Lotus

"Lotus" is a found poem of mine in which the first sentence is a Chinese proverb, the second sentence is a Japanese proverb and the third sentence is a Zen proverb. I dedicate this poem to my maternal grandmother, whose first name was Lotus.

The lotus springs from

The mud. The lotus flower

Blooms in the mud. May

I live like the lotus, at

Ease in the muddy water.

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A Pair of Christmas Poems: January 4 and 5

Here is a pair of Christmas poems that I wrote for January 4 and 5. The first poem is a tanka, and the second is a haiku. The final two lines of the tanka are quoted from an anonymous nursery rhyme.

Eleventh day of

Christmas. Among eleven

pipers piping was

Tom, Tom, the piper's son. He

learned to play when he was young.

Twelfth day of Christmas.

Among twelve drummers drumming

was one little boy.

To read about the Twelve Days of Christmas click here.

God So Loved the World: A Poem of Jesus Christ

"The giver makes the gift precious." --Anonymous

GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD

A Poem of Jesus Christ

A found poem from the Bible: John 3:16-21

(Revised Standard Version)

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,

that whoever believes in him should not perish

but have eternal life.

For God sent the Son into the world,

not to condemn the world,

but that the world might be saved through him.

He who believes in him is not condemned;

he who does not believe is condemned already,

because he has not believed in the name

of the only Son of God.

And this is the judgment,

that the light has come into the world,

and men loved darkness rather than light,

because their deeds were evil.

For every one who does evil hates the light,

and does not come to the light,

lest his deeds should be exposed.

But he who does what is true comes to the light,

that it may be clearly seen

that his deeds have been wrought in God.

Thoreau's Thanksgiving

Thoreau said his thanksgiving was perpetual.

On December 6, 1856, in a letter to his friend Harrison Blake, Henry David Thoreau wrote in part, "I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite. . . . My breath is sweet to me. O how I laugh when I think of my vague, indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment."

Happy Birthday, Petula Clark

On this day in 1932 British actress and singer Petula Clark was born in Ewell, Surrey, England. She is 90 years old.

In "Happiness (Le Bonheur)," a song on her 2017 album Living for Today, Petula Clark wrote:

Happiness

That sweet and fleeting feeling

We all need to know

Is waiting here inside us

All it takes is a smile or a song

Or the perfume of a long forgotten

Garden rose

It comes

It goes

Yes, this is happiness

Happiness is hearing Petula Clark singing. 

Brainteaser: A Riddle in Rhyme

WHAT IS IT?

from the 2023 edition of Farmers' Almanac (FarmersAlmanac.com)

Only one color, but not one size,

Stuck at the bottom, yet easily flies.

Present in sun, but not in rain,

Doing no harm and feeling no pain.

You can read the answer to this riddle here in a poem from A Child's Garden of Verses  (1885) by Robert Louis Stevenson.

A Child's Garden of Verses