Remembering a Death

dying feels like drowning

the body slows down

listening for the breath

listening to the heatrbeat

drenched in sweat

longing for oxygen

struggling silently to breathe

all the while there are those around them – praying, comforting, believing they are ready to let go, telling themselves that this is the way he or she would want to go

gurgling, heart pounding, seeking oxygen

here comes another shot of morephine

asking themselves while holding their breath is this when he/she will let go

is this really how he/she or I would really like to let go

a hole is inside of me – my breath is shallower than normal, I have to remember to breathe

she said she was ready

he never said so in those concrete words I’m ready to go

he blew kisses instead as we said goodnight.

©Anita Adams

A Decade

A Windowsillten

a rosary

double digits

5th grade

sophmore

married souls

who have forged a relationship based in love, respect, kindness and adventure with a huge helping of chocolate gratitude.. enough to share♥️

by Anita Adams 8/18/17

Windows

windows

fascinated by them

their unusual panes

no panes

how the light is reflected in the room

or rooms

what is warmed by the sun’s rays

what is seen by the viewer

nature, grass, trees, leaves, birds, sky, flowers, ponds, ocean, sand, colors, streets

for the dreamer

– everything

©Anita Adams

 

Online Women’s Writing Study Project

Called to Write Online Women’s Study Project

Please visit the above link to learn more about a new Women’s Study Project.

  • Seeking women ages 18 & up to share their stories, poems or statement about Invisibility and Visibility
  • If interested, please register for your Online Prompts Online AWA Women’s Study Project.

I believe all Women should be Heard as well as Seen.

Window Light III

Passing Clouds

floating across a blue sky

so often go unnoticed

in a rainbow of colors

puffy white creatures

gray and ominous

pink and heavenly

red and thunderous

scattered and striped with a rainbow or ‘sundog’

no two days are the clouds alike

look up – notice

these passing clouds

may they bring you a smile – a sense of awe

©Anita Adams 8/4/17

My Ancestral Home by Louis Jenkins

A very enjoyable piece read this morning by Garrison Keillor:

 

My Ancestral Home
by Louis Jenkins

Listen Online

We came to a beautiful little farm. From photos
I’d seen I knew this was the place. The house
and barn were painted in the traditional Falu
red, trimmed with white. It was nearly mid-
summer, the trees and grass, lush green, when
we arrived the family was gathered at a table
on the lawn for coffee and fresh strawberries.
Introductions were made all around, Grandpa
Sven, Lars-Olaf and Marie, Eric and Gudren,
Cousin Inge and her two children… It made me
think of a Carl Larsson painting. But, of course,
it was all modern, the Swedes are very up-to-
date, Lars-Olaf was an engineer for Volvo, and
they all spoke perfect English, except for
Grandpa, and there was a great deal of laughter
over my attempts at Swedish. We stayed for a
long time laughing and talking. It was late in
the day, but the sun was still high. I felt a won-
derful kinship. It seemed to me that I had
known these people all my life, they even
looked like family back in the States. But as it
turned out, we had come to the wrong farm.
Lars-Olaf said, “I think I know your people, they
live about three miles from here. If you like I
could give them a call.” I said that no, it wasn’t
necessary, this was close enough.
“My Ancestral Home” by Louis Jenkins from European Shoes. © Will O’ the Wisp Books, 2008. Reprinted with permission. (buy now)

Thank you Garrison! And a HUGE thank you to Louis Jenkins!

Pablo Picasso speaks

“Every child is an artist. The trick is how to remain an artist when he grows up.” -Pablo Picasso

I used to draw with my brothers for hours on Saturday mornings watching Looney Tune cartoons. I still have some of my pencil drawings. It was one of my favorite things to do. You might ask what happened?

 

What happened to the Artist

being a girl in a house full of men

growing up in a family where women were only thought of as servants, not friends

so, this young girl left home at an early age and began her own family

never completely abandoning the Artist/Writer within

the writer still writes and the artist still creates

© Anita Adams

 

As Pablo Picasso says-  The trick is to remain an artist when he (she) grows up.

This is one of my favorite pieces of Art by Picasso ‘Nude’

 

Pablo Picasso nude

 

A shared poem by W. S. Merwin

The Helmsmen

The navigator of day
plots his way by a few
daytime stars
which he never sees
except as black calculations
on white paper
worked out to the present
and even beyond
on a single plane
while on the same breathing voyage
the other navigator steers only
by what he sees
and he names for the visions of day
what he makes out in the dark void
over his head
he names for what he has never seen
what he will never see
and he never sees
the other
the earth itself is always between them
yet he leaves messages
concerning celestial bodies
as though he were telling of his own life
and in turn he finds
messages concerning
unseen motions of celestial bodies
movements of days of a life
and both navigators call out
passing the same places as the sunrise
and the sunset
waking and sleeping they call
but can’t be sure whether they hear
increasingly they imagine echoes
year after year they
try to meet
thinking of each other constantly
and of the rumors of resemblances between them

W.S. MerwinSelected Poems, Atheneum, 1988.