pictured words

a simple pairing of pictures and poetry

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

Nursery Rhymes with Built-in Crimes

1.

There once was a hideous thug
With an ugly and ominous mug
He’d threateningly prey
On sweet girls’ curds and whey
Then just sit there obnoxiously smug.

2.

Who’d rock their poor baby to sleep
From height that’s forebodingly steep
While singing a song
That’s in every way wrong
And just causes the baby to weep.

3.

There once was a farmer’s wife
Who wielded a carving knife
In nursery rhyme tales?
Oh, please spare the de-tails
Of blind mice who must run for their life!

(c) Marie Elena Good, 2013

Share the light.

Photo by Alex Azabache on Pexels.com

“A candle loses nothing by lighting another.”  ~ James Keller

Is there anyone who hasn’t heard
Or anyone who’s not been stirred
By this glowing, truthful quote
That light remains, as flame’s transferred.

Might sharing light extinguish shame?
Bring honor to another’s name?
In my mind, it is good to note
That light is light.  It’s all the same.

I cannot lose myself, it’s true,
By giving of myself to you.
The sharing is the antidote.
Let’s give, and watch the light accrue.

When sharing kindness, goodness, light,
We witness charity ignite.
This sentiment that Keller wrote
Shines hope into a troubled night.

© Marie Elena Good 2024

CANDLE SCANDAL

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

Candle Scandal

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
Get my drift? Though it’s really
none of my beeswax.

They have a short fuse.
They think they’re enlightened. Sure.
We know they’re wicked.

© Marie Elena Good 2024

When my husband said candles are wicked, I knew I had to run with it.  😉

CAUSTIC CREDO

Photo by Rahul on Pexels.com

Entertaining thoughts
of lynching trial jurors?
More insurrection?

Trump and his trial
likened to my sweet Jesus?
Never!  By no means!

© Marie Elena Good 2024

Untitled

Sometimes the beauty
Lies as much in the shadows
As in what casts them.

#seventeenineighteen

Seeing Through the Disconnect

Photo by Darya Sannikova on Pexels.com

How dissimilarly we are wired.
How varied, the ways we’re inspired.
We think as we do,
Due to all we’ve been through,
For we’re products of what has transpired.

© Marie Elena Good 2024

FOR YOU

Photo by Keith R. Good

Your life can’t be good.
Don’t listen to those who say
God can make a way.

Time is running out.
It isn’t possible your
Changes can be made.

You have to settle.
Don’t believe for a second
Your life means something.

© Marie Elena Good 2024

This is a Reverse Poem.  Please read the poem again from the bottom, up. I wrote this 3-stanza poem in my favorite 5/7/5-syllable style.