Water and Stone

Water and Stone

Give us the strength to press through obstacles,
The vision to see through artifice,
The determination to overcome adversity

Let us gain the wisdom to listen, learn, discern, and especially, to know when to ignore.
Let us discover the vision to recognise other’s weaknesses in ourselves, 
and our flaws in others, with both foresight and hindsight.

Let us learn to know when to care and when to turn away, 
when to give and when to withhold one’s self;
one’s opinion, one’s trust, one’s belief, one’s faith, and one's love.

Let us understand that everything takes time,
nothing is instantaneous; it takes aeons for endless drips to form stalactites
and for water to carve stone.


Ronda R. Scott-Marak
© 22 May 2018

May

The night is as soft as old worn bedsheets;
breeze against the skin like sanded silk edged with cool satin.

The midnight sky is neither black nor blue;
sprinkled with stars like pearl sugar crystals on freshly baked pastries.

Through the open window the scent of spring floats;
the air smells green and purple.

Nightbirds, in their nests, faintly sing the world to sleep with avian love songs.

Ronda R. Scott-Marak

© 18 May 2018

Grey Skies… Put on a Happy Face?

(With thanks to Lee Adams and Charles Strouse)

Is dread what living is now about, what it has become?

Fear of the next news cycle, of the next bill, the next phone call;
the next incident, attack, exhausting argument?

Is warranted or unwarranted worry all we have left;
fearing the next morning’s pain, loss, anger, frustration, aggravation, regrets?

Is there nought to look forward to, be grateful for,
to have a reason to feel free, happy, calm, and blessed?

Is there any reason to appreciate our own lives other than to not be dead?

Ronda R. Scott-Marak

© 15 May 2018

Mad World

I get angry, I don’t deny it, but I am not a violent person.

I do not understand violence, the desire to hurt, maim, kill is utterly foreign to me.

Yet… as beyond my understanding as it is that someone would pick up a weapon to deliberately strafe total strangers, killing haphazardly to get whatever satisfaction or notoriety the violence resulted in… there are moments I can understand how frustration and anger could prompt someone to consider picking a target and ridding the world.

Maybe the trick to understanding the world today is to join with the majority, wrap one’s bubblewrap around, and stop caring about others. Unfortunately, I am functionally unable to do that; I am hard-wired to care about the Earth, her inhabitants, the flora, fauna, and the microcosms of life that support us.

As the world gets darker, dirtier, more hateful, and less concerned about anything other than one’s own private domains and beliefs, many of its inhabitants are becoming more detached from each other or reality. Whatever lies the day brings, whichever talking head speaking the loudest and most adamantly, whoever manages to spin the fastest and grab the golden ring away from everyone else gets the coverage.

As a group, separately and together we are in the process of abandoning all hope, reason, truth, empathy, and each other. We are lost, unable to think, process, understand, or centre ourselves in a world gone mad. Some turn to reflections of themselves, some to their version of belief or lack thereof, and some just reach the breaking point and just act out, scream, hit, vilify, or even strafe unknown crowds. 

We are losing our coping mechanism, and I don’t see the balancing act between truth, reason, bullshite, and lies maintaining much longer; we are over the edge of normalcy, and I fear what happens next.

Ronda R. Scott-Marak

© 9 May 2018

Widdershins and Anti-Gravity

(with thanks to Peggy Malecki for the unintended inspiration)

The world’s turned upside down,
everyone’s on their heads.

Truth is subjective and lies reality;
when it is warm in winter, and it snows in spring.

The rain pours sideways, the snowflakes are sleet,
and the clouds glare more than the sun.

Children have become the leaders, and our parents sometimes need care;
how far have we come, and where do we go from here?

Ronda R. Scott-Marak

© 4 May 2018