St. Peter’s Chapel, Mare Island, Vallejo, CA
—Poems by Claire J. Baker, Pinole, CA
—Anonymous Photos
—Poems by Claire J. Baker, Pinole, CA
—Anonymous Photos
LIGHTLY, AND WITH COLOR
Suddenly I feel
all that joy can offer.
Harsh winds change course
when they meet my breath,
boulders soften when I lean.
Gazing at the Great Pond,
I see swans arch, dip
into the still pool,
in raising, drop pearls
from their beaks.
Now I am a raft of ripples
given light and color
through sky that is water,
water that is sky.
When I ask the Great Pond,
of what does joy consist,
how can one prolong its wonder,
the tide ripples back:
all answers are momentary.
MARE ISLAND SHIPYARD, VALLEJO, CA.
(decommissioned 1996)
We come to visit the 1855 redwood
memorial chapel,
its twenty-five large Tiffany
stained glass windows.
We enter in reverence.
Sun slanting through trees
flickers light and leafy shadows
over memorials to heroism
at sea...Beams settle on glass
suns and moons,
rendering them more real,
more luminous.
In one Tiffany window
Jesus and three sheep move
ever so slightly.
And there, Mother Mary's
gown quivers.
In leaving,
we lean toward
the majestical windows,
but tiptoe away from war!
IN THE STILLNESS
In the stillness
the evening star moves
the width of a sigh,
pauses on the spire
of a hilltop chapel
we had not thought
so vivid and so high.
________________
SANDY'S MEMORIAL
At last,
her food fantasy is granted:
dried rose petal flakes
sprinkled over walnuts
swimming in a slightly
sweet creamy sauce.
Sandy,
nicknamed "blowtorch"
in tasting this dish
might have flung out her arms
curtseyed in her Renaissance Faire
gown and shouted "Hallelujah"
in perfect Cajun French.
RIP, Sandy.
AMAZING GRACE, 2
Dear People,
It's not just that
the marvelous visits
and revisits,
but that miracles
stand so firm-footed
among us as, hello,
each other.
__________________
SUNFLOWER
Vincent,
the only sunflower
in our garden is fading fast,
does not hold gold enough
to last another week.
Dear painter, this gem
would have inspired you:
larger, friendlier than most;
saves energy by not turning
to face the sun.
Reaching, we lift
the spent bloom toward the sun.
Petals frayed, core dried,
shaggy, the seeded face droops
in our hands. We want to hold it up
but have to let it go.
Van Gogh, we tried. But, unlike you,
we can't make a sunflower live forever.
SUNFLOWERS
It is written that van Gogh
in a frenzy to paint
ate paint in his food—
turpentine tainted soup,
potatoes laced with linseed oil,
verde corn, ochred artichokes,
peaches and oranges
tinted blue
yet
those sunflowers.
__________________
BREAKING UP
(with help from Millay)
The human brain is convoluted, halved:
the right side clings to faded fantasy,
the left admits a shaky castle crumbled.
My feelings lag behind my made-up mind—
not crossing over, to end a long-held hurt.
In reading sonnets of Millay, I learn
just how the genius ended dumb affairs:
when both ends of a candle burn, the flames
will reach the middle, die a natural death,
she may have told a foe or lovelorn friend
before she wrote those famous candle lines,
that quatrain metaphor. Not coy nor shy
she told a scoundrel off: "I find this frenzy
insufficient reason for conversation
when we meet again." A gutsy poet,
Edna ends a sonnet: "I shall be gone,
and you may whistle for me!" Thanks, Millay.
(blank verse)
___________________
Today’s LittleNip:
CLOSING ARGUMENT
—Claire J. Baker
May
we
lean
toward
the
language
of
roses.
(first pub. in Brevities, 2020)
__________________
Welcome back and thank you to Bay Area poet and SnakePal Claire Baker for bringing us the aromas of redwood and sunflowers and the sea in her poetry today! For more about St. Peter’s Chapel, the oldest Naval Chapel in the United States, go to www.calexplornia.com/st-peters-chapel-the-oldest-naval-chapel-in-the-united-states/.
For up-coming poetry events in our area, scroll down to the blue column (under the green column at the right) for info—and note that more may be added at the last minute.
__________________
—Medusa, wishing you fair winds and following seas, and plenty of landmarks to follow ~
Cairn
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