till Morning (WC)

(Wendy Cabell, January 9, 2025, afterfeast of Theophany, and feast of (above) Our Lady of Lettera (Messina) and Blessed Julia of Certaldo. Jewish calendar remembers the Passing of Ezra (313 BC). Image from here.)

till Morning

“You can fly, you can fly, you can fly!”

yes, even you

yes now, today it’s darken

Starshine, she’ll steer you 

not above the heart, no

straight on through  

through rub of clenched jaw as awake

through clutter that aches the eyes through cancer genes in the family through one wrong move, tweaks the spine through yet another blown fuse through letters that lie unsent through glance at grave, staunchly waits still,

“You can fly, you can fly, you can fly!”

yes, even you

yes now, today it’s darken  

Starshine, she’ll steer you 

not above the heart, no

straight on through — 

*From combined prompts: Explore a personal archetype/heroine, creating a simple mini myth (from Michele Manos’ Tending Your SoulCollage Deck, Winter session, December 14, 2024); And, choose a favorite line from a piece needing editing,  write many verses expanding upon that line, then select from these verses to enrich original poem— as inspired by  example “Instances of Wasted Ingenuity” by Dara Wier (from Tresha Haeffner’s Write Games, January 9, 2025).

Bioluminescence (WC)

 

(Wendy Cabell, revisited Easter, 2023; from February 11, 2022, World Day of the Sick, feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes, and of Saint Gobnait (also called Abigail, Gobnet or Gobnata; patron Saint of bees and beekeepers), Saint Theodora the Empress and Saint Caedmon. Image from here.)bc

Bioluminescence

careful of the rocks, a shell settles

anyway -- prime real estate for wee

folk -- its path well worn and smooth 

to the welcoming Light

*From combined prompts: Freewrite as inspired by etymology/concept of release,

and as inspired after hearing Sharon Olds’ Stag’s Lemention of Japanese garden history.

From Lisa Freedman’s BreatheReadWrite, February 11, 2022. 

Twinkle (WC)

 

(Wendy Cabell, Good Friday, Eve of Passover, feast day of Our Lady of Kieff (Vladimir), Our Lady of the Divine Mercy (Benin), Saints Basilissa and Anastasia, Saint Huna of Slattakra, and Saint Hunna of Alscance. Jewish calander today commemorates the Passover Offering, Fast of the Firstborn, and the birth of Maimonides (1135 AD). Image from here.)

Twinkle

as in wink, spark

(zip-brush-ignite)

be it star, smile or mile--

alight; lifts, shifts the

gaze now to diamond's

gleam, nestled deep

and deeper still

in soul

*From prompt: After listening to Francisco X. Alarcon’s Words are birds, make list of some favorite words, turn one word into diamante poem, then flesh out into new poem. From Brooks Decker’s One Word: Metaphor and Storytelling (MOCA, Jacksonville), April 15, 2022.

Seamless (WC)

(Wendy Cabell, March 29, 2022, feast day of Our Lady of Ara Coeli (interesting Sybil history), Saint Gladys (above; daughter of Saint Brychan, wife of Saint Gwynllyw, mother of Saint Cadoc) and Blessed Berold of Mount Carmel. Image from here.)

Seamless

Never too big for a little red dress

whispers the winged one upon the rose

slipping on clogs for wiggly toes and 

sweeping the mind of all unkind–-

who'd have imagined

a border so fine

*From combined prompts: response to a poem mentioned in March 29, 2022’s BreathReadWrite, Kim Addonizio's What Women Want; as well as post-meditation reflecting after Jamie Deering's Mindfulness in Relationships (Priory of Saint Placid, WA), March 8-29, 2022.

Fairy Tree (WC)

 

(Wendy Cabell, January 10, 2021, fourth day of Afterfeast of the Theophany, feastday of the (above) Madonna of the Lament, and of Saint Thekla of Lentini. The Jewish calendar remebers the End of the Elders Era (1228 BC). Image from here.)

Fairy Tree

(at the crossroad of compassion and efficiency, 

 January 9, 2022)

              as bee cultivates honey

                                   and ladybug eliminates aphids--

                               rose flourishes

*From prompt: Challenge to freewrite daily/as much as possible this month, from Lisa Freedman's BreatheReadWrite.

Rose Fairy (WC)

(Wendy Cabell, October 19, 2021, feast day of the Inner Life of Mary (Sulpicians), of Blessed Agnes of Jesus (who conversed daily with her Guardian Angel),  Prophet Joel, the Marytrs of North America, Saint Frevisse/Frideswide (patroness of Oxford), Saint Cleopatra with her son John. Image from here.)

Rose Fairy

I knew you could hear it. 

Those sounds made by flowers 

as they stretch into the light.* 

Star’s splash as swims the sky. 

Butterfly conducting her bee choir,

         “Dang they're good!”,

while Mama shooshes tiny wings,

“Now just listen”, she says, 

and you do. And

           I follow you.

   Though you don’t know.

         You who know 

            the way to 

           rose-light. 

*Quote from Victor Hernandez Cruz's Here is an Ear Hear.

*From prompt: Freewrite as inspired by Victor Hernandez Cruz’s Here is an Ear Hear. From Lisa Freedman's BreatheReadWrite, October 19, 2021.

Cloud-Cover (WC)

 

(Wendy Cabell, April 23, 2021, feast day of Saint George and Saint Alexandra the Empress. Poem is today's NaPoWriMo poem. Image from here.)

Cloud-Cover

Therefore, since we are surrounded by 

so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also 

lay aside every weight… –-Hebrews 12:1

Earth she shifts, where
Saints have trod,

gentility donned
as harshness shod.

Tis by footprints that
I see my God.

Earth she shifts
where Saints have trod.

* from hybrid prompt: Visio Divina with Johanne Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, from Spiritual Tools for Artists with Janice Azira and Evan Clendenin (Saint Placid's Priory, Lacey, WA), April 22, 2021; and next day  Lisa Freedman's Breathe/Read/Write prompt to freewrite, in the spirit of Earth Day, something sparked by thinking of our Earth.)

Sap-Rise (WC)

(Wendy Cabell, published in Writers at Play Presents: The Art of Letter Writing, edited by Daisy Barrett-Nash, Equal Arts, 2023. From February 10, 2020, Tu B'Shevet (the New Year for Trees), feast day of the Fire-appearing (Areovindus) Icon of the Mother of God (above), and feast day of Saint Scholastica.)

Sap-Rise

My way of handling city dweller's angst is to get in touch with a tree. Trees keep us grounded in the true reality so that we don't get shaken by the confusion that surrounds us. -- Chaya Shuchat, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: a Tu B'Shevat Meditation

 

Sap rise

as roots keep

this sun's eye

of warmth deep.

Sap rise

as roots seep,

this breeze to sweep

this sky to weep.

Sap rise

as roots are meet.

To share this pulse,

to ask, to keep, it's

asking much.

It's wakened sleep,

to Sun's eye

of warmth deep.

*Poem inspired by Tu B'Shevet classes, such as Rabbi Yom Tov Glaser's Time and Space According to G-d, via Hidabroot, Petach Tikvah, Israel; and classes and articles at Chabad.org, Brooklyn, New York.