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! ) 

 

FIVE HUNDRED YEARS

*Scroll down for a Greensleeves video

All the same
Church still saving souls
Lovers drowning in heart holes
Soldiers marching through peaceful lives
Bankers stashing gold in secret hives

Look at the year 1520
With the exception of Magellan
Plowing through the Pacific Ocean
Our favorite online global encyclopedia
Lists events of the year
WAR WAR WAR
Religious upheaval
WAR WAR WAR
Denmark and Norway
Fighting Sweden
What would Beowulf say?
He gave his life fighting the dragon
And now the boys withdrew the
Welcome wagon
WAR WAR WAR

But okay
Obviously some historian
Shared his/her opinion
Of the most important 1520 events
Surely something more
Will be apparent on another site
So I research
Drinking my first black coffee of the day
Hoping to have something good to say
About how all has changed
How civilization has improved
How the population is no longer
Deranged
First event I see
The artist Raphael dies
On his 37th birthday
Come on researchers!
Historians!
Surely we can be
Positively
Upbeat?

Henry VIII was still toddling around
Maybe he composed Greensleeves?
No literature except religious
Art? Titian painted Venus
(Love Titian’s voluptuous, relatable women!)
Desperate conjecture from me
When all I see is
Nothing, nothing
The word of the year is fear

And remember
Not much fun in the Americas either
Wiki did a countdown of the
Worst years to be alive in history
Yep, 1520
Smallpox gifted to the
Aztec Empire
Thanks, guys

So I give up
Perhaps a search another day
After I’ve consumed mass quantities
Of coffee
Will reveal
A past of
PEACE PEACE PEACE
ART ART ART
MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC
POETRY POETRY POETRY

And why am I
Dousing us with this negativity?
Just a reminder
We are the caretakers of
Our universe
We can shape life
Toward happiness and light
Let’s make 2020
The best year to be alive in history…
(c) 2019 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: Wiki Commons, Conquistadors bringing smallpox to the Aztec Empire
*YouTube Greensleeves Mozart/Henry VIII https://youtu.be/cfjN2fGHjUY

2019 BAXTALO NEVO BERSH (HAPPY NEW YEAR)

Seventy five degrees
Perfect temp to plant trees
Shoveled the sandy soil
Back ached a bit from the toil
Added an earthy mix
And water for a quick fix
Tuned the baritone
Strummed a song called “Moonstone”
Water ruled by the Moon
Quick growth would be a boon
Soon I’ll have a Norfolk Pine
I’ll baptize it with faux wine
My drink of choice for New Year’s Eve
While a tarot story I weave
Baxtalo Nevo Bersh we say
Luck and happiness on New Year’s Day
(and the coming year, of course!)

(c) 2018 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGES: New Year Planting for 2019/Unattributed drawing in Romanes

 

BAXT (LUCK) ZEROING IN

On this New Year’s Day

I will provide

A fragile parchment map

Fail-safe guide

For Nevo Bersh Baxt

Roaming a sky

Lit in fire-crackered smoke

My coordinates:

Northern Hemisphere

Eastern US Coast

Southern Region

Western Peninsula

Dear New Year’s Luck

Zero in on me

And my friends and family

Midnight Major Arcana reading

Without cards

Just generated random numbers

Too old for meaningful predictions

I mean,

Who needs to see

Death-Devil-Destruction

Although the true meanings are

Transformation

Temptation

Insight

And there it is

Number 10

Wheel of Fortune

So as a Southerner

For the last quarter century or more

I lovingly prepare

The lucky dinner

Black-eye peas

Collard greens

“Alternate” protein and

Corn bread stuffed with

Poblano and honey

Let this be a

Healthy year

Strong year

Intelligent year

Sweet year

Bring to me and mine

Zero in on a straight line

X marks the spot on my roof

For you, dear good Fortune

To sprinkle a myriad of

2018 blessings…

(c) 2018 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: My lucky New Year dinner

HAPPY NEW YEAR, ALL!  Sorry, have not kept up with WordPress comments and likes.  Feel so overwhelmed.  Just know that I’ll soon be back on track but I think of you all and wish you health and happiness…

TIME, THE ULTIMATE PIMP

 

Linear calendar

Creates nice little squares

Of days and years

This follows that

Circularity makes more sense

Yet even astrology

Has Aries as the first sign

So the days and years

Seem to differently appear

But they might as well be

Lined up in nice little squares too

What can we do

To avoid the inexorable tolling

Of time

Yearly seasons keep count

As we move around the sun

The moon phases rigidly

Orbit the Earth

Drum beats of time

Calculated in sidereal months

Would there be true chaos

If we banned time?

How would we know

The time to go

To school, work, or that all-encompassing word:

Appointments

We are too wired to wait

For doctors, hair dressers, massage therapists

Without an appointment

Time is wasted

I don’t like time

Just another way

To legislate lives

I want us to live laid back

I want night people to work in the night

Dawn people to do their thing

Before birds are on the wing

Poets to write celestially in the dark

I don’t like time

But the calendar says

I must wish you all

Happy New Year

But I swear

And resolve

No more calendars for me

Anyone agree?

 

© 2016 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: duna.budapest.hu

RESOLUTIONS

 

Nothing left to resolve

Gave up my best friend nicotine years ago

Still miss it so found a new beau

Cookie dough! But then gave up sugar

And its leading lady chocolate

That was difficult but do-able

Working out daily to good music helps

I’m now addicted, so don’t have to resolve

To exercise

Don’t drink or drug because don’t

Like looking stupid or being embarrassed

And I know I can be so addicted that

I’d overdo so I don’t

Gave up road rage with old age

I’m retired now, no need to drive anywhere

So here it is New Year’s day

With nothing to give up

No resolutions to make

Is that sad, or what?

Maybe I should resolve to add something

That I can give up next year

Any ideas?

 

© 2015 ViataMaja, Poezija