Posts for June 30, 2025 (page 8)

Category
Poem

Lalibela

It was not for me to enter
The holy ground that felt the steps of Christ
But I was proud to be among the chosen
To bring that city to life in the rolling hills
Where my fathers and sons lived their days
Often I hear you say it could not have been
That we shaped those 11 marvels
With simple taps of hammers and chisels
And the carrying of endless buckets of basalt
In the lifetime of our king
But just as his vision was foretold by the bees
That surrounded his mother at his birth
So we were moved by the understanding
Shared by artists who give new shape
To paper stone clay or even air
In all times and places
They say Michelangelo carved until he released
The inherent truth from his marble
We did our work to the glory of God
Equally sure in the knowledge
That the angels stood by our side

Registration photo of Christina McCleanhan for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Thank you, June

After so many years, I have learned it is best
to keep a $20 bill hidden in my car
or on my person
and a can of WD-40 whenever possible. 
There is no MAYDAY when our training wheels 
roll into the thick brush piles of regular everydayness. 

I have a new therapist, and she sparkles…
or maybe I am finally ready to receive that energy.
She is normal-looking.
On the street, you might nod and open a door
or walk past without recognizing her grace. 
But her presence
brought such ease to me
that I longed to break mid-sob and ask her
if it would be okay, 
if she would like to hear, too,  about
the glittering, happy memories
I do not want to leave.

I am and always have been 
a hustling kaleidoscope
of fractured rainbows
calling on the universe
to exchange my brokenness
for cinematic legitimacy
to share with whatever audience
I entertain. 
Could someone please
hand me
a magnifying glass?
Viewing the days
through the eyes of my eccentric fanciness
is a good time
– complicated, chaotic, but uniquely me nonetheless.

My authenticity was born barefoot,
in a flower-filled side yard, 
jumping rope with a garden hose stream
held by my grandmother’s summer hands. 
She once went to Ocean City, Maryland, 
looking like a movie star
and sometimes,
I wore the baby blue terry cloth shorts 
she brought back 
or maybe, the eyelet dress with bowtie straps
from the dress-up box. 

My reality has grown me into a thick-trunked, sycamore
an ever-changing but resilient woman
with roots deep in a ground fed and watered
by the mercy of God,
who pokes me
with a teasing love and guiding firmness
that I kneel before
in respect.
He is down with my ugly cries,
my jazz hands, 
my resting silence. 

After so many years, I have learned
that brightness waits,
hiding in the darkest corners,
ready to relight the lamp
that is needed
for our journeys-
to the end of days or the gas station down the street. 
It brings freedom,
but only if we are willing
to work for it,
to rearrange our bones and parts,
to sweat while making space
for the light to fill
so that we can claim it, again, as our own. 


Registration photo of Leah Tenney for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Benediction

Darling you are free to chase the lightning anytime you want
with pearl-colored comfort wrapped ‘round your shoulders.
No storm may smite your soul beyond rebirth,
Love loves you too much to allow that.   

Wash your face, your hands, and your aching feet
in the grace that grows perennial.
Her rain will sow flowers in your hair,
crowning the miracle growing from ashes and blood.   

Write across the rooms of your heart in whatever ink you like-
you are beloved and beloved and beloved.
Sewn from Love spinning the universe itself.

Learn to spell it in every language,
practice forming the word that will form you back.
Feel it cross your lips in exhalation, revelation-  

Beloved

even weary, even doubting, even now.


Registration photo of meadowdawn for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

apb

never
shrink
a wild thing.
don’t diminish it,
with your novice touch.
try only observing, 
with the softest gaze.
as it exists,
in its freest form.
without your disruption,
or any of your weak intentions.
it is not for your insecurities.
it is not for your fears to understand.
divert your hardened focus,
it doesn’t need your rules.
it is not for you to grasp.
She carries a wisdom,
you may never know.
love her from a distance.
love her there,
where she can most love herself.


Registration photo of John W. McCauley for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Thank You

I extend my thanks, not just to those who commented on my poems, but to all who shared their art and those who took time to read and comment on the many great poems submitted this year.  It has once again been an honor to particpate with such a distinguished group of poets and I wish you all the best!

John W. McCauley

Registration photo of Shaun Turner for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

To The Swirled Plaster Ceiling

Plaster blooms above the bed,
a constellation of flowers
from the scrabbled bushes out front.
And in the living room–a window big
as a daydream and twice as dirty:
refracting spider webs in a trender neglect.

The refrigerator thrums dust through the floorboards.
Outside, a hoisted-up neighbor downshifts
his too-big truck, a groan
Of brakes and the smell of diesel.

This is the garden I know:
This bed of quiet
listening.

LexPoMo friends, it’s always such a pleasure to read your work and comment with you. I look forward to this chance to write. I’ll be rereading your poems and look forward to seeing you again, hopefully sooner than LexPoMo 2026!


Category
Poem

Evening Evocation

*with a deep bow of gratitude
                       to
      the Lexpomo community
               from whom
          i learn much and
                have much
                       to
                    learn
may you journey well, dear ones

Sunset fading close of day

We come together here every evening
                  holding hands

Vision drawn by darkling sky
          dimness of all
                    but
             our actions

Stars appear, sacred, mysterious
         transitional time

My parents and all ancestors
          past, present, and future
                  stand with me

We bow in gratitude of the gifted
                    day that’s done
         honoring our dear ones and
                          all of you
              all beings in all worlds

During accessible aura of opening up
                            peace
                            peace
                            peace


Registration photo of A. G. Vanover for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Reflection

Thirty days.
Scores and scores of lines
the lyrics to the soundtracks of our lives.
Cicadas, faith, and unrest.
Grappling with our own emotions.
Building a small community of craftsmen
with which to share
the beauty of expression
blossoming warmth of humor
and ice-pick sharp expressions of pain.
Writing, commenting, sharing
small windows into the worlds
of the folks we walk past without really knowing.

Within me it awoke a bonfire
igniting and catalyzing
a chain-reaction shattering the solid
brick and mortar dam between me
and my inspiration.
What was once a trickle
through a carefully bored hole
between two mis-matched bricks
now, a deluge. Thirty shared poems
plus three or four more
a proliferation of poetry from a poet
unaccustomed to a week
penning three or more.

I am so grateful
to my mom for suggesting
to the fine folks who designed and aligned
this wonderful event’s existence.
To you, dear reader,
for taking the time and the care to read
my works, my thoughts, my hopes and my dreams.
Oft glimpsing my deepest insecurities.
In a cadence that may not be how I intended
or imagined, but
that makes my poems unique to each of you
and yours to me.
We are all different, in the way that we read.
Like snowflakes, indistinguishable to the eyes,
yet structurally unique.
I look forward to next year.
Signing off, with free verse rhymes
taking it one line at a time
A. G.


Registration photo of Maira Faisal for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

As Morning Opens

The twinkling glow of sky
brightens with the motion
of a rushing wave, building, 
pooling light to chase away 
whatever umbra clings to its 
delicate swathe of clouds.


Registration photo of Renée Rigdon for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

S’more Time

I wish I would want to be this marshmallow
-skewered, toasted, and squashed— between 
waxy chocolate 
and 
Half-stale graham crackers

to be made of marrow and formed of fluff, desired &
delighted by your desire for me

to be worried fewer times that I will be consumed by
my softness 

Digested without tasting
Expelled as a waste of calories and time.

I wish you would want to savor this campfire delight, a
snack you’ll have made of, my sweetness &Trust
that you’ll 
not lose me to the fire