The Darkness gives way,
Orange fingers reach across the night,
Then pink, becomes Light.
cfblack, 12-31-16
Archive for December, 2016
Sunrise
December 31, 2016highway haiku
December 18, 2016Driving into Savannah Fri. night, we saw many downed trees that were lying sideways, the tops of them near the highway, as if reaching towards us. They would suddenly appear, whitish-gray trunks of trees against the night, and I wrote this haiku:
Skeletons of trees,
Arms are reaching out to us,
Hurricane remnants.
rain haiku
December 6, 2016Never ending rain
Put out all the forest fires
Then leave us alone.
cfblack 12-05-2016
Fruitcake haiku
December 4, 2016He stirs the batter,
Makes fruitcakes with Great-Grandma,
Building memories.
(This Thanksgiving break, Zakiah our grandson helped AL’s mom make her annual fruitcakes she gives out to all the families. She makes chocolate ones, apricot, ones with white and what flour. She is too weak now to make them by herself and use the electric mixer. Zakiah, age 10, did that and built a relationship with her.)
End of semester
December 3, 2016I sit, at my desk,
after 10 hours’ sleep
where I tossed and turned all night,
my body, settling,
my brain, active,
thoughts of my students raging aloud,
The morning sun streaming,
my coffee, strong,
it comforts me as I take it in,
For the end of a race,
you must save energy
for the final sprint, where you give it all,
Knowing this balance makes all the difference
and determines who wins the race,
My final sprint is a thousand emails,
a hundred papers to grade,
Notebooks filled with assignments
from anxious students on the last day,
… but a crisp, Fall morning beckons
for a leisurely walk around
my favorite park, with trees still standing,
as their beauty falls to the ground.
cfblack, 12-03-2016
In the Garden of Ridvan
December 1, 2016I don’t know why, this poem came to me tonight. To understand it, you have to know the story of Baha’u’llah, Founder of the Baha’i Faith, who spent 12 days in a garden before being banished from his native land, for teaching principles such as unity of God, His religions, unity of humankind, equality of men and women, education of all children, spiritual solution to economic inequality, agreement of science and religion.
In the Garden of Ridvan
I stand outside,
the breeze picks up,
His tent flaps in the wind,
I stare at the ground, ask why I’m here,
My heart sinks
With unworthiness.
His presence
fills the air with joy,
a perfume like honeysuckle,
The birds know, and respond with song,
This is the Day of reunion.
And I know, this moment,
this is the time
that Poets prophesied,
This is the New Jerusalem,
This is the Dawn of Wisdom,
I stand in complete and utter awe,
My heart is lit aflame,
My spirit thankful to be this near,
And then He calls, my name.
cfblack, 12-01-2016
The time of Ridvan in the Baha’i calendar is April 21 – May 2nd.
Doctor Grandma 