Lyric(al) Poetry

(for Patti, Carrie, Vance, and Ann)

Write as you’d sing it

Phrases, rhythms, and intent

Sing like a writer

Ronda R. Scott-Marak

© 20 October 2019

Grace Notes

It's chilly, but I'm warm enough.

My muscles ache, but I can still walk.

The clouds are grey, but the trees are in colour.

The squirrels are hoarding, but I have food to share.

My footsteps play counterpoint to my heart’s beating drum. 

The traffic is noisy, but I can hear distant singing.

My nose is running, but I can still breathe; 

it is mid-October, and I can smell the air.

The days grow shorter, but I am nearly home; 

the nights are long, but my books and bed await me.

Ronda R. Scott-Marak

© 13 October 2019

​

Reaching

Look with awe upon that you cannot imagine;

overwhelmed by the brightness of staring directly into the sun.

You may think that you are focused on the darkening eclipse,

but the luminosity of that which you cannot see is overwhelming.

Dazzling jewels and the shimmer of molten gold,

colours too intensely saturated and brilliant to comprehend;

the actual sight of which would burn you into coal and ash.

Inside the core of yourself, stretch out your mind, 

reaching with intention toward the least part;

what would your fingertips touch, that foot,

which is closest to your illusory goal?

It is in the reaching, not the touching that encompasses the reward;

the desire for the worldly prize that obscures the divine.

Ronda R. Scott-Marak

© 24 September 2019