encumbered

 listening to the elderly

can be crushing

as life accumulates pain

and, at times, they speak

of what they bear

summit Mt. St. Helens

eight-year-old Adelaide
smiles atop the mountain
she had just conquered
proud father and grandfather
grinning at her
reveling in her grit and determination

a mother’s pride

Update the Blog Title Above. Delete this text and enter an introduction to the blog post here. This template is used for text and images blog posts. If you just have text use the Text Only Template.

Don’t forget to add a Category, a one sentence Excerpt and change the URL.

weep in anticipation

anticipate a non-reality

hope for this or that to happen

fear the other because things never

seem to turn out well

it is all imaginings

cowering before the blow is struck

when you might wait for the pain

before crying

gracious response

a brilliant thought of an author

who has captured and wide, loving

audience for her work

 and then the gathered courage

to reach out to Jane Kirkpatrick

with her own loving story

of mother’s courage growing up

amid annihilating weariness,

ill-treatment and poverty

 the response, far more gracious

than our Susan could have imagined

  ah, the difference between big and small

emerge

(a pantoum)

emerge

a pantoum

emerge

darkness to light

out of shadow

fight for existence

darkness to light

will to live

fight for existence

harbinger of hope

fight for existence

out of the shadow

harbinger of hope

emerge

despite

her wondrous laughter

telling of family gathering

honoring their loss