Tones

soft topography

sunlight falls among petals

provoking full bloom

©️Sylphide poem/image 2020

13%er

Can't say I thought the debate went real well

Civil discourse is deader'n hell

Joe was sleepy, Donnie a jerk

Seems we should have some choices that work

It'll have to be done again, I can tell

©️Sylphide poem 2020

Ascendant

How might the mountain

Be hidden in mist

One day fill horizon

The next not exist

Then at midnight

By starlight is kissed

Seeming unmoved

But only rise slow

Above the clouds

Where timber won't grow

Seat of eyries

For eagles and crows

Traverse and climb 

The barren peak

Under waterfalls

Over the creeks

Until you summit

The clarity you seek

Horizons unlimited

©️Sylphide poem 2020

Seeing

     People were going into the meeting room, I was one of the last. I noticed a young man looking intently at our faces as we came through the door. He was doing a thing I thought only I did. When one encounters a person, if your look carefully at their expression as they first see your face, you can tell if they are truly happy to see you in that first millisecond before they get their pleasant face up. I realized how unfair this was, people have complex internal environments shaped by a horribly random world, with levels of coping energy varying wildly. It might have little to do with how much they like you that day, perhaps they are not relating well to anyone. 

     I'd always felt I could read people pretty well. Later as I thought of the young man, I realized it might be a skill some people develop too early, scanning the face of their stressed caregiver, trying to tell what might be coming at them next.

R Commitment

Hadn't thought of you in a while

Years really, been happy

Not like when we broke up

Like removing organs

How grown into each other

Thinking we could be one

Until we rubbed each other raw

Trying to fit in a single skin

Headed different directions

Birthing to individuals again, bloody

Newly navel'd stung by light

After years cuddle-coiled together

So harsh, the sun, the sharp air

That was no longer your skin

The half of my heart gone with you

Not beating under my ear

Two pieces, so much smaller

Trading strength for wounds

Shaped differently from then on

©️Sylphide poem 2020

Bonsai

My bonsai abutilon is 25 this year🌳🌱🌺

Abutilon

Winter Garden (1)

season changing snow

prized plants gathered for winter

unfrozen garden

©️Sylphide poem/image 2020

Cypress

cypress fronds waving

clean fragrance strong as day warms

enduring verdance

©️Sylphide poem/image 2020