Poetry Corner: Defying Drought

POETRY CORNER

– 8/08/18

Hosted by Kathabela Wilson

One of my great inspirations for this week’s Poetry Corner is the beautiful work of artist Jerry Dreesen in Arcadia, Indiana. Over the last month, he has been painting a tropical paradise on the outside wall of the garden shed in his back yard. His wife suggested he uses it as a canvas. And so we witness a fantastic example of how the ordinary becomes extraordinary. In many places we have extraordinary heat waves. All through our lives we are challenged and can choose to be defiant, to create beauty and well-being, in spite of the odds.

~ Kathabela​​​​

Natalia Kuznetsova

dried-up cornfields …
dad’s weather-beaten face
looks defiant

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the storm’s aftermath –
our crippled apple tree
breaks into blossom

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after wildfires …
my neighbor’s grandson plants
twigs in the yard

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Robert Johnston

from the underworld
yellow crocuses
Persephone

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in your tatty coat
more poet than I am –
white butterfly

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Zee Zahava

white butterfly
i recognize you….
my beloved grandmother

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Rachel Sutcliffe

storm clouds gathering
I paint my own
blue skies

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Jerry Dreesen

surviving the heat wave . . . impatiens

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Ruth Zuckschwerdt

summer heat
quite unusual in our latitudes
dragging ourselves through
until one of thes days
we’ll all be drought resistant

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Michael H. Lester

the horseman
victorious in battle
discovers
riding out a drought
is a horse of a different color

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Natalia Kuznetsova lives in Moscow, Russia. She says: “Our Mother Nature teaches us, her loving but disobedient children, who very seldom learn the lessons. She punishes us sometimes and still…Her tenacity and resilience are enormous. But not without limit. Shouldn’t we wake up before it’s too late?!”

Robert Johnston lives in Dunedin, New Zealand. He muses: “The underworld is spoken of in lots of cultures; here – to comment on the arrival of brilliantly yellow flowers from the nothingness of dark earth – I refer to the Greek underworld, the realm of the dead, which Persephone, queen of the realm and wife of Hades, was permitted to return to this world from each year at the end of the wintry months. I live south of – I would say – 99% of the world’s population, in Dunedin, New Zealand, and it amuses me a little to think that when I see the arrival of spring, those of you who live in the much more populous hemisphere, though frequently sweltering in a heatwave at the same time, will soon be seeing signs of the coming of autumn. My pleasure at the ending of the coldest season is naive, of course, because the deep seasons of heart are unrelated to the outer weather.”

Zee Zahava of Ithaca, NY tells this recent story: “i was feeling sad. Then I looked up and saw a white butterfly at my window. Immediately I knew it was the spirit of my grandmother, lovingly telling me to ‘buck up.’ In that moment: transformation from one state of being to another.” I asked hurt about her grandmother and she said: “my grandmother was VERY positive!!! and she was such a strong force and influence in my life. i saw her every single day (it seems) until i went off to college.”

Rachel Sutcliffe, in Huddersfield, UK, says: “My granny Ida was a talented artist, a gift she discovered late in life and shortly after, she cruelly went blind. She bequeathed me her paints as I’m not a talented artist but love to draw and colour and I always feel close to her when doing so.”

Ruth Zuckschwerdt lives in Switzerland, not far from mountains and hills, on beautiful Lake Constance. She says: “The weather in this area is usually quite moderate, neither too hot nor too cold. However, temperatures are definitely rising and what alarms people is the fact that the remaining glaciers in Switzerland are diminishing rapidly and steadily.”

Jerry Dreesen is an artist and poet in Arcadia, Indiana. He loves tropical landscapes, and the one we have featured here was inspired by the botanical gardens in St. Louis. His paintings are always colorful and intriguing, and sometimes abstract. You can see some of his work featured in a previous corner. But this mural, made in response to his wife’s request to “use the shed for a canvas,” inspires all of us to defy the drought and find creative solutions.

Michael H. Lester, of Los Angeles, says: “I realized I have a long-dead bonsai plant in my office, so I took a picture of it and thought of a tanka to go with it.” The inspiring result poetically defy the drought.

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♣ You can add your contribution to our Poetry Corner in the form of a poem, in our comment box below​.