Poem: For My Mother, September 29, 2008

A Poem For My Mother

Where do I find you now?
If you're in the air
Where are you in the "there"
For I know you're beside me
Your smile is inside me

Where do I find you now?
In the rustle of the leaves
In Dad in his shirt sleeves?
In the songs of birds
in the naked, yawning trees
In the embrace of Winter's cool breeze?
In the screech of tires in the street?
In the pain I feel in my tired feet?

Is it in the Sun’s gentle reach
through the muddled clouds
that lets me know how you teach?
Do I find you in your dearest friends -
In the tears that sometimes never end?
It's in the tea you served us every day
and the wisdom we take from your life's silver tray

This I know
That I'll never forget your kindly smile
Or the charm that was your elegant style
The calm confidence holding your warm hand
How you were so effortlessly grand
The soft, proud forehead that last day I kissed
Dear, sweet Mother, you are sorely missed
(Nick Lowery, Nov 22, 2006)

Poem: Peace and Quiet, September 29, 2008

Poem: Peace and Quiet

Peace and quiet
Are not easily found
Unless your feet are solidly on the ground
Unless you breathe the rich full air
And find something special on which to stare
And pause for a moment or maybe two
And find that polished jewel that was always inside of you
(by Nick L)

Poem - Busy Brains, September 29, 2008

Poem - Busy Brains

Busy brains
Are like when it rains
Your head must clean
It’s muddy stains
For when we stop
To think a lot
And forget to breathe
We start to seethe
With unclean thought
Not what we’ve been taught
So slow down that noggin
And quit yer sloggin’
The answers are there
Under that lovely hair
Don’t just stare
It’s only fair
To breathe
And in so doing
Your head will lose
It’s muddy stains
And then you’ll remember
why it rains
(Nick L 1/15/07)

Poem - Singing Souls, September 29, 2008

From Singing Souls

The song that lasts
Is one whose music
Is written new each day
On the echoes of
Our own internal choir
The personal fire
We stoke with
Spiritual coals
From singing souls
(by Nick L)

Poem - Pain's Phonebooth, September 29, 2008

Poem: Pain's Phonebooth

Pain and truth
In the same phone booth
While fear
Well, that's not as clear
It hides
And slides
From shadow
To light
Just so slight
It makes us blind
To what is in front
As it plays behind
We cannot confront
This other kind
So near
To our nose
We smell it not
The pure rot
Hidden beneath
The rose
(by Nick L)

Poem - Clumsy Words September 29, 2008

Poem – Clumsy Words

But poetry might be lost
When time and kindness
To the winds are tossed
A sweet friendship might be the cost
For the one who chose silence
As her sense of the finest
When instead a random, clumsy effort of words
Would return the kingdom
Of love to its throne
Then you'd be home
(by Nick L)

Poem - Perfect to the Taste, September 29, 2008

Would that the secret
Be revealed
That each moment
You have stealed
For worry or regret
Be forgotten and erased
Such that God's sure purpose
And your eternal grace
Be your daily food
And perfect to the taste
(by Nick L)