Archive for the ‘poetry’ Category
LAST DAY OF CLASSES
November 30, 2023Last day of classes
is always the same,
a mixture of sadness
and personal GAIN,
No one has energy,
let’s do this review
and get outa here!
Another semester has ended today,
Did they learn anything??
It’s hard to say,
It’s hard to believe it’s been 16 weeks!
No one has questions, and no one speaks!
It’s time to go home until final exams.
Look up those power points,
read them again,
then take that test, and wait for your grade,
“Is there any extra credit I can do?” they SAY,
“No, no, my friend, it’s too late for that,
It IS what it IS,” says Dr. BLACK,
This particular group will not reappear,
I wish you all WELL until first of the year!
cfblack 12-1-2023
what my kids will say about me when I’m gone
November 8, 2023(I was inspired to write this poem after hearing a similar one tonight.)
She didn’t want to sky dive,
She burned cookies,
She was a good mom,
She had a good heart,
She believed in prayer and prayed for us,
She always tried to tell me what to do.
She had 1000 pictures on her phone!
She saved pennies in a jar!
She was always getting rid of stuff,
When we left home, she sold our stuff!
She loved being a grandma
and being with us,
She loved the Blues,
She loved all of us,
She loved to dance,
She loved South Carolina,
She loved Charleston
and walking the beach,
She struggled with depression
and ADHD,
She loved Purdue sports,
She loved time alone.
She wanted to do better,
She couldn’t tell a joke,
She worked her tail off
to pay off debt,
She could have been better at making friends,
at being humble,
or making amends,
She never taught us how to cook,
She taught us all to love a book,
She struggled with how to use her time,
She loved lemon more than lime,
She wanted to find her ancestors,
She could really get on my nerves,
She stayed with us as long as she could,
but then flew on to other worlds!
October 17, 2023
Tonight, driving past the Statehouse,
we saw two groups on opposite sides,
each one holding up signs of their homeland,
each one chanting loudly with passion.
One side a white flag with blue stripes and star,
the other black-white-green-striped with red triangle,
One side with women showing their hair,
the other with hair underneath a scarf.
Their nations are at war, killing each other,
but we all live here in Columbia.
We all have children who wish to be loved,
we all worship God Who created the world,
Did He not create us all?
Did he build this wall, or did we?
Perhaps He built steps for us all to climb,
We start at the bottom, walk higher and higher,
then meet one another, across the top.
What do we do? Start down the other side?
Aren’t we all human? Can we not stay alive
on this earth that we all walk upon?
We don’t have to agree on everything,
we can call God by different names,
We just have to agree to see each other as H-U-M-A-N.
It’s really not that hard to do.
But when we allow hate to overturn love,
We become lower than the animal.
Animals do not kill because of hate,
They kill in order to survive.
One Sun in the sky,
One Moon at night,
One planet we live and die together on.
As for me, I want all children to live,
all children to have no fear,
all children to be with their families,
all children to survive.
cfblack 10-17-2023
“In short, for a few days we live on this earth and eventually we are buried in it, it is our eternal tomb. Is it worthwhile that we should engage in bloodshed and tear one another to pieces for this eternal tomb?” ~~ ‘Abdu’l-Baha
The Sounds of midnight
September 22, 2023What are the sounds of midnight?
are they keeping you awake?
Somewhere a dog barks
while children are asleep,
I hear an ambulance siren
Someone has an emergency
someone works the night shift,
traffic on the highway,
trucks roaring loudly,
insects add a lighter shrill constant calling sound,
my husband turns now in our bed,
I have a sniffly nose,
2am occasionally two owls may come to call,
hoot-hooting to one another,
this is their time to go,
The world is never silent,
Life is all around,
The Earth is ever-turning
day and night are full of sound.
cfblack 9-22-2023
It is Fall.
September 16, 2023Nights are different now,
They are quiet.
The locust waves of cascading songs have gone,
A high shrill but quiet insect calls
for hours, “Is anyone still out there?”
A few others make staccato chirps
But all in all, it is Fall.
The sun still warms us on a walk,
But sunsets happen earlier,
and soon, the leaves will turn, and fall,
Good night all.
cfblack, 9-15-2023
Some nights
September 8, 2023Some nights
when it is quiet
after a long, noisy day,
a busy, productive day,
or a relaxing day,
I don’t want to go to bed.
It is quiet now.
Earlier, thunder rolled, lightning flashed,
wind picked up,
but now, all is still.
My husband sleeps,
birds settle in their nests,
a few crickets chirp,
I can write a poem,
read a little,
take melatonin,
settle my thoughts.
But I remember I want to walk EARLY
before it’s very hot,
so I will retire, and go to bed,
dream some dreams I will forget.
cfblack, 9-7-2023
Southern pines
September 5, 2023I like to walk at dusk or dawn,
hear the trees speak to my soul,
These southern pines rise to the skies,
majestically, stand tall,
Offer shelter to the birds
to safely raise their young,
Oh, the stories they could tell!
They weep and whisper to themselves,
but lift their branches to the Sun
and hope for better days.
cfblack, 230905
Blessed is
August 9, 2023Blessed is the slumberer
awakened by My breeze,
The lifeless one,
The solaced,
The wayfarer in distress,
The sore athirst,
insatiate,
who sit at the banquet table,
The abased one,
The needy,
The heedless, the ignorant,
Blessed the soul raised to life,
The one who seeks reunion,
The ear that hears, the tongue that bears witness,
The eye that recognized his Lord,
They that have attained His Presence,
who seek enlightenment,
He who heard of My own grief,
attired his head with My love,
He who laid down his own life
borne hardships in My Name,
He who rises from the dead
to glorify My Word,
Enraptured by My melodies,
who rent the veils asunder,
Blessed he who remains faithful
to the Covenant of God,
Who things of this world have not kept back
from attaining My Holy Court,
Blessed the person who detached their self
from everything else but Me,
Who soars to the atmosphere of My Love,
gazes upon My Glory,
Blessed she who drinks her fill
from the river of My Providence,
Acquaints herself with My Cause,
apprehends My Holy Word,
Blessed those on the horizon
of Knowledge and Glorification,
Blessed those engaged in My Praise,
upon them rest My Mercy,
My Love abideth forever in thee,
My Bounty, My Glory, be upon thee.
~~ a poem by Carol Black, taken from Baha’u’llah’s words in the Lawh-i-Aqdas (His Tablet to the Christians)
Two poems
February 25, 2023ONE
Sometimes life seems like a bad dream
Not all sweet and syrupy
More like painful tragedy,
When you’re holding onto a life raft
Hoping someone’s at the other end,
When troubles with the ones you love
Pile up like fire ant hills
In winter,
And prayers run into one another
Like waves going out to sea,
You stop and take a deep breath
ask God to intercede,
When one son sleeps in a hospital
another recovers from surgery
And a grandson’s wallet disappears
Like magic into the air!
God needs to do His magic tricks
To bring a remedy,
The ancestors from other worlds
to blow a kiss our way,
The waters need to calm,
The healing to begin,
The pain of life to give way to
upliftment once again.
****************************************************************
TWO
When a mother’s kids are hurting
she kind of loses her mind,
When there is no answer coming
and she doesn’t know where to turn,
When her love song keeps on playing
but their troubles just pile on,
When at the same time she knows
others’ troubles far outweigh her own,
It doesn’t make sense to measure
the amount of pain we feel,
What matters is to reach out to others
and to know your pain is real,
When friends respond with loving hearts
it softens your blistering soul.
02-25-2023 cfblack
Doctor Grandma 