With thanks to Cosy Sheridan for the mental prompt
Brown Seeds, Bright leaves, Green Boughs, Berries; Shoots and Blossoms, Blooms fruit and swell
Cool winds, snowstorms, fresh’ning breezes;
Grey rains, Ice rinks
Puddles, Swimsuits
Dusk and bonfires,
Dark skies and hearths, Dawn and snowdrops,
Day, Sand and Surf
Spinning, Turning,
dried leaves to snow; Circling, Whirling,
Live, dance and grow
Ronda R. Scott-Marak
©️ 6 August 2023
Like the Burning Bush,
we burn but are not consumed.
Neither drive nor ire.
I have been considering this week which burns brighter:
Does love or hate, determination or stubborn will, fury or desire flare up and become embers that glow and last?
Do our flares of intention become firestorms that destroy everything in their path or burning bushes that draw others to the flames, warming and fanning our intent while not burning out and flaring to a blinding flash?
Ronda R. Scott-Marak
© 14 October 2018
How many people actually pay attention, are truly aware of their surroundings, feeling other people’s joy, pain, wonder, and confusion?
How many notice the fragrance of nature’s growth or inhale the stench of human-made refuse;
assuming that ordure is all that there is?
How many well up with tears over a stranger’s sorrow,
smile with pleasure at the sight of a smiling dog or a laughing child;
not too self-absorbed to react viscerally to someone else’s emotion?
How many care about anyone other than themselves,
every other living thing in the world,
accepting the sentience of others unlike themselves?
Who among us worries as much for strangers
on the other side of the world, the other side of the tracks as we do for the things we want for ourselves?
Is empathy a lost art, a word with no longer any valid meaning,
has the reflective bubble in which we now exist replaced the faces behind us in the mirrors of our own egos?
Ronda R. Scott-Marak
© 11 August 2017
After a year of 2020 Vision
of looking inward with forced introspection,
have we become agoraphobic or socially inept?
If given the choice, will we venture out of doors?
Like a cooped-up dog on the first day of outdoor sniffs after a long winter, will we give a joyous bark to announce our return or doubtfully stand wary on the front stoop?
We have learned to hibernate, to dwell alone, together staring into little boxes and large screens, to live in stasis.
We huddle in our own safe bubbles, longing for the return of our lives, like the Messiah returning us to what was—to the shops, parks, clubs, and the garden—just not that Garden.
It tempts us with its proximity: outside events, work, school, travel, and other people; dressing in real clothes, wearing a watch, wearing lipstick, going bare-faced, and seeing other people’s smiles.
We can’t wait, or are we not so ready?
Time has changed us over the last year; we are set in our new ways, lazy, unfocused, unregimented by the world’s plans for us, the requirement to go, do, and be.
For the many people who felt alone before this “we’re all in this together social bubble”, — they are now on the inside, looking out — and uncertain if they can once again learn to live by being on the outside looking in.
Ronda R. Scott-Marak
© 13 April 2021
More wars to end war;
definition of despair
death doesn’t halt Death.
Ronda R. Scott-Marak
©️ 5 August 2017
Why do we always pray for peace but never give thanks for peace when we are lucky enough to find it?
Why are we seemingly incapable of making Peace rather than constantly waging war against each other and ourselves?
Why do we always react in retrospect but never learn from and teach history?
Why aren’t we taught to look backwards so as to be able to think first and move forward with our feet on the ground instead of our heads in our hands?
Ronda R. Scott-Marak
©️4 May 2024
Grids of gravemarkers
Rows of Flags
21 guns’ boom
Flyovers roar
21 notes hang in the air
Drum taps and bugle soars
Memory of youthful faces
superimposed on ancient miens
Frail but determined, standing or in wheeled chairs
80 years of alliances, pride and sorrow, tears of memories and honour
Never Forget them
Rest easy; we have the Watch
Ronda R. Scott-Marak
©️6 June 2024
