CROW GLASS MIRROR (SONG-IN-PROGRESS)

“Take your broken heart. make it into art”–Carrie Fisher

A G D
Swamp perimeter
A G D
Sun sets it a’glitter
D A
Feeling distressed
G D
Yes, abandoned nest

A G D
Lying on grass
A G D
Just shiny crow glass
D A
Black feather nearby
G D
Where’d they fly

A G
Neaten up their home
D G
So want to roam
A G
Been quite a night
A D
I’m ready to take flight

A G D
Lay down my shawl
A G D
Back against a tree wall
D A
Take out the pieces
G D
Pile of glass increases

A G D
Like a kid’s jigsaw
A G D
To the tune of a distant caw
D A
They form a circle
G D
And then a skull

A G
A fully formed mirror
D G
Couldn’t be clearer
A G
I see my cracked face
A D
Safe in a hiding place

A G D
Message from a crow
A G D
Definitely time to go
D A
Glass back in the nest
G D
Feeling less distressed

A G D
Final possession in the trunk
A G D
I still have lots of spunk
D A
Foot on the gas pedal
G D
I tried, I deserve a medal

A G
Driving through the night
D G
Finally taking flight
A G
Smiling at the crow’s gift
A D
I once again drift

D G A D
New art, new life…

(c) 2020 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: Abandoned nest by my swamp, crow mirror & feather

PHRYGIAN BOLEROS

*scroll down for a YouTube video

Tonsils yanked out at age 4
Dad gave me a record player
And his only 33-1/3 album
Maurice Ravel’s Bolero
Dreamed over it for years
A progression from heaven
Hollywood mocked it
Used in a silly seduction
But to me
Little girl, then teen, then adult
It was an introduction to passion

Fast forward to old age
Taught myself baritone ukulele
Don’t understand musical notation
Don’t understand tablature
So I’m a Chordie
Stumbled upon a lovely used book
Looked handwritten
And no notes, tabs, chords
But the scales
Remember The Sound of Music?
Doe a deer, a female deer:
Do, re mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do
Um…
Written in scales!
But there are chord diagrams
All I need to do is transfer
Six strings to four
And I’m off
To another universe
A place to immerse
My inquiring mind
A fascinating musical code
I can understand!

Seems it’s the Phrygian Mode
Three-quarter time
Used in Flamenco
And other Classical Spanish guitar music
That I admire so much
Old lady plays a Bolero
Not as fun as the scratchy vinyl
Playing the gift
Ravel gave us
But fantasy creates the start of a song:

Heard your song last night
World acoustics
Like old-time radio waves
Carried your mood
Across the woods
Heard you play
A bolero progressing
Through air
Heart pounding in three-quarter time
Through mist
As wild winds
Brushed palm fronds
Brushing together like that special sound
On jazz drums
And me humming
Humming becoming keening
Because I knew
There would never become
A me and you…

ALL RIGHT

I know
Not a happily-ever-after
Maybe not a bolero
After all
Maybe just a love song
Gone wrong?

But oh, I unlocked a mystical code
And I’m off to learn something new
In the sometimes cobalt blue
Of life…

https://youtu.be/Q4wb11w0ZHQ YouTube Bolero, Maurice Ravel

 

(c) 2020 Clarissa Simmens, ViataMaja
IMAGE: BOLEROS BOOK (inside and out)

WHERE HAVE ALL THE BABY BOOMERS GONE? (Song-In-Progress)

(scroll down for a YouTube video)

Where have all the Boomers gone?
If we made it through childhood
Having our feet x-rayed every September
As we were readied for school
New Buster Brown shoes
And a special box
To zap our growing feet
Life was so sweet
After World War II

Where have all the Boomers gone?
Riding our bikes
Or dancing and singing
To Elvis Presley and the
New rock n’ roll
As DDT sprayed
To keep us safe
From mosquitoes
Oh, life was fun
And hey
Until today
We thought it was okay

Where have all the Boomers gone?
Just one more lab experiment
On our brave families and friends
Fighting in a foreign land
Agent Orange defoliating
It’s ok, it’s safe
So it kills a few Vietnamese
And friendly fire just reminds us
That war is hell
Protection for our Boomer kids?
Teens merely guinea pigs

Where have all the Boomers gone?
Gone in search of the perfect lawn
Using Round-Up to spray away
Healthy dandelions in order to pursue
The American dream
Of a carpet of green

So those of us who made it
Through childhood and the teens
Through peace and war
Those of us left
To fight the war
Of our death
With chemicals pumped
Through our blood
Because there is no cure
For lab-rat mentality

That’s where all the Boomers are going…

 

(c) 2020 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGES: DDT mosquito sprayers, X-ray box for shoe size, agent orange propaganda

https://youtu.be/T1tqtvxG8O4 Pete Seegar YouTube Video

I KNOW HER

She’s you
Beauty
Surrounded by the Beast
All the essential aids
To get you through the day
Cigarettes, gum
Power drinks
And scratch-off cards
Ticket to freedom
Through a
Dreams-come-true
Entryway
If only
The right numbers
Appear

I know her
She’s me
Boredom even when busy
Earning those dollars
For clothes and cars
For internet portals
To other worlds
Where everyone is Cinderella
At the ball
With a prince
Willing to ply me with money
To buy the unnecessary
At the mall

I know her
She’s us
Working with a minimum of fuss
Maybe kids at home
Raised by Gran
Or overworked strangers
In crowded day care
And we sip alcohol
Or over-consume chocolate
Puffing on nicotine
To end the pain

But work or not
We must find the passion
Become like the star-sun
Spreading our light
In waves of warmth
Because this is life
And we sometimes wonder
If the struggle
Is worth the distress
The repetitious anguish
But I know you, me, us
And I say
Yes…

(c) 2020 Clarissa Simmens
IMAGE: Prompt Photo Courtesy of HerStry (Babes Who Write)

KALEIDOSCOPE

Kaleidoscope, an online and print journal that explores disability through literature and fine arts, has included my poem “Through a Glass, Autistically…”  See the guidelines if you are interested in submitting.

 

https://www.udsakron.org/media/90097/K80_Winterscapes.pdf

 

 

MyStry/MyStery

Hi Everyone!  HerStry has kindly published my story MyStry/MyStery at the link below.  The editor is always looking for new, true stories written by women/babes)  to feature so feel free to read this excellent publication and think about submitting yours!

https://herstryblg.com/true/2020/1/15/mystorymystery

 

 

Hanged Man, a poem by Clarissa Simmens

Thank you Jamie, for posting on The Poet By Day!

THE POET BY DAY

Ryder Waite Tarot XII, U.S. Public Domain

“’Christ! You know it ain’t easy
You know how hard it can be
The way things are going
They’re going to crucify me'” *

---

---

Crow cawing in early morning clouds
Tallest tree invisible in fog
Tarot’s Hanged Man
Initiation into a mysterious world
Odin hung for 9 days
Euhemerizationally** sacrificing his eye
Think of other mythical and biblical
Heroes hung over the centuries
All in the name of knowledge
Ah, but John Lennon
Knew he was a sacrifice
No worse than others
Yet, in his quest for wisdom
He cried out to us:
“Christ! You know it ain’t easy
You know how hard it can be
The way things are going
They’re going to crucify me” *
He knew, he knew
But tell me who
Would assassinate a rocker?
So many of us
Hanging in silence
Smoke and steam
Muffling our dreams
Then…

View original post 287 more words

ENTANGLED song in progress (in minor chords)

MINOR CHORDS TO BE ADDED (IF I CAN OVERCOME JANUARY LAZINESS)

 

eternal waves
washing away
unwanted memories
nightmare days

how can i write a love song
when no one has ever loved me
but before you offer your pity
understand,
i never loved anyone either
spent the years
dreaming of you
dreams of wonder
how do you taste
how deep can your eyes
see into my soul
invented scenarios too
your lips caressed me
never whispering lies
always making me feel whole

Violin bows
guitar strums
ebony and ivory
entangled with drums

and that one day i asked
could i stop dreaming and
make us real
force of will
will you see me
so finally found you
and there i was
smiling at you
for real
my lips moving
determination proving
we were meant to be one

soughing wind
whispering wild words
silence broken only
by cawing birds

and i asked
can i stop dreaming now
can we make this real
i want to know
all those years ago
apart
afraid to start
reality
you look at me
but no sound
no song
can i hear
swallowed by fear
i turn away

Violin bows
guitar strums
ebony and ivory
entangled with drums

(c) 2020 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: Valentine Fantasy Song

PROMETHEUS AMOK

It is fitting, to me, that my first poem of the new decade is a protesting, non-
popular-themed one. All respect to our heroic doctors, scientists, patients. Just a
nudge that we rebels be allowed our opinions and so-needed support ❤

 

Remember all that SciFi
The Fly
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Scientists
Forced to use themselves
As experimental subjects
Because to mainstream doctors
And scientists
They were lunatics
(oh, yeah, it’s always full moon inside my head)
And everyone laughs at them
But everyone laughed at body snatchers
Those gruesome corpse robbers
Who sold them to anatomists
The basis of all our health care
Marie Curie died for her beliefs
Of course she knew about
Radiation poisoning
But who would hypothesize
Who would document
If not her?
And so I join the ranks
Of the so-called misguided
Trying to heal myself
With herbs banned by the FDA gods
And true
Maybe I’ll be punished like
Prometheus
Some days it DOES feel
Like an eagle is eating my liver
As I’m chained to the cliff
Of ignorance and money-grubbing
Big Pharm
But I’ll never regret
Trying to bring fire
To my fellow-humans
And somehow
If I don’t hit
On the cure for despicable diseases
Someone like me will
Hope it’s soon…

(c) 2020 (First poem of the decade) Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: Rainforest 2 sm px

 

TANKA (NEW YEAR’S DREAM FOR FRIENDS & FAMILY)

Two Tanka about what was important to me then and now. Wishing you all a happy, healthy & fun new year! Sastimos (good health)! ❤

My dreams then:

Wishing us true love
Money, careers and travel
Home and family
But midlife did unravel
Youth and strength fading too fast

❤     ❤     ❤     ❤

My dreams now:

Wishing us good health
So we can be wild and free
Posture confident
Striding around life’s runway
Facing future mystery…

(c) 2019 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: 2020 Norfolk Pine 1 year later 2019 Norfolk Pine newly planted

Jen, here is the one I planted 12 years ago (Here are 2 pictures of the Norfolk Pine I planted 12 years ago from a tiny sprig that was stuck in a flower pot. The trunk is spindly but the leaves are lush! )