27 March 2024

Morning Light






My home is high up in a castle
with a vista of grass and woodland.
The rising day rims distant trees
and then hits magnolia blossoms—
so sun or cloud cover, I don’t need
curtains to feel private, protected.
 
Here’s a daily invitation to wait
near the glass and secretly watch
swift moving cardinals. Here’s
an invitation to walk across the grass
toward the trees, pausing and
lifting my walker with each step. 
 
Finally, I learn the slow motion  
that morning light seems to prefer,
a speed meant to feel and to bless
the light, to see and to accept
the blessing of the grass, to welcome
the shadow of the woodlands.


 


(And here is a simple song.)

The Coming of the Light
 
It’s a long time coming,
The light of dreams
The light of reason
The light of love
 
I expect it each day
In morning light
In silver-lined clouds
In rainbows
 
But I know, without hearing the news
That famine exists
That blood flows
That neighbors hate neighbors
 
I stand with others working for the light
To heal the earth
To feed everyone
To eliminate revenge


It's a long time coming
Expect it every day
dream light
love light, holy light



My blog poems are rough drafts.
Please respect my copyright.

© 2024 Susan L. Chast 







25 March 2024

Humans are Animals, too.

 

source


What happens to sunlight over bombs?
Is it friend or foe?  Or, like me,
is it an inactive witness we think is neutral
because it does nothing?
 
I think of psalms.
But what praises can we write
for any sides of today’s wars?
Surely all sides claim God.
 
What counts as winning?
A tally of the dead?  A promise
That no country will attempt to push
any other country into the sea?
 
Sunlight here brings things to life.
Neutral, it is nature assisting nature.
Where in all the bombs and strife
can plants and animals find pasture?


My blog poems are rough drafts.
Please respect my copyright.
© 2024 Susan L. Chast



Prompts for April 2024 from thotpurge

 

https://thotpurge.wordpress.com/2024/03/25/prompts-for-april/

14 March 2024

Lady Macbeth Advises Her Husband

 

Source


Listen.
Really listen.
The blood won’t wash off my hands
or out of my clothes.
Will Not Wash Out!  Look! 
Listen.
I didn’t know before I killed,
and really, killing was easy,
but blood won’t stop flowing.
 
Listen, my husband, do not kill—
not again.
You killed the king at my urging.
I should have known better.
But how many others must die? 
Did you target my friend, Lady McDuff? AND HER CHILDREN? 
Killing is too easy.
Do you aim for Malcolm?  Will you kill 
all those who oppose you?

It doesn’t matter if you win, I tell you. 
You’ll be standing here like me,
unable to wash the blood off your hands,
unable to wash the blood off your clothes,
from your land, and from your soul. 
The blood will drive you mad!
Listen to me now. 

Really listen.


 For my prompt "Character(s) in Action" at What's Going On?  (With thoughts of contemporary wars and those who promote and prolong them.)


My blog poems are rough drafts.
Please respect my copyright.
© 2024 Susan L. Chast



11 March 2024

Ex-Students

 


Children I knew as a teacher
disappeared into adults
leading serious lives.
 
In our chance encounters,
I see their youth postures and
hear their young voices.
 
My smile matches their smiles.
A good kind of remembering—
seeing new bloom on old rose bushes.
 
A good kind of forgetting—
the care some bushes needed
to mature so gracefully.

 

I pray for them and their families:
Be safe from harm.  Help create
the earth you need to survive. 


For Sumana's prompt "Children" at What's Going On? 


My blog poems are rough drafts.
Please respect my copyright.
© 2024 Susan L. Chast

06 March 2024

21 Reasons I Speak

 


  • Because I have been hiding in silence
  • Because silence has not cured my heart sickness
  • Because I must share the truths my heart discovers
  • Because I need a friend in truth, and she needs me to appear
  • Because I need to hear myself break through the noise and horror
  • To say what I find there
  • I want to write a song
  • And say your names
  • To remember
  • To remember words and sentences I forgot
  • To say I love you
  • You are a child of God
  • To cross the real and fake barriers among us
  • To ask for cease fire, for food, for peace, for wonder
  • Because when we speak we are not heard, but when we are silent we cannot be heard, so it is better to speak*
  • To invite others to voice what they know
  • To start the hard discussions people avoid
  • To break through numbness
  • To name and see what is, the good as well as the rest
  • To spin alternative worlds where people can breathe
  • To be alive

* from Audre Lorde's poem "A Litany for Survival"


For Mary's prompt "Fifteen Reasons" at What's Going On?


My blog poems are rough drafts.
Please respect my copyright.
© 2024 Susan L. Chast