Picture Poetry Contest (...continued...)

[Granny5]

Congratulations Baby Girl. I am very proud of you and your beautiful poem.
(I take full credit for your abilities, you know.)

[ampoule]

Thank you Fifth. You had a very difficult job. Congrats MH.

[motherhubbard]

Thanks everyone. I found three pictures and now I'm just going to choose between them

[Pendragon]

Way to go, Mother H! Picture, please? (Imagine a panting puppy!)

And Fifth it was ‘elven’, my "lightning fingers" got crossed up! Thanks for the comments!

[firefangled]

Congratulations, MH, for such a beautiful poem!!! A well deserved win.

Good job Fifth, I am sure this was not easy, there were so many fine poems.

[AdoreroDio]

Congrats Mother H!

[downing]

CONGRATULATIONS MOTHER H!!!! From the beginning, I saw your poem really was a different one (in a good way ). Good idea with spacing and the poem is just outstanding!!!!!!!

[motherhubbard]

Thanks everyone for the congratulations! It was a very exciting and unexpected experience.

coming up with the next picture was hard- who knows if I'll ever have the chance again! But I loved this one and I hope you like it too.

[Pendragon]

As you know, I hate to go first. But this picture, Lordy, Mother H! What a picture! Going first usually means doom but:

History in Hands

When you look at these hands—
You see more than just hands—
You see history in each wrinkle and fold.

How the lines and the folds of the skin
Could reveal history for each wrinkle—
If the skin’s stories were allowed to be revealed.

The skin might say “Once I was soft as a flower,
And this hand met his there at the altar in love.
He caressed me as gentle as ever could be.”

“Our love kept me young, but the work began
And over our years together, a family raised.
These hands held two sons and three daughters.”

“These little puckers mark where I sat up
Wondering in wee hours of the night—
Would death take my child this time—wrinkles from soothing brows…”

“Cooking three meals a day, plus things to snack on—
Loving to cook—wrinkles and puckers and folds from stirring spoons and handles,
Basking in the glow of ‘my Mom cooks the best food ever!’”

“Age began to take me, though he swore I was as lovely as ever,
Lines here and there, veins beginning to line the backs of my hands.
Children grown up, and grandchildren growing like prairie grass.”

“Shock to heart and body with the news that I have lost him.
Puckers and folds from just sitting and wringing my hands in despair.
The bones now show though as I age in an single instant by ten or more years.”

Now they are two tanned hands folded in the lap of a lady.
We have taken a journey, and tried to listen to the meaning of the story of skin.
There is a story there, we may have unlocked part, but the wrinkles and puckers and lines tell the rest.

Pendragon
© 1/18/08

[motherhubbard]

Thanks Pen. I was afraid I would be the only one who liked it. Thanks for getting things started for us. We'll see if we get a few more and I'll think of a date to end the madness!

[PrinceMyshkin]

Marvellous, Pen! And MotherH, what a provocative photo you've chosen.

[Granny5]

Pen, I won't enter, of course, but I wouldn't anyway after reading your beautiful poem. It tells the story so completely. (I love this picture, mh.)

[downing]

Heaven




‘Jimmy,
will you hold me in your arms
when we enter Heaven like you
did the first time we got in our house,
after the wedding?
Don’t be afraid,
I read that a couple dying
together is the biggest present offered
by God.
Think that while our poor children
will weep over here, next to our deathbed,
we will be climbing the stairway to Heaven.
Will you be kind to pick me a violet
from the edge of the stairway made of flowers
and put it in my hair?
I hope God won’t be mad at us.
We will probably behave like two little
children who discover a funfair.
But God loves children, I heard.
There is no other season in Heaven
than spring.
I hope there are many forsythia bushes…
I just could never enjoy them in life as much as
I would have wanted.
You know, there are many other things
you occupy your time with,
claiming they are priorities
and you rarely have the time
to smell a spring flower
as you should really do.
Did you hear that in Heaven
there are so many different kinds of flowers
than those from Earth?
We thought our garden was a big one,
but it’s million times smaller than
the one which we will visit soon.
I also heard that roses are so big there
that they reach the sky.
But I always wondered:
If those roses are in sky, where Paradise is,
how could they reach the sky?
But there are nine skies, aren’t they?
Perhaps we will go to the first sky
and if we are good angels,
God will send us to the other,
next year.
But what if years in God’s land
are different then those from here?
If I take my watch you bought me from Zurich,
will it be useful?
Please remember me to put it at my hand.
That’s the most precious thing I have from you,
except our children.
I felt so badly when I heard
that we can’t take our children.
They will come later, the angel said.
But it would be so good if they came with us,
they wouldn’t feel all the pains we felt
during this life.
Do you really have to pass through all these
pains to reach that great garden?


By the way, does your head hurt anymore?
Just a little? I guess that’s one of the signs that
we ought to leave.
No, no, not now. The angel from my dream
said that he will come after us.
We’ve got the same guardian angel, can you imagine?
I could have never thought of it, but this is another
gift offered by God.
How good He is when he lets us climb
that stairway full of flowers.
People are insane when they say that our Lord is bad.
They haven’t got the slightest idea of the freedom
we both feel now.
But they will all understand, someday.
Does your head hurt?
No more. Neither does my stomach.
I feel as if I have just been born.


The angel has come. Jimmy, wake up,
he is here.
He says: “No bags. Your soul is everything you need.”
Do we have a good soul, Jimmy?
You were always right, if you believe we have
then that’s it.
Jimmy, I’m lifting...
I’m floating
higher and higher...
Please pass your fingers through
mine and
we can go together.'

[Pendragon]

Nice, Downing! I can see that in the picture, yes...

[downing]

thanks pen