A Chance Encounter

The time fell
like sand,
sliding off your belly
crumbling onto the beach.

I looked
Into your green eyes
Full of compassion,
Certainty,
Naked truth.

The truth hit me
like a ton of mason bricks
thrown from the Chase tower.

You accepted me, I accepted you
The mess covered us.
like a thousand crawling caterpillars
all heading east.

That's funny
They forgot to ask
Me to come.

Clara the Bride of the Ship

The black ladder tilted across the mizzen as it grew darker in the brilliant glare of moonlight. Pollox watched the black sky. Their sailors heaved the mast on board as the moon shown bright upon their rusted daggers. It was that time of night and the men were heavy with want for their bride: the sea. Uncorked the shattered glass of the night lay gathered on the deck.  Like moon beams cast across the ship's stern. Withered the sailors had become, rejoicing and shouting. Behind the mast, she was the bride of the ship. Mounted to the mast her bosom rising and falling with the sea's tide. Lay the beloved Clara tied to the ship's mast. A woman apart from her old world. Letting herself, unwontedly becoming part of the ship's crew. A gazed upon part of the ship, like some needed accouterment. A necessity to keep the ship afloat.
The mast held her back straight as the waves shook the vessel sending it headlong into the spitting Atlantic ocean.

A shout comes from the poop deck and a man climbs down the rope ladder to the deck.
The ship has seen land ahead. The crew breathes a sigh of relief. And Clara stifles a shout of joy.
Maybe her life could be better now?
She could run away from these fiends that had held her hostage for so long. Maybe...
But fate held her captive.

A seagull squawked his war cry as he dove fearlessly into the water skimming its surface pouncing on its struggling aqueous victim.  Clara watched as the fish struggled within its captor's jaws; with a quick toss in the air, the gull swallowed the fish whole.
Maybe she was being overly sentimental but this brought tears to Clara's eyes. What if her fate were to be the same? A quick struggle but an authoritative grip to silence any wish for escape.
The sound of sailor's feet bounded down the galley to her door. The mutter of wind forced a whistle through the door which opened quickly to reveal not a sailor but the captain himself adorned in his best coat and Bi-Corne hat.

"Come on lassie were goin' out to thee' docks for a swagger."
With little resistance from the weakened Clara, she stumbled across the deck to come face to face with the sharp glare of her conniving captor, Ralph P. Vertnik...

Morning has Broken

Morning Has Broken
Like an apple twig shattered in the force of a gale.
The sun wakes you up
Nature's mother softly prodding you out of bed.
The sun's Rays streaking through the window remind you of Hope.
A strange hope
Shackled to a chair.
The chair covered in
 your flannel,
Hope is dying
Let It Die.
My shoes lay
Untied
Left with the last grimace of yesterday.

Today is the Day the Lord has Made and we Will Invoice

Today is the Day the Lord has Made and we Will Invoice. Do you find yourself in the daily office grind? Or maybe at a factory or warehouse inside all day?


A vocation is not simply a calling to religious life but something that spans much deeper.
What is your career calling?


Huge question, right?

Wowzer, and a big one at that. Just about as big as that catfish we pulled from the river!

So a job. A career. A vocation.

Have you discerned your calling? Assessing what you can do, what you like to do and most importantly after prayer and reflection, what you feel called to do.

A wise Catholic friend of mine once gave me some solid prayer advice when I was deciding on a college. He said, in order to pray, initially, we must give thanks for the things we have and the graces God has blessed us with then pray for our intention.
Intentions can be anything! Remember God is infinite and Almighty.
Then humbly thank him for his time and all he's given you.


So back to our invoice situation.

Getting another job especially in this economy is tricky. The hard truth is, sometimes, there aren't a lot of jobs in your area.
And you aren't able to move due to finances.

So the reader decides I am stuck.

Well, are you?
Have you explored at home jobs?

Some popular ones are:

1. Call representatives

2. Website Designer/Graphic- you can try this at Canva.com

3. Travel Agents

4. Freelance writer: blogger.com, wordpress.com, PoetrySoup.com- start-up is fast and free.

5. Write for magazines: Finance, Business, Collectible, Urban Farming, Country Living: Go to the human resources page of your favorite magazine or newspaper and look at the job board there.

6. Sell books on Amazon using either an individual or professional account. 

7. Start a YouTube channel


8. Open an Etsy store


9. Start a farmers market stand:
And sell literally anything. Bags, recycled coin purses, paintings, pie and other baked goods, first check with your local city rules on this.
Meats, cheeses and dairy products generally require licenses. But specialty crafts are great ways to make a little loot!
Start a garden and sell your fresh vegetables, fruits or herbs to your neighbors or at the farmers market.

10. Volunteer
You can volunteer literally anywhere, your local library, rest home; for specialized programs check out websites like: Volunteermatch.org, Catholicvolunteernetwork.org, idealist.org. These may include stipend, medical insurance, transportation, loan deferment etc.


 I realize that this article is rather higgledy-piggedly, my apologies. I do hope you gained some quirky, if not useful ideas on finding income with what you have at hand and making a difference in someone's life.

For now folks, toodles!

The Fact of It All

The fact of it all
Coiled around the chair
Slipped away like sand.

Promises made
Promises broke.
Little reminders of what fell
From the whirlwind of passion.

The fact of it all
Wrapped around
Someone else's hand
Fixed on a single finger.

The fact of it all
Oceans, states, mountains, lakes.
The cold wind,
Humid air,
Slipped around you.

Promises kept, promises spoke
Not kept I search.

The fact of it all.
Is buried in the truth.

Of the sage that burns on the hill.

Getting Lost

"Don't get lost!"
My mother beckons.
I won't get lost
I know the way.
In this confusing world.
Or so I think.

I lift my eyes
To late to blink.

To catch the last glimpses of the spinning.
Careening into darkness.
I stretch for words.
But I'm lost.

Just like my mother warned.
Now it's too late.
The wheel has turned.

To Love and Be Loved

"Just to Love and Be Loved", which is quoted in the popular movie Moulin Rouge, was first written by St. Augustine in Book 3 of his Confessions. During this time his studies led him to Carthage. In his youth he regrets his lustful thoughts and preoccupations. He wrote The Confessions when meditating on God and how he could be if he could not see or touch God.
He was looking for a woman to provide some distraction for his true need for God. Lacking God to love, he tried filling the void with other things: women, food, wealth etc. Augustine felt as if he needed someone to love so deeply to escape the surface of his lonely life. He felt "left out" from the society of love that seemed so normal and ritual in his town. Subsequently he was not in love but in love with the thought of being in love.

Little Feet Walking on Moonlight

To be unknown
Washed up on some distant shore.
Little feet
Tiptoeing
To your side.

A piano stuck in cadenza.
A flute without sharps.

Little feet
Beckon you.
Leap, won't you follow me?

To be unknown
In some Ozark forest
To get glossed over
By the newspapers
Follow some unknown lead.

To be unknown
Searching for your destiny
Is it far?
The wanderer asks.

Shall we travel farther
Across the states
To rest in some
Foreign place.

To be unknown
Like a wooden cross
Half-made
Is it?

Little feet
Stumble to your
visit.
On the wavering moonlight.

To be unknown
Perhaps,
I'll go out on a limb.
Little feet travel on wards.

Maybe,
That's where all the apples are.

A Piercing Echo

The piercing echo of a cry

That followed along the seashore

Softly protruded by salty spray.

Like the meticulous strike of a marine clock.

Upon some rocky shore

The captain left unknowing

Of what malarky

The ship had befallen

When marooned.

His heart trembled

As he looked

Bereft at the waves

That undulating

Swallowed the carcass

Of his ship.

A piercing echo from his homeland

Buried beneath the waves.

The coarse waves

Entrenching the sweet pink melodies

Of his love far away.

The hardened grimace rising and falling.

A piercing echo sounded

Quail, squirrels, nuts and grass.

Salty waters

That burn the skin

Of such a

White canvas.

Once painted brilliant colors

Of an Englishman’s pride.

Such charm

He had taken a bride.

A beauty sought after by many a man.

Bold and brave he’d asked for her hand.

Bright colored summers

And flames of winter

Long trousers

And thoughts of dinner.

Gone with the waves.

A million miles away.

He watches

As the waves

Crash disdainfully

Into the lonely coast.

Le petit chet

Change

The clouds hurry across the sky. The tree tussles its foliage. The grass grows thick. Nature is ready to change her seasonal gown.
Every season fleeing.
Change.
Change.
Change.

Students are restless
For classes to begin
Graduating class of 2016.
Change.
Spring.
Fall.
Many fall.
Bachelors. Graduates.
Change.
Change.
Change.

Yearn for meaning:
Something to hold on to
Someone--
Something.
Change.--
Confusion-change
Lots of pocket change.
Spring. Summer.
Love. June babies.
Change and other things.
Change.
Change.

Change and other things.

The Plain Pine Box

The gravediggers barrow is deep 
His workload full.
Crimson sweet
His lonely soul,
Late night calls
Dead man's duty.


Nature's fife plays low
Skies darken 
Crocus brighten 
The morning.
Yet his heart is but a Wandering casket
An empty plain Pine Box.


He lifts the arthritic figure into the casket.
The work is done.

"All We Do is Hide Away"

I think all of us hope for happiness. We should all indeed. Life is full of so many answers. So many pathways. So many different careers. And we alone must decide. As the song "All We Do" advocates. We MUST do something with our lives. I'm not saying go be the president or first astronaut to land on an unknown planet. [Which if you want to do that those are great goals. I will talk more about overcoming near impossible goals in future posts.]
      It's so easy to watch people do other things, to just observe, all of our lives. But we're put on this Earth to not just observe, like in a scientific process with hypothesis and observation. But to actually experiment if you will. Our lives are experiments.

The Tree

I look at the tree
Covered in snow
Its arms outstretched
As if it knew me.

The Kite

The kite swept me down 
The peak
Covered in purple snow.

Where I counted
My dreams
Toiled into a dream weaver.

Spun intricately
Wholly unknown.

People see the kite 
Bumbling along 
The parched ground
And turn their heads.

Children blink listlessly.

The kite lands in a tree.
Skewered by time.

Delphiniums and Roses

Have you ever arranged a bouquet?

Its easy

All you need is a mason jar, scissors, flowers and water.

These flowers above are delphiniums and roses.

If you'd like to grow your own flowers you will need to find the sun exposure of the flowers you'd like to plant including the pH of the soil needed. The pH stands for potential of Hydrogen.  pH is calculated on a basic to acidic scale. The scale is from 0 acidic to 14 basic , 7 is neutral. Hydrochloric acid has a pH of 0. This may seem rather foreign but in fact you are around pH levels all day. For instance, according to chemtotor.com, coffee can have anywhere from the pH of 4 to 4.6 and beer has a pH of 3. Whole milk is also somewhat acidic at 6.9.
The pH also applies to vegetables and fruits you consume.

When arranging a bouquet the colors can be varied, however, sticking to to 2-4 color schemes is what is most commonly done.

The mason jars can be found at local thrift or antique stores. You're relatives might have a couple too.

I hope this post has been informative to your Springtime planting.

Cheers!

The Penguins Escaped

The Penguins Escaped

The Penguins escaped

Out the front door of your heart.

That had turned black

Like a seal.

Against the white I grew in

A white mink.

A spotless mammal.

Greed and malice has separated us.

The blackened corpse of your heart holds a faint memory in my mind.

Like a seal lost on a lonely iceberg.

Rhubarb Planting

Rhubarb is a perennial vegetable that grows in the early Spring. The rhubarb grows in crowns. Not like Queen Anne's.

Please steer away from eating the leaves which are poisonous. Rhubarb generally is a very easy thing to grow. With proper lighting rhubarb thrives. Rhubarb prefers direct sunlight though it is more prone to grow in a cold climate. The soil recommended for planting rhubarb should have lots of organic material like compost or mulch. in Planting rhubarb should be done in the early Spring when the roots are still dormant or planted in the fall when the dormancy is setting in. When planting dig bushel seed basket holes for the crowns to set in. Space the plants about 4 feet apart and dig the hole fairly deep, about 1 to 2 inches below the soil. Be diligent in removing the surrounding weeds that will not only cover the plant but steel vital nutrients from the surrounding soil. This plant is quite handy not only are the stalks eatable but there are several other medicinal and cosmetic uses. I hope this article helped to outline a little of how to plant rhubarb. 

Now is the time to Plant!! 

7 powerful morning prayers you need to get your day started with God - Living Faith - Home & Family - News - Catholic Online

7 powerful morning prayers you need to get your day started with God - Living Faith - Home & Family - News - Catholic Online

Something Grave

Blood drips the water's fine

I can't swim

The tides to great

Whirlpools full or rock and slate.

The slate that my teachers hand expelled.

The slate my father storied well.

They whip their vortex waves.

Arrouse their youthful slaves.

Amassed in beauty

Scared stiff with rage.

From their farrowed hands

Clenched with rage.

Spitting and lunging

Awaking desire.