Homecoming

 Homecoming

Look honey, there’s Aunt Spora in her pleated ink cap

As grass

 As grass

There is a yard every time this year the rain lilies take over. I never understand why they mow them down. But they do. 

But then, people kill corn snakes and rattlesnakes too.

Don’t look back

 Don’t look back

John Clare Stokes

Don’t look back little one

Once there was a son

Who at that very spot

When like you he was young

He jumped right in

Went below in the dark mire

One jumped in and rescued him

Or did he not ever come up?

What of the lilies

 What is it with lilies?

Is it because they rhyme with memory

And thus they are in that family

Of things that move me?

But zinnia and gardenia are there as well

And as far as I can tell

They too bring me under the spell

In which I seem to have forever dwelt.

What of the magnolia blossoms? 

Yes, to their opening ceremonies I run

Giddy as a boy with presents opening

Bidding my friends to come! Come!

Who placed this love of lilies within?

I want to meet and thank him

They say He has this grand garden

And if you are patient, he will come

And let you walk with him

In the cool of the evening.

When you get the point

 When you get to the point

You just point the camera up

And record what's happening up there

You either need to be a meteorologist 

Give up photography

Or make that scene so compelling

We want to be up there floating.

Taboric light

 Taboric Light 

by john cla55

once the time we climbed the mount

to meet transfiguration leaving us

glowing with the Taboric light

fading as we descended below

covering the glow ashamed to let

mere men know the fading was

complete refusing to live humbly

uncovered at the foot of the

mountain.

I’ll never comprehend

 I'll never comprehend

This God who sends

Lightening 

Thundering

Loudly yet

Goes about ever

So quietly

Secretly

Never lifting his

Veil

Telling us

By faith

Not sight

In weakness

In suffering

In humility

Poverty

How men

Worship Him

Bowing

Then going about

Living apart

Alien

Mean

Denying 

Like it seems

He wants them to

Lift the veil

Revealing Him

Calmly

Striking them. 

.

Things beyond

 Things beyond

Many a Sabbath we were admonished to set the

Affections on the things above

Look away from the things of this world

But we couldn't stop gazing at what we loved

It became obvious as a white flag unfurling.

We did not have to go about wearing scarlet letters

We knew the color of our deepest affections

Down to the very rhyme, symbol and metaphor

A straight on literal view void of tone or inflection. 

Unable to see the flip side of the veil

Deaf to the heavenly refrain of angels

It wasn't a mystery, we could tell

To us it was mere metal, not a holy grail.

Right turn

 Right turn #23

Today I looked for signs along the way

Of directions to take

Remain among the living

Dwell among the dying dead

It never came clear at any turn

Right turns just as compelling as left

In the long, slow straights void of weights

It kind of made some sense

Laziness seems to win in the end.

Moon dream

 Moon threes

I dreamed again I was in high school

on Coach Robinson’s basketball team

of all brothers and some sisters

I wasn’t a starter as I sat on the bench

eating pizza and complaining about

the starting five not working for a shot

just throwing it up

At some point my name was called

when I went in I envisioned being the hero

but I could barely dribble, throw or shoot

the ball

at some point toward the end the other

team left the court and it took me five attempts 

to make a layup unguarded

we were still down by twenty

Everyone was lining up shaking hands

I was still playing

trying to win.

Swallowtail serenade

 The Swallowtail serenade 

Palestine Lake

Long distant fall

 Long distant fall

Johnclarestokes 

Yesterday I heard the sirens heading your way

Later I learned you had fallen and couldn’t get up

And I was saddened by my long ago prophecy 

That this fall began when we broke up

It wasn’t so much that being mine was grand

That immunity from distant falling was granted 

It was best we never made a home stand

That the Passion flowers were never planted 

We went our separate ways and faded in memory

Occasionally I would ask whatever came of you

Someone would vaguely say she seems happy

I’d nod and think of sirens flashing red and blue

Can rehabs mend the lovers lives long fallen

Prophecy fulfilled can be such a cruel thing

In the night I’m awakened by your frantic calling

I lay there and count the haunted rings.