





I did not want to write a harsh poem today though. So I wrote something softer. A reminder of gentleness and being yourself. Of casting off perfection and expectations. Of appreciating who you are, who has helped make you who you are, and who will in the future. Today's poem is a tribute to the connection between the past, the present, and the future, to play and imagination, and it's about our choices and perspectives and how they help us to grow.



