pictured words

a simple pairing of pictures and poetry

NOW WHAT?

Photo by Element5 Digital on Pexels.com

NOW WHAT?

Now is the time to
not grow weary of planting
good, so good is reaped.

Now I ask my Lord
to show me the next right thing
and help me do it.

Now I sit down to
plan my English lesson for
sweet, eager women.

Now I spend time with
my granddaughters, letting them
talk.  Lifting them up.

Now I look out my
window at the colors, and
see the hand of God.

Now I think on how
a king’s heart is in God’s hand,
and He can guide it.

Now I make calls, and
receive calls, and get in touch
with those God gives me.

Now I eat good food,
and share good food with those who
are in need of it.

Now I look to the
church, to do what the church should
to welcome strangers.

Now I look forward
to seeing how God will grow
little kindnesses.

Now I don’t complain
(help me, Lord!) about things, but
choose a grateful heart.

Now I walk with God,
asking Him for eyes to see
and ears to hear Him.

Now I learn to seek
forgiveness, and to forgive
those who have wronged me.

Now I ask not what
my country can do for me,
but I for others.

Now I choose to look
for the good in those who see
with different eyes.

Now I will seek to
learn how to better display
the love of Jesus.

Now I endeavor
to stand up, speak truth in love,
or sit still and hushed.

Now I will listen
raptly for the still, small voice
of my holy God.

Now I vow to care
for those God has placed in my
small, humble corner.

Now I understand
each of us has our corner.
Corners shape the whole.

Now I am thankful
our God cannot be reduced
by the whims of man.

© Marie Elena Good, 2024

At Risk of Inconvenience

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AT RISK OF INCONVENIENCE

When is the time to
ask, “From what are you fleeing?”
to decipher which
response sits well with
your belief system of what
is acceptable?

A conventional
distance between bombs fallen,
and their child’s bedroom?

Number of women
kidnapped for sexual gain?
Number of children?

The amount of food
unavailable to feed
themselves? Their children?

Are there adequate
words to set your mind at ease
that this person’s plight’s
perilous enough
to justify leaving home,
setting themselves at
risk in different ways
than what they feel forced to leave –
forced to escape – now?

To make certain their
endangerment matches your
own definition?

And when, in your thoughts,
is it acceptable to
bomb a hospital?

Perhaps when evil
lurks beneath? Then, innocents
are expendable?

What gives you enough
luxury of ease of mind
to give your thumbs up?

© Marie Elena Good 2024

BEGINNING TO END

Photo by Tirachard Kumtanom on Pexels.com

The start of a war
isn’t the start of a war
nor the end, the end.


© Marie Elena Good 2024

30 Days of Real

Photo by Marie Elena

#30daysofreal

Take me.
Take everything you think you know,
Everything you think you see,
And paste it together in a lovely collage:
Generosity, kindness, strength, compassion.

Now hold it to a flame, and sear it.
Authenticity requires it.

For the me I know is kind and generous –
Not plunged in superb selflessness, nor
Wading in benevolence, but
Flirting on the edge of
Inconvenience. No further.

The me I know is strong –
Until taken by the heart
And stirred,
Not even shaken.

The me I know has compassion –
Enough to feel the “aww” tug,
Say a prayer; write a verse,
From the comfort of my home.

The me I know is not the me you think you know.
And the me I know just got real –

But not even for thirty days.

(c) Marie Elena Good 2014

Untitled (lost and found prompt)

Photo by Elu012bna Aru0101ja on Pexels.com

Disoriented.
Unable to find herself
until a loved one

sat in her stillness,
not looking her in the eye
until requested

by a subtle sigh
that was released to set free
her burning to be.

© Marie Elena Good 2024

SOUNDS LIKE ESL IS HARD!

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Let’s take a trip down language lane.
Prepare yourself to tax your brain.

So: bike, and fyke, and seiche, and psych
aren’t spelled the same, but sound alike.

We’ve feign and vein and Maine, main, mane,
champagne, campaign … it’s all insane.

There’s there and they’re, and also their
and stare and stair, and ne’re, and prayer.

Too, to, and two, and you and ewe
and through and threw, and loo and lieu.

Let’s see … there’s sea, grand prix, esprit,
and Leigh, and Bea and bee and be.

And though there’s Leigh, there’s also weigh
(which sounds like way, whey, pray, and prey).

Clime, climb, time, thyme and Anaheim
I’m here to say all rhyme with rhyme.

Cent sounds like scent, assent, ascent,
descent, dissent, rent, rente, and meant.

Now cell and sell and bell and belle
all rhyme as well, as you can tell,

Like here and hear and deer and dear
and peer and pier and tier and tear,

Except when tear sounds just like pear
and wear like ware and ware like where.

We have these rules we break (not brake).
Like why rhyme stake, steak, and opaque??

It makes my head and stomach ache.

And I’d accept all this, except
it makes me feel vocab inept.

© Marie Elena Good 2024

ON MY CALENDAR

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On My Calendar

Mondays
On Mondays we enjoy a meal
with family, and it’s ideal –
even when the food ain’t great
that sits there smirking on our plate.
The love we share is the appeal.

Tuesdays
Tuesday mornings I’m content
immersed in weekly blessed event
of breakfast with each granddaughter.
Our one-on-one constructs a cotter,
bonding hearts in time well spent.

Thursdays
My school-year Thursdays are the chance
to teach my heart the steps to dance
with women I would not have known,
and through whose cultures I have grown.
Their love is huge.  My life, enhanced.

Fridays
Each final Friday, there’s a date
for cousin’s lunch, and I can’t wait.
We’ll keep it up year after year,
won’t let whatever interfere.
It keeps us bonded, and that’s great!

Saturdays
Any college football day
tends to chase my blues away.
(Except for a specific blue:
that one with maize that passes through.)
Love my scarlet and my gray!

Sundays
Sunday mornings spent in church
singing, praising, heartfelt search
through all the evidence of God
who we can know, and see, and laud.
(Sometimes Keith’s out catching perch. 😉)

Days unnamed, not unembraced,
leave ample time to just be graced
with quiet time
to read or rhyme,
or stuff that’s hard, but must be faced.

© Marie Elena Good 2024

I spent more time on these little pieces than it looks like. They need polishing, but at least the gist is there. 😉

PREFERENCES

Spring Blooms photo credit Keith R. Good

Preferences

I prefer water
falling, or babbling in brooks,
to crashing on shore.

I prefer my sun
filtered through dense forest pines.
The air I breathe, chilled.

I prefer trees dressed
in fall leaf, winter white, and
spring pastel blossom.

I prefer my sweets
whisper, never scream. Infer.
Teach my buds to taste.

I prefer poems
short. Simple. Unpretentious.
Teeming with meaning.

I prefer poem
to novel. Rain song to rap.
Bird song for play list.

I prefer my eyes
open to seeing the good.
Closed to finding fault.

I prefer voices
softly smoothing sharp judgements
and callous replies.

I prefer humble
to haughty. Natural to
embellished. Modest.

I prefer cozy
to large. Simple to stately.
Relaxed, and restful.

I prefer colors
sparsely vibrant, interspersed
in tranquil setting.

I prefer dancing
leaf shadows on my walls to
swanky wallpaper.

I prefer shadows
(sometimes) to that which casts them.
(Art of creation)

I prefer my love’s
letters on small sticky notes
to grand sky writing.

I prefer my home
and my husband to any
-where, and anyone.

I prefer bridges
to walls.  Pathways to highways.
Left ajar to locked.

I prefer the truth
even when you think I won’t.
Even when it hurts.

I prefer Jesus,
gentle and lowly.  King. Christ.
Forgiver of sins.

I prefer my God’s
still small voice that compels me
to be still, myself.

(c) Marie Elena Good, 2024

I wrote three of these seventeens previously

UNCLE

UNCLE

I think I’ll cry uncle this time.
I’m not in the mood to make rhyme.
My feet are disjointed,
Iamb disappointed.
My meter’s demanding a dime.

My quatrain’s off track
What would it entail
To get it pulled back
So it won’t derail?

I’m a poor poet
can’t afford the syntax –
All my verse is free

I’m just in the mood
To sit here and brood.

An unassuming voice eerily orbits the tranquil moon: “Uncle.”

© Copyright Marie Elena Good – 2013

A limerick, followed by a quatrain, followed by the 5/7/5 of haiku, followed by a rhyming couplet, and ending with a monoku. Phew!

THE VIEW FROM HER EYES

My stunningly beautiful daughter. Photo by Steve Gertz

She sees through eyes that close,
that nobody knows how to fix.
And politics says there aren’t
enough of her to fund a cure. 

At one time, she was functionally blind;
mostly confined to her bed and
stuck inside her unwell head.

And though she tries,
it’s hard to be strong
when you long for the life
you once viewed as fate,
but now fear is too late.
 
She has multiple diagnoses.
Some fell away. Some chose to stay.
They, the predator.  She, the prey.

© Marie Elena Good, 2024

#mentalillness
#schizoaffective
#multiplepersonalitydisorder
#lymedisease
#anaplasmosis
#blepharospasm
#meigesyndrome