Heat

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Sundress Summers

Barefoot,

Sundress summers

Bloomed in yellow visions

With the milky drink of your lips—

Child love.

My latest submission for the gathering that is One Shot Wednesday. Returning this week to a style that’s been an old favorite of mine – the cinquain – for the purposes of capturing that summer swell. Lord knows we’ve had the weather for it here.

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Pressure before Storm

There is a tingle on the wind

Like thunder in my skin

The air breathes

And the light quakes—

Shivers, breaks—

Such force is this!

This sudden heat,

This fireless heat

That beckons from the clouds.

The world elates to hear

The fury of its passing.

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To change things up: some Haiku

Today, breaking from the usual vacation-based poems of the week, I give you a series of Haikus. The trip was beneficial for many things, but my Haiku especially saw a lot of work while I was away. Enjoy:

Man climbs high above

But the earth climbs higher still;

Highest rides the sun.

–

Each step, hotter fire

Each breath, a chiller embrace—

The sky is thinning.

–

Fourteen thousand feet,

The world becomes a crystal

Despite summer heat.

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Winter Fire

Trails wind into the heart of winter,

Built serpentine through rock and wood.

The life runs through it,

Bursting through the seams.

White earth rain down

Upon the precipice—

Shield your eyes against the light,

There is fire in the winter sheen.

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Summer Snow

Yep, that's me!

Well I have returned at last from my trip to Colorado. Suffice to say, it was a beautiful trip, every minute of it. I have always felt a calling to the mountains, and I personally feel my brother is a lucky man to live amongst them. Wonderful places–breathtaking scenery, bizarre weather, and the perfect spots for exercise and the embrace of creativity. I now have more than 300 pictures added to my library, some of which you will probably see attached to some of my work in the days to come.

I saw a number of places while I was in-state. From bustling downtown Denver, to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Red Rocks, Rocky Mountain National Park, and the city of Boulder (about as artsy a town as one might find), among others. Between the sight-seeing and the time spent catching up with family, however, I am proud to say I also accomplished a great deal of work. Both there and on the flight, both in terms of poetry and my novel, I made great headway, and I will be posting the results of the weeks to come.

To start us out, I have a poem inspired by a climb to the heights of the Rocky Mountains where, despite broiling 80 degree temperatures below, a beautiful field of snow awaited, and on the peaks for miles around. A bit breezy, by the way, and I had the brilliant idea of hiking in shorts and a t-shirt. Terrible fun, but a wee bit chilly.

So to begin:

14,000 Feet Above the World

Snowball fights in shorts;

The sun beats down

Atop the world.

Slipping along the rocks

I stumble out to see the world,

And I am Freedom,

Dangling over Nothing

In the summer heat.

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Summer Rising

With the daylight break

My heart is near to burst;

In Summer’s glow immersed,

Winter’s madness in my wake.

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Mist gathers at my feet,

In swirling, hazy disregard;

But though it batters at my guard

The bird-song forces discrete retreat.

–

Reborn,

I greet an earth unfurled;

Not a cloud in all the world

To mar the spirits of my morn.