MARCH MADRIGAL

Ides of March
Caesar’s dead
St. Patrick’s Day Druidic snakes
Killed or fled
Mardi Gras music and tasty food
Women’s Day international history renewed
Aries influence on the 21st day
Spring Equinox awakens our lost sense of play
Many family birthdays
Around the full moon
What were the parents doing
Nine months ago, that previous June
March is fun but April’s best
‘Cause it’s my birthday’s
Once-a-year chocolate fest
Can’t wait!

(c) 2019 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: SPRING SWAMP PICNIC

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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

 

NATURE’S MUSIC

*scroll down for a YouTube video*

Magical Mulberry
Playing baritone ukulele
In stark sand instead of snow
Live Oaks sheltering
Woodpeckers and Crows
Do we get what we need?
The Stones’ Jagger thinks so

Years living in the city
Happiness was a vacation
Tent, fire and scenery so pretty
Mountains in the Poconos
Brandywine River nights
Drinking coffee and cocoa

Now I live in a tin camper
Surrounded by trees and swamp
Small, only two lots
Didn’t get what I wanted
(Victorian home with gingerbread
And secret passages to mysterious rooms)
But wouldn’t trade what I have today
24-7 camping life
What a way
To spend these holidays
On Nature’s 2-lot beauty
Rewarded in my old age…

(c) 2018 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: Mullberry playing baritone ukulele

*YouTube video You Can’t Always Get What You Want, Rolling Stones

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…

SCHINUS TEREBINTHIFOLIUS

(Brazilian Pepper Tree/Florida Holly)

A HOLIDAY SONG FOR YOU
(to the tune of “Deck the Halls”)

Deck the trailer with Florida Holly
Fa la la la la la la la la
‘Tis the season to be jolly
Fa la la la la la la la la
Dress in sweaters oh, so tacky
Fa la la Fa la la la la la
Strum the strings, play something whacky
Fa la la la la la la la la…

(c) 2017 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: My mandolin and baritone ukulele with Florida Holly

SEASONAL SEMANTICS

I don’t understand

All the fuss

About Christmas semantics

Think of the holiday

A phenomenal time

For all religions

No matter the name

A time when people seem happier

Whether receiving

Or giving

Being together

Singing

Like long-ago pagans

Shivering in clammy caves

Unheated cottages

They knew

The shortest day

Heralded the return of the sun

And an easier life

With crops and colorful fields

A few months away

So those of you

Who want the Christ back in Christmas

Try to see

That it is a perfect holiday

Of love and peace

Whether navigating toy aisles in Walmart

Or baking secret-recipe cookies

For those we like

Or sharing smiles with strangers in Mickey D’s

Isn’t that Christ?

Isn’t he there?

Just stop and see

With tolerance

Don’t criticize

Don’t polarize

We all are sand

We are water and sunlight

We are invisible air

Life can be all right

Today I saw a homeless woman

Pushing her possessions

In a rusty shopping cart

A twist of red plastic poinsettia

Adorning the handle

She sees him too…

(c) 2017 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Season’s Decorations

BLACK FRIDAY (AGAIN)

So many theories
About the name
Retailers accounting ledgers
Finally in the “black”
19th Century name for the day
The U.S. Gold market crashed
Philadelphia (yay! my home town)
Coined the word from the chaos
Caused by shopping the day before
The traditional Army-Navy game
Held on Saturday
My favorite was also Philly-based
It was a day the nuns were given
To shop for their Christmas gifts
And dressed in their medieval black gowns
White whimples framing their excited faces
They descended upon Center City
Buying, dining out
Clogging the trolleys, els, subways and buses
Me?
I always held it in disdain
Who wanted to stand in line for a few dollars?
Who wanted to regress to reptilian habits?
Fighting with others for the one toy left
And I have seen people punch each other
Over something so sickening
Anyway, Black Friday starts a week in advance
At my favorite shopping venues
The internet!
(Yay! I can buy night and day!)
Most importantly
I’m feeling a bit blue
So the choice is
Eat chocolate
Or pay, pay, pay
For fun stuff
Just a few clicks away
To get happy on
Black Friday…

(c) 2017 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)