Charmed Chaos
Musings on Life, Love, and Linguine-Poetry & Writing
#Ghazal: Nightbirds
“Go to sleep. Night is a flower resting from bees.” – Jim Harrison
Grey mockingbird sings alone on a moonlit night
with notes pure and clear as a blue pool at night
A glittering of hummingbirds dart in chilled air
As a cloud hides the stars, obscured in ink night
Noisy murder of crows roost in a gnarled mesquite
cawing in their dreams on a moonless night
Nocturnal owl perches high in fragrant pine
searching for mice scurrying under cloak of night
Sly thrasher sleeping- a nest of twigs in thorny cactus
safe from slithering snakes hunting eggs at night
©2022 Linda Lee Lyberg
Author’s Note: Day 2 of NaPOWriMO. The word I chose from Haggard Hawks is ‘glittering’- meaning a flock of hummingbirds. I was outside about 2:30 this morning letting my dog out and I heard a mockingbird singing, which inspired this Ghazal.
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My Body and I
I feel my failure intensely as if it were a vital organ the gods grew from the side of my head. – Jim Harrison, Vows from Dead Man’s Float
My body and I have come to an agreement- I’ll do my best to take care of you if you grant me this one thing- do not fail me again. As the spring sky brings rain for flowers, and summer sun browns the skin, so must we two come together again. To breathe cool air into our lungs, skip through leaves when autumn’s done. To wrap our body in softest wool and ease our hunger with broth when winter sets in. To run with the joy of a child, fall without grace and get up again, to calm our mind when day is done and night begins. My body and I have come to an agreement- we want to live every second and minute and hour until each day falls away. Then we sleep, perchance to dream of technicolor days.
©2022 Linda Lee Lyberg
Linda Lee Lyberg is a wife, mother, artist, published poet and author. She resides in Mesa, AZ with her husband Pete (aka The Big Viking) of 25 years and their latest rescue, Jackson “Jax” Lyberg. Linda writes various forms of poetry, as well as short stories. You can read more of her works at: charmedchaos.com and view anthologies containing her work here: Amazon Author Page
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After a Dog is Gone
It is easy to forget that in the main we die only seven times more slowly than our dogs.- Jim Harrison- The Road Home
After…
Some days drag on forever and night never comes
Leaving me yearning for darkness where dreams live on
While others slip away in a furry flash of light
and out of the corner of my eye I see you
Happy- prancing in morning sun, chasing butterflies
curiosity shining in mischievous eyes, living life
No thoughts of tomorrow but only today
a love so sweet, so tender and always remembered
And though your life was short compared to mine,
you left behind a broken heart that will only mend
with another faithful companion and friend
©2022 Linda Lee Lyberg
dVerse Poets Pub: Poetics- Opening Sentences of Famous Novels
Author’s Note: Come join us today at dVerse for Poetics where I am hosting. We are writing poems inspired by opening sentences of famous novels. I chose the sentence by Jim Harrison, one of my all time favorites. The pub opens at 3 PM EST.
This poem is dedicated to Ricky Bobby, “Bubba”, who we lost in January 2021. We had almost 17 years with him, and they were so precious.
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Spring Sunrise
New sunrise-
Paints pale horizon with wildflower colors
And eastern sky glows
in a meadow of tissue paper clouds
Fragrant zephyr stirs waxy emerald leaves
While spent blossoms slip from thorny lemon tree
Grey mockingbird sings from high in the mesquite
-As spring arrives
©2022 Linda Lee Lyberg
dVerse Poets Pub: Quadrille #148 Papered Poems
Linda Lee Lyberg is a wife, mother, artist, published poet and author. She resides in Mesa, AZ with her husband Pete (aka The Big Viking) of 25 years and their latest rescue, Jackson “Jax” Lyberg. Linda writes various forms of poetry, as well as short stories. You can read more of her works at: charmedchaos.com and view anthologies containing her work here: Amazon Author Page
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Always
“…the sad part is, that I will probably end up loving you without you for much longer than I loved you when I knew you.
Some people might find that strange.
But the truth of it is that the amount of love you feel for someone and the impact they have on you as a person, is in no way relative to the amount of time you have known them.”
― Ranata Suzuki
I thought I saw your face today peeking from the willow,
your eyes the shade of blue sky when clouds are passing by
I thought I heard you call my name the way you used to do,
in a silly singsong you composed for me and you
I thought I kissed your lips tonight under a full snow moon,
for in my deepest dreams you see you still feel so real
I thought I could forget how those times that were good felt
How we laughed and loved and cried watching golden sunsets
But now I know when I sleep you will always be there for me
for even though you’ve gone, you’ve left me with our memories
And if by chance we meet again under another circumstance
I’d say ‘Hello I’ve missed you so, would you like to dance?’
©2022 Linda Lee Lyberg
DVerse Poets Pub: Poetics- After St. Valentine left the building.
Author’s Note: Sarah is hosting and has asked us to write about a lost love or a love that almost happened but didn’t.
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The Moon and Stars
Going through his possessions, precious memories of their life together flood her heart. The poem she wrote for their seventh anniversary and the memories it invoked. Concert ticket stubs, a photo of them on a ship’s deck. How she missed his quiet strength and the way his eyes sparkled when he laughed! The last decades were magical, but now he is gone.
Hidden in a drawer, she comes across a beautiful wooden box she’s never seen before. She lifts the top and removes a package. It is a moon wrapped in brown paper; so lovingly touched by him. Made of aspen with intricate carvings of craters, it shows his attention to detail. There is a handwritten note. ‘I promised you I would give you the moon and stars. Here’s the moon and when you come, I’ll be waiting to give you the stars.’
©2022 Linda Lee Lyberg
dVerse Poets Pub: Prosery Valentine
Author’s Note: Bjorn has chosen the line ‘It is a moon wrapped in brown paper’ from Valentine by Carol Ann Duffy.
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#Haibun: Winter Morning
Morning dawns with an icy sculpture in the bird fountain. This oddity happens about once a year here in Mesa when the temperture dips into the low thirties. It is a stark reminder of why we live here as opposed to someplace where it snows.
Most of the Arizona Ash trees in the neighborhood are now stripped of leaves by the brisk cold wind. I pass a neighbor who is cursing the trees- ‘I hate these trees, I hate these trees’, because he has to pick up the detritus. For me, the scattered dry leaves on my morning walk are a joy to walk through; a reminder of life and rebirth.
crispy cold morning
wind whistles through barren trees-
sunshine warms my face
©2022 Linda Lee Lyberg
Author’s Note: Another crazy week for me and I am playing catch up. I hosted OLN this week, and am sharing a Haibun written for Frank’s Haibun prompt on Monday- Winter.
dVerse Poets Pub: OLN & Haibun Monday
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