Poets Salon: Finding Love

POETS SALON

– 02/26/20

Hosted by Kath Abela Wilson

Given the surprise gift of a living heart, a plant made of red azalea blooms, I set it on a gray, stoney patch of earth, where I walked every day. Suddenly the stones seemed washed with new colors and I could see that many were heart-shaped.

how extraordinary
the ordinary . . .
a wave of love

~ Kath Abela

Ο Ο Ο

Elisa Theriana

The moon whisperer

In her short life, my mother is remembered as a belle of our small town. Even now her friends still fondly tell me.

under the rainbow
dissecting a rose
petal by petal

I wonder though, do they know how brave she was.

chemotherapy
she defies fate
with high heels

After grueling months of battling cancer, finally my mother was feeling a little bit better. We sat on the porch looking at the sky. There were stars so bright, only moon was hiding behind the clouds.

“Let’s get the clouds out of way!” I said. Giggling, we both started to blow toward the sky. Slowly the moon revealed itself. It was like magic! Until another set of clouds covered the moon again. “Sometimes it’s nice to rest behind the shadows…” My mother said somberly. I squeezed her hand. I knew how hard she fought. I knew why.

waning moon
her eyes every shade
of the night sky

Ο Ο Ο

Richard Grahn

a wave of wind
and my fingers
in your hair
I can almost
touch the sky

Ο Ο Ο

Pravat Kumar Padhy

so deep
the ocean of love…
in quietness
a prose paragraph
I recite like a lyrical poem

Ο

muse of pine leaves
in the westward breeze…
holding the moon,
with her twinkling stars
I translate my verse in dream

Ο

love anthology
the imprint of rose flower
gently enlivens
the pages of memory
in the mid-way of my reading

Ο Ο Ο

Jean Holland

my feet
regale
in tales of woe
how refreshing the knowledge
that you do not judge me

Ο

Finding Love: Quotes and Credits

Elisa Theriana, emerging writer from Bandung, Indonesia, lost her mother to cancer at the age of 5. While she has very few memories of her mother, she clearly remembers her mother’s love: “When I was 4 years old, my older siblings made fun of my birthmark. My mother heard me crying, she came and said that she asked God to give me that special birthmark, because she loves me very much, so if somehow I got lost, she would easily find me because nobody has the same birthmark.”

Richard Grahm writes from the heart in Evanston, Illinois. Many of his passions include the passion for life and living, love and the arts. He wishes for each of you, everlasting love: “Every so often, love drifts away. Other times we push it away. Making love stay is one of life’s significant challenges. Ignore love while you have it, and you can watch it fading. It’s the little thoughts that matter. Raindrops on a pond, words and actions cause ripples across the waters of our relationships. Each drop of rain brings new life to the pond. Each thoughtful gesture strengthens the bonds of our love and imagination. With love, the possibilities are endless. With imagination, everything is real.”

Pravat Kumar Padhy has obtained his Masters of Science and Technology and Ph.D from Indian Institute of Technology, ISM Dhanbad. He guest-edited “Per Diem, The Haiku Foundation, November Issue, 2019,” (Monoku about ‘Celestial Bodies’). His tanka, ‘I mingle’ is featured in the “Kudo Resource Guide”, University of California, Berkeley. He feels, “The tapestry joy of beauty lies in the ecstasy of love and self-realisation. The poetic flow evinces the romantic effervescence blended with blissful providence. Indeed it has been a nostalgic reminiscence of the journey of a blissful life.”

Jean Holland lives in Albany, New York. She says: “I have over the years, come to believe in not one religion, but the core connectiveness of all under the umbrella of love.” The sculpture in her photograph was taken at the entrance of an Episcopal Cathedral in Albany, NY. It depicts the “Washing of the Feet”, a show of humility and example of empathy, and love for family, friend or stranger. What Jean wants to send out into the universe is what her photograph conveys…a wave of love to wash over humankind.

Artist Moritz Lorentz likes biking and practicing yoga when he’s not making art. He says: “I like to draw both from the larger world and also from the micro world as seen from a microscope. These were done with watercolors, pencils and pastels.”

♣ Send your submissions by midnight Sunday, Pacific time, on each week’s theme: “First Hint of Spring“, “Out of the Blue” or suggest your own theme. Send short poems, haiku, senryu, tanka, cherita haibun, tanka prose, short prose poems, etc., or your own unique approach, to Kath Abela by Facebook message or click here to email her directly. We can feature your work again after five months. Multiple Submissions can be saved to appear later:

1. Send a short bio, comments on the theme.
2. Send photos or artwork by you, if possible.
3. No attachments except photos.

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