Author: Katherine

Poetry writer and author

Resuscitate

https://www.google.com/search?safe=active&source=hp&ei=Bdn-WvSxEsL4kwWhgJb4DQ&q=resuscitate+meaning&oq=ressusitate&gs_l=psy-ab.1.1.0i10k1l10.782.6568.0.8276.12.11.0.0.0.0.139.1172.3j8.11.0..2..0…1.1.64.psy-ab..1.11.1171.0..0j0i131k1.0.X5ryrybkrgA

Sweeping the floor and more thrills

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Not my kitchen!

I have been busy all morning emptying my fridge/freezer and moving things about.I found 2 oven timers and the usual set of teaspoons and clothes pegs!
Now the new one is here after I swept and vacuumed the floor.It seem bigger inside
Tomorrow I will be watching some of the Royal Wedding on TV,if I am in a suitable frame of mind.We are not having  as street party.We had one in 2011.I enjoyed  seeing all my neighbours.

The conscientious objector by Karl Shapiro

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42766/the-conscientious-objector

 

The Conscientious Objector

The gates clanged and they walked you into jail
More tense than felons but relieved to find
The hostile world shut out, the flags that dripped
From every mother’s windowpane, obscene
The bloodlust sweating from the public heart,
The dog authority slavering at your throat.
A sense of quiet, of pulling down the blind
Possessed you. Punishment you felt was clean.
The decks, the catwalks, and the narrow light
Composed a ship. This was a mutinous crew
Troubling the captains for plain decencies,
A Mayflower brim with pilgrims headed out
To establish new theocracies to west,
A Noah’s ark coasting the topmost seas
Ten miles above the sodomites and fish.
These inmates loved the only living doves.
Like all men hunted from the world you made
A good community, voyaging the storm
To no safe Plymouth or green Ararat;
Trouble or calm, the men with Bibles prayed,
The gaunt politicals construed our hate.
The opposite of all armies, you were best
Opposing uniformity and yourselves;
Prison and personality were your fate.
You suffered not so physically but knew
Maltreatment, hunger, ennui of the mind.
Well might the soldier kissing the hot beach
Erupting in his face damn all your kind.
Yet you who saved neither yourselves nor us
Are equally with those who shed the blood
The heroes of our cause. Your conscience is
What we come back to in the armistice.

In  a nightmare, I am crossing  cities in the dark

In  a nightmare, I am crossing  cities in the dark
Snipers shoot  at me with bullets, butterflies
Tested in the fields where once  goats heard the lark

I remember, as a child, the foggy park
We were  told to  run away   from men who pried
In  my nightmare, I am crossing  cities in the dark

The choices  left are  riddles cruel and stark
For goodness and relief we feel we  try
Test them in the fields where once  God heard the lark

The train is leaving,children leaning start
To shriek again the pain-filled word,goodbye
In  my nightmare, kinder-transport in the dark

 

The bus has gone,I’ve missed the whale and Ark
Panic  grips me,I must see your eyes,
Love you in the fields where  sang the holy lark

I never  knew so many people died
Conceived I was to   meet the onward tide
In  my nightmare, I am crossing  cities in the dark
No money and the train mouths like a  shark

 

 

 

Hearts feinted

26219359_1054089244730953_3622257819011378810_n.jpgI have an ingrown low tail.
I have got horns on my feet
My toes are crooks.
I am a hunch quack
My hands are narcotic  twisters
My nails are very agile
My hair is too divine
I have a leeches and steam complexion
My hair is early by nature
I use  a hair fryer weekly
My skin is vulnerable to outbreaks of dots.
I have an inverted colon.
My  mind is my body
My heart had a quack

Test in faith

white cat lying on blue tarpaulin
Photo by Pegli Zhu on Pexels.com

1.What is more important your phone or God?
My phone is God.
2.Is God interested in your beauty?
My beauty is  a  manifestation of God.
But then,how about all those ugly people?
3 Would God have made cockroaches deliberately?
No, they evolved from strange sea creatures.
4.Does God like men to go fishing?
If and only  if it’s on the Sea of Galilee
5 Why did God make men and women and not a creature which could fertilise itself?
To give us fun  on those long dark nights?
Maybe  we are a trial for something else.
6.Would you buy a new Bible or a laptop?
The Bible is always the same but laptops change or break
7 Should Catholics have washing machines?
Yes, to baptise  all the germs on their underwear.
Yes, to be clean for Sunday
No, they should wear no clothes as God made us naked.
8.Why can’t we see our souls?
They are invisible except to  angels.
9 Are souls gendered?
Pass
10,How often do you pray?
That’s my secret

House keeping

Oxford-2014

I paid a good sum to have my freezer mended 2 weeks ago and now it has failed again and only one  brand makes one to fit in a narrow space.So tomorrow I’ll be emptying it again and transferring the frozen peas  and everything in the fridge.It will be nice when this is over.
Meanwhile the washing machine which would only operate on the quick wash has recovered and does any wash.Why?
Thank God I have no dishwasher or tumble dryer.
If there was a river nearby I could wash my sheets in that.

How to be your own mother

synagogue-architecture-brighton-church-48809.jpeghttps://www.verywellmind.com/coping-with-stress-using-self-soothing-skills-2797579

Extract

The Soothing Aspects of Touch

Your skin is the largest organ in your body and it is very sensitive to external stimulus.

This makes it a powerful tool in your ability to relax, unwind, and find relief from the stress that you’re feeling.

Water is one of the ways that you can feel instant relief. That can come from soaking in a warm bath or going for a swim. Likewise, you can give your skin a warm touch by simply sitting in the warmth of the sun or changing into your most comfortable clothes.

Among other things, you might try are taking a few minutes to stretch your muscles — possibly through a few simple yoga poses or tai chi movements— or getting a massage. Even taking a few minutes to play with and pet an animal can be amazingly beneficial to your mood.

Sanober Khan, A Thousand Flamingos

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“May your love for me be
like
the scent of the evening sea

drifting in
through a quiet window

so i do not have to run
or chase or fall
… to feel you

all i have to do
is
breathe.”
― Sanober Khan, A Thousand Flamingos

Poems on hard times

Limestone_Link_2643https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2017/04/your-favorite-poems-on-hard-times/523191/

The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski

your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.

— by Charles Bukowski

Read more about Charles Bukowski here.

She’s my niece in flaw

Gather ye coal dust all through May
That’s not  a man,it’s my husband.
He’s my brother-in-flaw.
That’s my sin in law.
That’s my cats tale.He only has  one but it’s good.
Can  I carry my sister?
I do worry  my sister
He was my uncle  but no newt.
She was my aunt by barrage
He tells lies as if he was born to Trump
If he is a liar, I’ll eat my cat
He’s as honest as the ploy  is wrong.
If he wins I’ll boot myself.
I want to see the natives of Britain.But they are all dead.
I can’t stand  being a fake anymore.
I want to  be good but I  need Grace.
I sin every day.But at least I know.

My husband and twenty other questions

22449836_1008358785970666_2423364472739351850_n.jpgMy husband said he was angry because I beat him at Chess.But I’ve never even been to Chess and I never use corporeal punishment anyway.I believe it should be  spiritual if  it ever  is needed.

He said I was too  not house proud.Well,I’m just not proud at all.It has nothing to do with the house or the louse.

He said I had a brilliant personality but  my body didn’t turn him on.That was lucky as he had severe heart failure.To think, if we had had sex he could have died.But he did  die anyway.Is that a conundrum, a paradox or a lie?

He used to go out with no money but hated me to pay for our lunch.It’s a bit like Russell’s paradox only more.You know.

He had a Mobius strip neck warmer which I had knitted.the next thing they are in Marks and Spencers.Shall I sue them>

Unfair

blue and white wooden modes store
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

She was so beautiful a drake drowned chasing her reflection in the water.

She was so bright, the sun asked for a pay-rise at dawn

She was so kind everyone  hated her, but politely and behind her  back

She was so  curvaceous men fainted as she passed by

Her lips were so red she had to  cover them up with  makeup normally used for scars or risk causing a traffic jam.

Her voice was so sweet that nobody noticed what she  said.

She was so intelligent she didn’t believe in it

She was so creative she hid her talents out of modesty.

She was so poor she lived in her neighbour’s caravan.

She was so sensitive she wore band aid all over and asked if her nerves could be given plastic surgery on the NHS

Her weight was so  right it seemed unfair

 

 

The dangers of meditation

photo0033 1 2https://programminglife.net/danger-meditation/

Over-Meditation: When Meditation is an Addiction

Turns out, though, that meditation harbors the same sort of risk. In The Book of Meditation, author Patricia Carrington writes:

If meditation is prolonged for a matter of hours this process of tension-release can be magnified many times. When a person spends this much time meditating, powerful emotions and ‘primary process’ (bizarre) thoughts may be released too rapidly to assimilate and the meditator may be forced into sudden confrontation with long-buried aspects of himself for which he is not prepared. If he has enough inner strength, or is doing the extra meditation under the supervision of an experienced teacher, he may weather such an upsurge of consciousness and emerge triumphant. If he has fewer inner resources or has a past history of emotional disturbance, he may be overwhelmed by it, fragile defenses may break down, and an episode of mental illness result.

Baffle is a strange word

photo0033 1 2 3 4.jpgThey say  the hearing will take place in camera
Inside a camera? What sort?
I have no idea.Ask a barrister
Hi, can you tell me about courts and cameras?
I’m a barista!
Well, no need for that tone.
What tone?
I heard an undertone of menace
Stop hearing between the sounds!
I hear an overtone of malice
It’s all just projection/
Are you Freud?
No,I’m quite cool.
Well, hearing all these extra   emotions around voices is a bit uncanny
Well,I know what I am doing
What?
First to get coffee and second to baffle you
Baffle is a strange word
Like muffle or duffel?
Waffle and raffle
Offal and Neville
Neville who?
That psychoanalust
Lust? I thought it was desire
Desire is free.If you can find it.
Lust is free as well.To the young
Do I have to pay to feel?
Pay and Feel, sounds like a way to make money.
Payment is not always in money.
True.But nowadays we don’t care to think of that
Or  anything except politics and  finance
Artificial intelligence and spying
How about having artificial spies?
Or Dreaming Spies!
It’s all a great  big mystery to me

My view

In my bedroom at  the dawn,
I wake up  all alone
I no longer know your face,
Nor the places fingers traced
I’m just one lens from blindness,I can see.

The world looks faint and blurred
As  if no human cared.
I cannot  feel my heart
Except by stinging darts
Just one lens left  working out  for me.

I made some honey tea
I heard the buzz of bees
Feeling so alone
Are humans made of stone?
A lens is  all I have,infinity.

Two  little holes  so dark
Where the vision starts
The eye singularly blue
Shone for love  so true
Let me keep this lens or I’m not me.

The fragility of flesh
The place where we feel best
The eye so wide in gaze
With passion will engage
The lens and nerve and brain will help me through

So God made me from clay
And  I shall say a prayer
I don’t want to be blind
To other human minds
The focal length and strength  will  aid my view

Virtue and vice

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Now virtue's not the providence of kings
And vice is chosen by so many men
The intimations when the church bell rings
Are words that do not end with an Amen.

Now sacred acolytes are driven by power not love
And children fearful to reveal their plight.
How can we trust the smoke and pure white dove?
How can we know the darkness from the light?

And yet there is a store of store of sacred signs
And rituals that may give a person grace.
Symbols are expressions thought divine.
And allocate each person a pure space.

Though we destroy in envy and in hate
Evil's not our necessary fate.

Love

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When first I saw your soulful face,
Then wished I most to you embrace.
I wished as well to clothe you in
The sacred images within.

To find a home for love without;
To fold my dreams all round about
Your loving body and your face
Were covered in such joy and grace.

But now my dreams are cast aside
The world of meaning denied life.
What seemed most precious now is fled…
And I lie sleepless in my bed.

What is the world when unadorned
With all that in my heart I’ve formed?
There is no meaning I can trace.
As in a mother’s empty face.

On these grey rocks my path is hard.
From paradise, my self is barred.
To struggle or to grief succumb
When this dark day of mourning’s done?

Into His dazzling darkness dart
My dreams and love like dying sparks.
Into His Mystery so fair
I’ll cast both hope and my despair.

Thus my dreams will be transformed
To show themselves in other forms.
What feels a loss may foretell growth.
On my hope,I’ll take an oath

That nothing in my life is waste,
That I have not for phantasms chased.
And you are human,as am I.
Let’s live again until we die.

Ironically, the mourner must console

Ironically, the mourner  must console
Must lend an ear , must seem,must exhale calm
To  visitors and friends who make their calls

We are not permitted  rightful  roles
Of grieving  widow,mother, woman harmed
Ironically, the mourner  must console

The cancer patient’s told to be more whole
The illness,  like a   poison snake,  to charm
Say  visitors and friends who make their calls

How much of our  self can be controlled
By power of will or meditation’s balm?
Ironically, the sufferer  must console

Was there  Eden, was there a great Fall?
Is there a  God or has he been embalmed?
Oh  visitors and friends  go make  your calls

Like the Mariner I am becalmed
For I did not gather death into my arms
Ironically, the mourner  must console
The  visitors and friends who  feel the call

How much feeling can we bear to feel?

How much feeling can we bear to feel
The joys of love ,the total loss in death
Indifference makes our losses seem less real

Emotions pressed down yearn with great appeal
To  rise like lava and release our wrath
How much feeling do we dare to feel?

Numbness makes our loss  and grief congeal
We  know but  do not take the heartfelt path
Indifference makes our losses feel less real

Do we trust a friend, can we reveal
The sorrow and the anger   that engross?
How much feeling do we dare to feel?

I mostly keep my true feelings concealed
For bullies take advantage of the past
Indifference makes our losses seem less real

Yet feelings hidden make nobody laugh
When  demonstrated,onward they will pass
How much feeling can we bear to feel?
Without affect, our  presence  is less real