Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Sometimes


Sometimes

Sometimes
   beauty is found 
       in a weed.

Poem 21-202c
#highplainspoet, #nebraskathoughtsandlife, #nature, #beauty, #paradigm

Monday, July 19, 2021

Red Elderberries

 


Red Elderberries

Regret like red elderberries against lush green
stain relationships with shame
until able to see with new eyes
how scars create a new beauty
along the fault lines of life

Poem 21-200y
#highplainspoet, #westernnebraskathoughtandlife, #redemption, #healing, #hope

Image © by author, taken in Spearfish Canyon in the Black Hills.


Friday, July 16, 2021

Drops of Dew Gather

Drops of dew gather
on tips and blades
teardrops that pull
verdant green
onto the knee
in humble prayer

Poem 21-197
#highplainspoet, #westernnebraskathoughtsandlife, #prayer, #nature, #beauty

Wednesday, July 14, 2021

What Our Love Feels Like Today

What Our Love Feels Like Today

Cloaked sunset like a closed curtain
teases my hazel, sometimes gray eyes
to take that second look
knowing the next thunderhead builds

Thunder's low rumble causes
the ground to quiver
as if the fear of the impending outburst
will rattle the windows and doors

Spider webs of lightning
lace the platinum silver horizon
rain approaching like a plague of grasshopers
'til it comes in sideways
soaking anything not wrapped
like an iphone in an anti-theft case

The instant temperature plunge
like a dive into a robin egg blue mountain lake
that invigorates in a polar bear moment
with heart stopping excitement
of my life shared with you

Poem 21-195s
#highplainspoet, #westernnebraskathoughtsandlife, #love, #joy

Tuesday, July 13, 2021

Not So Bad

Solicitude wells up like that unwelcomed guest
that comes at the most inopportune time
like when the timer on the stove is going off
and have to pull the pizza out of the oven

Change creates a moment of lip licking
contemplating a new response
while fear wants to shout at me like my
little league baseball coach when I strike out

Then just sigh as I process the mental gymnastics
swinging between the parallel bars
gyrating hoping grip holds
desperate to nail the dismount

The adrenaline surge when it's over
and wanting to do it again
learning it wasn't so bad
didn't even hear the crowd


Poem 21-194v
#highplainspoet, #westernnebraskthoughtsandlife, #anxiety, #change, #fear ©

Blazing

Blazing

Platinum sky
a gossamer sheet
smoky haze 
bashfully veils
the sun

Vivid tangerine
sinks below the horizon
leaves that soft 
sunset orange afterglow

Linger as the gentle breeze
brushes against damp skin
that matches the sunset
of this mid-July day


Poem 21-193z about the sunset last night
#highplainspoet, #westernnebraskathoughtsandlife, #western_US_on_fire, #beauty_of_sunset, #high_plains, #western_nebraska

Monday, July 12, 2021

Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage

That crooked road
winds between bluff and canyon
through passes and onto plains
looking for internal manifest destiny

Caught in the open
storms that weep ice
heat that sucks life like a leach
sting of the not yet home


Poem 21-192x
#highplainspoet, #nebraskathoughtsandlife, #pilgrimage, #home

Sunday, July 11, 2021

Soft Words

Soft Words

Soft words float in the evening breeze
like the cotton from the cottonwood tree
dancing in currents of air
lighting softly on only to
be caressed in the wind and
carried away once again

Poem 21-191y
#highplainspoet, #westernnebraskathoughtsandlife, #love, #tenderness, #intimacy

Saturday, July 10, 2021

Stripes

Stripes

Merging stripes us
in tints of velvet cake red
delicious to the eye
seduced

Poem 21-190y
#highplainspoet, #westernnebraskathoughtsandlife, #tulips

Friday, July 9, 2021

Somber

Somber


The melancholy cry of a dove
emotes the moans of
what's been locked away
all of these years

Dampness of morning
still clings to leaf and blade
as grief evaporates with each moan
in the warm breeze of pain
as time frozen parts thaw

Shamrock green of early summer
before relentless heat withers
leaving only roots and nubs
tears like rain trickle down
finding the genesis neglected
from generations past

Soon an oasis appears
from tears planted
the well tended internal garden 
where hope springs
that life rises from ashes

Poem 21-190z
#highplainspoet #westernnebraskathoughtsandlife #recovery #hope #redemption

Wednesday, July 7, 2021

Buffaloberries

Buffaloberries

In the irrigated grass, down the hill
a doe stands meandering until
she senses me and Molly the dog
in the distance, we at the top of hill
she down below in a standoff of sorts
until she has enough and goes under
the three wire fence and glides over the electric fence
to the edge of the property where 
buffaloberry bushes and scrub blend her
invisible to my eye so our walk can resume

Into the pasture where the gurgle of water
rushes through plastic ditch and
boots splash in song with the satisfied loam
Molly pauses to cool her paws
always on the lookout for the wayward snake
today the shovel only is used to 
deflower those invasive Canadian thistles that
easily breed like rabbits to ravish a pasture
with thorns on the thistle and deceiving purple bloom
a twist of the beauty of a wild pink rose 


Poem 21-186z
#highplainspoet, #westernnebraskathoughtsandlife, #summer, #ranch_life

Hush


Hush

Last night,
another apricot sunset
leaves parched lips
puckered in anticipation
of a sloppy wet kiss

This morning,
the young doe rises
 in the long shadows of dawn
 from the verdant alfalfa field
leaps gracefully over the electric fence and
concrete irrigation ditch in one smooth motion
in a reminder of the beauty of God's creation

So I pause once again
as the babbling of water
through blue and white plastic ditch
calms my wound tight heart
pondering how the holy hush of daybreak seduces
and remembering His goodness to me


Poem 21-188z
91 words
#highplainspoet, #westernnebraskthoughtsandlife, #nature, #beauty, #holiness

Tuesday, July 6, 2021

Come and Go


Come and Go

Ebb and flow
  they come home like the rising tide
  excitement of son and daughters
  reunited once again
  unloading the car at the door
  like a cargo ship at the dock
  they are in between ports
  today they are safe at home


Poem 20-229A from 8/16/20
#highplainspoet, #westernnebraskathoughtsandlife, #family, #empty-nest


Monday, July 5, 2021

Epigenetic Memory

Epigenetic Memory

Midsummer's heat
relents in the cascade of dawn's
long rays of soft yellow that
dance upon the golden corn silk
stalks waving in the Nebraska breeze

Awakening this buried place of haze
as walk upon parched earth epigenetic memory
of a slight taste of Eden's glory
a shadow of former days and
days to come


Poem 20-230A
8/17/20
#highplainspoet #nebraskathoughtsandlife #nebraska #nature #redemption



Sunday, July 4, 2021

Gnaw

Gnaw

It's one of those fourth of July's
that wrings the moisture from the air
where the heat is stifling
like a suffocating wet blanket

Pasture's thirst for water
greedily gulping in the irrigation water
having to add plastic ditch to
prevent it from dehydrating the next 90 feet

Horses miserable in the stillness
tails swooshing attacking all things buzzing
bucking when can't free from
tormenting horse flies who win leaving a welt

And here I am observing it all
drenched in sweat fending away
all the mosquitos and gnats
that gnaw at the ankles

Poem 21-185y
#highplainspoet #westernnebraskathoughtsandlife
nature, summer, heat

Friday, July 2, 2021

Unpredictable

 

Unpredictable

Summer on the high plains
is as unpredictable as a politician
in the morning starting out as friends
by evening cursing like sailors at each other on Twitter

The rain of yesterday hammered in fury
a gully washer with intermittent pea size hail
like a cowboy without a spittoon
spitting away with that cheek bulge of chew

It did clear the air between those politicians though
like one of those infomercial things
wondering if the warranty is good
because of how the parts don't quite fit

Meanwhile, back at the ranch the wind is stout today
out of the southeast with a sticky bite like hard cider
that's never good, its an open invitation for another storm
fermenting this afternoon like the head on good amber ale

Less than a month ago on a Sunday in June
with malice the sky opened
raining golf balls like lead grapeshot
shredding the siding like harsh words on a tender heart

The insurance check came two days ago with
the unwanted strings attached to it
the lender like that unwanted investor
gets their say in how we repair our own home

So, in this sticky air I'll check the irrigation early
to see if any of the syphon tubes have plugged up
irrigating is a symbiotic rhythm of having horses
so when the cold winds and bitter chills come they stay plump

Maybe I'll find another red-tailed hawk feather
those small things that catch my eye
I carry it as a trophy as I walk through the fields
letting my thoughts fly around in dizzying circles


Poem 21-183y
263 Words
#highplainspoet
Just a summer day in July and practicing using metaphors. © 5 minutes ago, Brian    misc • life • rambling • ranching