Explorations & Epiphanies

Larks in Flight

—Anonymous Photos

—Poems by Claire J. Baker, Pinole, CA

TOUCHINGS*

I journey through your landscape
touching here a tree,
there a pebble. I hold your earth
in my hands, trace markings
on your leaves;
hear storms gathering, rain falling.

Climbing your mountains
I touch ferns of your spirit,
moss of your gentleness.
The trail leads to glaciers
of your sorrow,
meadows of your serenity.

Boulders,
strata on strata, reveal
your suffering bravely
faced,  transcended.
Your triumphs 
echo through lofty trees.

I journey through your landscape.


*With variations, title poem
 of author's first chapbook

 Skylark Ascending
 

          
TAJ MAHAL

When true love inspires
a Taj Mahal: marble pillars,
mosaic tile walls, a landscape
that uplift angels, a foreground
pool reflecting sublime experience,
joys and sorrows choreographed
along gilded corridors . . .

when love inspires a Taj Mahal
lovers build until part of
a temple shimmers in its pool.
Shaping perfection extends
beyond their time on earth,
so lovers must leave
their wonder-of-wonders temple
unfinished, eternity echoing
for all sensitive lovers.

 Red Lark

             

CLASSICAL RADIO
SERENDIPITY

A woman
beginning to answer
a sheet of 10
probing questions
on self-identity,
decides to tackle the task
to solo violin whose
spiraling high notes imitate
a "Lark Ascending."

 Horned Lark in Flight

"THE EAGLE HAS LANDED"
(first moon landing, 1969)

Neil Armstrong,
first human to walk on
the full moon of our earth,
seeing from afar
our blue-white planet
did you pause to deplore
its poverty, depravities, wars?
Pause much longer to honor
Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon,
our oceans, all the amazing people?

On that first walk, moondust     
christening your boots,
did you feel like a Greek god?
A poet? A descendent of Galileo?
Did you stumble on a stone,
proof of exploration's start?

Mild-mannered pioneer
of the majestically high skies,
had you known even as a child
that wonderment uplifts one
out of this world?

 Horned Lark Landing

MAYBE SILENCE

The snowbird turns
eventually into snow,
pebbles in a brook
into harp strings.
Raindrops climb
back into clouds
on ladders of wind
that quake
from such a climbing,
All is in change. Even
change changes into
something else, maybe
silence.


(Holiday Greeting, 2012)

 Foxy Lark

 

THE GLUE
(for our mosaic tree)

All of us are damaged
but we can link together
in our brokenness.

In sorting shards
fingers may get cut.
Blood, mutually shared
comes in terrific colors—
vermilion for vulnerable
pink for possibility
red for scared, then sacred.

The glue that holds us
firmly, as lightly applied
seeks rough edges,
binds a brighter stone
with a darker one;
holds leaves to limbs,
limbs to our tree.

WE ARE FAMILY.


(first pub. in East Bay's Street Spirit, 2011)
  
___________________

Today’s LittleNip:

A THOUGHT
—Claire J. Baker

Here's to all
epiphanies
personal, universal

that after they
peak and pass
live on as stardust.


(Holiday Greeting, 2013)

__________________

Many thanks to Claire Baker for today’s fine poetry! To hear Ralph Vaughn Williams’ "The Lark Ascending", go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOWN5fQnzGk/. 

A quickie from John Milton:

To hear the lark begin his flight,
And singing startle the dull Night,
From his watch-tower in the skies,
Till the dappled dawn doth rise.

The poetry read-around, Poetry Off-the-Shelves, meets in Placerville tonight from 5-7pm at the El Dorado County Library in Placerville. Scroll down to the blue column (under the green column at the right) for info about this and other upcoming poetry events in our area—and note that more may be added at the last minute.

—Medusa

Celebrate the grand adventure that is poetry!

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