HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY, ROCKSTAR <3

Traded in the family bike
For a handful of magic beans
Told it would grow into
A source of unconditional love
Wrapped In other-species intelligence
And just by touching this incredible bloom
Happiness would be mine for infinite hours
So hurricane rains
Cooled the solar beams
While rainbows bathed it
With seven colorful properties
And it grew and it grew
Until the blossom peeped through
And it was all
And more
As promised…

© 2017 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: RockStar my Pit-Chi

CRYSTAL DOG VIBRATIONS

*scroll down for a YouTube video

Geological structure
Not a geode
Just similar
Crystal vibrations
A synonym for prayer
Maybe when I post
Sending you healthy vibrations
You won’t scorn me
Like some aging hippie
Wandering around in a buzz
Vibrations are part of Nature
Hold a crystal or a common stone
Strum guitar strings and hear the tone
Lean against a tree
Or even put on a pair of compression gloves
Vibrations from all
If you’ll listen and not think
Prayer isn’t everywhere
It is
Here is my Thunder Egg
Look at the natural shape
Chihuahua!
It’s my Janis Joplin dog
Who walked the Rainbow Bridge
It’s my RockStar who shares my bed
Dogs, vibrations, dancing through my head
So I send you all
Healthy
Happy
Loving
Vibrations…

(c) 2020 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGES: My Chihuahua Thunder Egg / Upside-down JJ / RockStar

*Crystal Blue Persuasion, Tommy James & the Shondells

WISE DOG TAROT

Today I received my package with the Wise Dog Tarot. I opened it and there was a beautiful bag with the Page Of Cups: my own gorgeous dog RockStar! But each card is special and I couldn’t help feeling admiration for MJ’s extraordinary talent in bringing each dog alive! This is a set I will treasure forever…

https://www.facebook.com/crowtarotdeck/?epa=SEARCH_BOX

ROCKSTAR’S MESSAGE

What is the message
From RockStar
As he circles the exact contours
Of Max’s buried body
Pushing the dirt
With his snout
Then digging a small hole
Placing inside
A recycled gift of
Semi-digested jerky
Ouroboros
Circle of life
Message to Max
Message to human
And canine survivors
Here you are, Max,
Says RockStar
We will never forget
And you will have
Eternal life
In our memory…

(c) 2019 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: RockStar’s circle done by snout
(NOT A GOOD PHOTO BUT LOOK ABOVE–or is it below–THE HOLE AND YOU WILL SEE THE DEEPEST PART OF THE CIRCLE ROCKY DREW AROUND THE GRAVE WITH
HIS SNOUT).  Top of photo (RockStar on the right, Bandit on the left)

TO MAX (AND HIS SPIRIT GUIDE)

MAX August 11, 2006-April 26, 2019

On a newly-dug grave, glitters blue glass
Flicker of black, crow cawing on the grass
I pick up the gift as he heads for the burning sky
So much history between him and I
But he likes when I sing and strum
And although I’ve been given crow glass before
Never has it been obvious like this
Crow knows my pain
After burying another dog again
Crow knows I’m blue
Crow knows my woe
Crow knows…

(c) 2019 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGEs: Max’s grave with crow glass / Max

MERRY MONTH OF MAY

Month of May
Pouring rain
Six inches
Looked at last May’s
Poetry
One about the drought
Starkey Park on fire
Mere miles from my house
Now tropical storms
Daily pourings
With an electric light show
Burning the weeping sky
My dogs wet
Doing bladder runs
Between the drops
Poured coffee but no chance to drink
Poured cold coffee back in the pot
Poured back into the cup, hot
Dried the fur of three
Changed my wet clothes
Wondering if I’ll ever get to see
May deluges bringing May flowers
Maybe June will bring some sanity
Calming the mutability
Of elemental water…

(c) 2018 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: 3 wet dogs

 

 

NEW POETRY BOOK

The paperback edition of my newest book Xeriscaping Poetry (A Wild Mellowing) is now available on Amazon for $6 with B&W photos. The Kindle edition is $1.99 and the photos are in color. Although I edited and redid the photos, some of them are not centered and I made the decision to leave them as is since there is some inconsistency with the Kindle Beta Program for paperback. I do want to thank Karen Bruton for her invaluable help with my book cover. I will NEVER understand how to change the DPI despite her meticulous instructions! ❤ Here is the link:

 

 

JUST 5 MORE MINUTES

 

View from the window
Announces 6 o’clock
I can tell because
The dark of night
Has given way
To pale gray light
And the Spanish Moss
Dangling from Live Oak trees
Resembles my morning hair
Tangled and curly

 

I pull the rumpled quilt over
The silver mess
But my dogs
Ever-attuned to my moves
Nudge me, now in breakfast mode
No, I murmur, not yet
7 is my target time

 

Everyone forgets, except me
That I deserve this hour
Most of adulthood
Up at 5
Lighting the kerosene heater
Those years HE refused to fix the furnace
Shivering in my morning shower
In a one-bathroom home for four
Waking the boys
Making the breakfast
Coffee the prime objective
Feeding dogs who long ago
Crossed the fabled Rainbow Bridge
Dressing us all
Gingerly waking
THE MAN
THE DAD
THE HUSBAND
Through the years
Kids to babysitter
Then preschool, then real school
Me to school
Internships
Student jobs
Real jobs
Not much changed
Even when I began my new life

 

Oh, no!
My Rottie is hungry
Sticks his head
Larger than mine
Into my face
Goofy smile
Not yet, I say
View from the window
Announces 6:30
The early birds
Get the dehydrated meal worms
Red Cardinal dads on the feeder
Brown Cardinal moms on the ground
Pecking the leftovers
(No feminism this morning,
Clarissa, I think
Go back to sleep)

 

But I never make it to 7 o’clock
Because retirement, to me
Means an almost hourly pee
Lucky dogs
Breakfast determined by the
State of my bladder
I’m up and out
And the view from the window
Announces 6:45
That’s a nice compromise
Enabling to care
For the dogs and birds
The life I live and love…

 

(c) 2017 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: Morning Moon and Sun

ANOTHER ROCKSTAR POEM

 

Traded in the family bike

For a handful of magic beans

Told it would grow into

A source of unconditional love

Wrapped In other-species intelligence

And just by touching this incredible bloom

Happiness would be mine for infinite hours

So hurricane rains

Cooled the solar beams

While rainbows bathed it

With seven colorful properties

And it grew and it grew

Until the blossom peeped through

And it was all

And more

As promised…

 

© 2017 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: RockStar my Pit-Chi

SLEEPS WITH DOGS

Certainly not as romantic

As dances with wolves

But I imagine

Being canines

They also have fleas

Drool

Lick their, um, you know

And sniff each other’s hindquarters

But,

The other side of the ledger

Reflects coin of the emotional realm

I’ve had dogs who

Gently place their head on my shoulder

When I cry

Dogs attempting to speak English

Dogs who sleep in the crook of my legs

As I lie

In a cramped fetal position

During the deepest dark dreaming

I’ve had dogs who make me laugh

Who adore my awful strumming and singing

Who love me unconditionally

Well, okay, food is involved in that bargain

But that’s fair

Most of all, I’ve had dogs

Who daily mourn when

I grab my backpack

Signaling

I’m heading out the door alone

So yeah

I sleep with dogs

No matter how they smell

And each one, in my heart

Forever will dwell…

© 2017 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Some of my dogs through the decades