Month: November 2016

IN MEMORY OF KALI 7/26/12 – 11/29/16

 

Old Yeller, Hooch, iconic dogs die

At least Sparky is resurrected by Michael

Would have given anything to be

A guardian angel for my Kali

That’s the human’s job, right?

Failed what should have been so easy

 

Why’d the Rat Terrier DNA kick in

When you were so laid back

Wanting to eat and play

Absorbing heat in your spotted skin

And loving it every day

 

Down the rabbit hole

Never to return

What called you away

What did you need to learn

 

Can hardly bear it

You left our pack forever

The dogs and I cry

You turned your back on the sun

Lost forever in shadows

 

Kali, my once Sacred Clown of comic relief

How do I manage overpowering grief

 

maxkali-cattywampus

© 2016 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

 

3dogs1

 

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SUCCUMBING TO BLACK FRIDAY

Only bought one useless prize

Irresistible when the monitor holds

The entire world bazaar

Unfolding before my eyes

Beckoning me with its wares

One click and it’s mine

At least I succumbed to practicality

A twelve-pack of picks

I don’t use them

I strum with my thumb

But here are twelve miniature paintings

By Vince VG

So let’s see

Can use the Starry Night one

When playing Don McLean’s Vincent

Can use The Bedroom one

When playing Linda Ronstadt’s song

Since the answer to her question

When Will I Be Loved?

Is always “Never”

(That single bed tells it all)

Yes, I can see

Playing and singing with artwork

Between my fingers and thumb

Can be fun

For a day, anyway…

© 2016 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

 

REPOST FOR OPTIMISM: DECK PRISM

 

In years past

Before electricity

Crystals were faceted

And used below decks

In sailing ships

To lighten the darkness

***

Safer than candles

Or kerosene lamps

Solar power refracting

Dispersing

Natural sunlight

***

So despite keelhauling,

Brutality and impressing

Drunken men or young boys

Our sea-going ancestors

Knew the secret of the sun

Knew not to waste

Too many natural resources

***

Although the whales were sacrificed

For their ability to provide fat for tallow

There is always an oblation

A diminishment of a species

Offered to the jealous gods

Who are expected to return the favor

By keeping us safe

***

On those rare, but dark days,

Of my soul

I seek the deck prism

Feel its vibration

Huddle around its meager, but reliable, light

And allow the power to transform

Mind and mood

Into a bursting crystal of

Optimism

Because light will always reappear

If we force ourselves through the

Shadows of life

That come

But most importantly

Go…

© 2015 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

 

LIFE’S TRINITY

 

*Scroll down for 2 YouTube videos (The Browns and The Beatles)*

On a sunny morning

Little Jimmy Brown is born

While Eleanor Rigby scoops up her wedding rice

Jimmy Brown marries his true love

Father McKenzie darns his hole-y socks

As Jimmy takes a running jump into heaven

Eleanor later following his footsteps

Life in song

Born. Wed. Dead.

 

© 2016 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE from Wikipedia

 

https://youtu.be/Wtyx8wG8BsI The Browns, The Three Bells (YouTube)

 

https://youtu.be/HuS5NuXRb5Y The Beatles, Eleanor Rigby (YouTube)

MY UNTITLED POEM NOW WITH UKULELE CHORDS (WORK IN PROGRESS)

 

C/Never been in love or D/loved

D/Struggled to stay C/afloat

C/Can any man be so D/perfect

D/As a series of musical G/notes?

 

F/Something primal G/making it sing

G/Slapping bongos or F/tambourines

F/Skin aglow D/feeling the sting

 

C/Fantasy in D/chords of blue

D/How will I ever Am/find you

 

C/Flavor of a D/good man

D/Like eating chocolate C/Ice cream

C/As taste buds revived D/deliciously

D/In a piquant G/dream

 

F/Something primal G/making it sing

G/Blowing horns hot as a F/thermal spring

F/Pumping blood rides D/an upward swing

 

C/Fantasy of D/honeyed kiss

D/Craving a present  Am/life of bliss

 

C/Longing for a D/reality

D/Consigning all the C/nightmares

C/Back to the D/dreaded past

D/Of implacable ghosts of G/despair

 

F/Something primal G/making it sing

G/Fast picking of guitar’s F/heart strings

F/Spiraling out on strong D/beating wings

 

C/Fantasy of love D/in the now

D/Intending to live the Am/myth somehow

 

 

© 2016 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja) words and chords

CORNUCOPIA

 

Smoked round reed for spokes and braiders

Soak them into flexibility

Cross, pinch, entwine and weave

Humming hymns of tranquility

 

Zeus breaking off the horn of his nurse

Heracles wrestling a river god of fables

Either led to an abundance myth

Winding up on Thanksgiving tables

 

Growing gourds, red and green Earth treats

Nuts and flowers complete the increase

Profusion of life’s requirements

Create a still life centerpiece

 

Magnetic pull of voices from the past

Call and text loved ones far away

Laughter, tears, music of the spheres

The beauty of a traditional holiday

 

© 2016 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Peter Paul Rubens, Abundantia

 

 

AUTOHARP

i.

Today

An early Winter Solstice present

Appeared in the mail

Autoharp

Allowing me to pretentiously play

Like I’m Janis Joplin

Talented and fey

Happily harping to my known ukulele chords

Singing into the perfect Florida morning

ii.

Neighbor’s rooster began crowing along

Smiling, I knew he enjoyed my song

Came down off my music high

Finally noticing that he never stopped

That rooster crowed from six to four

Silent by dawn, heard not anymore

iii.

Like some old Volva

Spouting dire predictions

In the Norse Edda

Perhaps tossing runic bones

I shivered in the pre-dawn light

Wondering what would occur by tonight

iv.

Remembering that Egdir plays the harp

While red Fjalar the rooster

Crows

Heralding Ragnarok

Events presaging

The fiery destruction

Yet bountiful rebirth

Of our troubled Earth

v.

Sometimes hard to be born a mystic

Symbols and sounds, so holistic

Today I play with heavy heart

Not sure what came first:

The rooster or the harp

Or were they merely

Synergistically

Reacting together…?

© 2016 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Volva and Egdir from the Edda

KORAKO (CROW) 2

1

Korako, crow, oh no

Waking to you

Feathers in free-flight

Circling, then

Landing by my feet

Last time you were here

My cardinals disappeared

Lucidly rising from the pillow

I say, please, be an omen

For a good day

Really need one

2

You look at me with

All-knowing eyes

As I stare back at you

Trying to be strong but kind

I ask you to move along

Spare me live-at-five

Real-time demonstrations

Of the food chain at work

3

Thought I was awake

But you answered me

In perfect American English

“Good for you, bad for me

I do it only when hungry”

Do it down the street, then

Cardinals are nesting there too

4

Korako gives me a sad look

“Your cardinals are more important

Than those of neighbors?”

Chastened, eyes closed

I try to go deeper into sleep

Want to forget the dream

Almost waking time

Subconsciously hear my dogs

Scratching, moving around the bed

Korako fading into that other world

And I, tribal sociopath, am left

Self-reflecting on selfishness

Taught to me by korako…

 

© 2016 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: How To Draw A Tribal Crow by Dragoart.com