Category: poetry

Inspiration, poetry

#SundayShares: Photos, Prose, Poetry

Mona Alvarado Frazier

Photo by Skyler Ewing on Pexels.com

During the week, I often come across poetry, a bit of writing, and/or a photo that gives me pause in a satisfying way where I reconnect with the present. I’d like to share these moments with you.

Last week I went on a cruise with my mother. Fun cruise (but I will post about that in the newsletter). Oddly, we had two butterflies greet us. Strange because one time we were in the middle of the ocean and the other when we disembarked in Cabo San Lucas.

Immediately, I had a sense of who had visited us. I say “who” because, in the Mexican tradition, many believe a butterfly represents the souls of their ancestors. All week, I came across items having to do with butterflies, so they are my #SundayShare.

The Monarch Butterfly Count:

Every November, the butterflies migrate from the chilly north along the West Coast to Baja California, over 2,000 miles.

The year 2020 was bad news for the Monarch population. The population had significantly declined.

In California, volunteers from the Monarch Joint Venture project get together to count the Monarch, and they’ve done this since 1997. If you’ve ever been to Pacific Grove, California (outside Monterrey), you may have visited the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary. My daughter and I visited three years ago and promised to return.

Last year, the butterflies had a comeback, with over 250,000 Monarchs counted.

The counting started this year on Oct. 21st, and the population is on the upswing compared to 2021. So far, they’re rebounding. I find this inspiring and hopeful.

Balm in Gilead

BY GRACE SCHULMAN

“Is there no balm in Gilead?” So cries

dour Jeremiah in granite tones.

“There is a balm in Gilead,” replies

a Negro spiritual. The baritone

who chants it, leaning forward on the platform,

looks up, not knowing his voice is a rainstorm

that rinses air to reveal earth’s surprises.

Today, the summer gone, four monarch butterflies,

their breed’s survivors, sucked a flower’s last blooms,

opened their wings, orange-and-black stained glass,

and printed on the sky in zigzag lines,

watch bright things rise: winter moons, the white undersides

of a California condor, once thought doomed,

now flapping wide like the first bird from ashes.

Have a wonder-filled week. Sign up for the monthly newsletter, which arrives on the fourth Saturday.

Soon, I’ll receive advanced reader copies (ARC) of my debut novel, THE GARDEN OF SECOND CHANCES. Subscribers will have the first chance at a giveaway, using a random generator, for an ARC. I’ll mail this to the winner, if within the USA.

Inspiration, poetry, Writing

#SundayShares: Poetry, Prose, Photos

Mona Alvarado Frazier
From Beth Frates, MD, on Twitter

During the week, I often come across poetry, a bit of writing, or a photo that gives me pause in a satisfying way where I reconnect with the present. I’d like to share these moments with you.

by Pixaby

This poem celebrates the colors of Fall. Yaskhan writes about poetry, haikus, and photography. I felt this poem as I read.

October Chill:

autumn comes
upon trees
coppery soft
frail amber blooms
gather shadows
north winds stir
rosette twilight
birdsongs hush
the whispering breeze
orange, red maple leaves
ignite a crimson light
October lilts
frosted sigh
pumpkin moon
adorns ebon frilled sky

Yaskhan

The poem put me right into the treescape above. “rosette twilight” is a beautiful description.

My grand-niece turned four yesterday. Her mom put on a Halloween-themed party with homemade treats for the kids. I thought they were adorable, even if the eyes were staring.

purple and orange decorated chocolate balls and ghost treats for Halloween
Halloween Treats

Maria Popova publishes a newsletter, The Marginalian: Reflections on keeping the soul intact and alive and worthy of itself.

This week was her 16 Life-Learnings from 16 years of blogging. My favorite pieces of prose:

“Be generous. Be generous with your time and your resources and with giving credit and, especially, with your words. It’s so much easier to be a critic than a celebrator. Always remember there is a human being on the other end of every exchange and behind every cultural artifact being critiqued. To understand and be understood, those are among life’s greatest gifts, and every interaction is an opportunity to exchange them.”

“Expect anything worthwhile to take a long time.” This is borrowed from the wise and wonderful Debbie Millman, for it’s hard to better capture something so fundamental yet so impatiently overlooked in our culture of immediacy. The myth of the overnight success is just that — a myth — as well as a reminder that our present definition of success needs serious retuning. The flower doesn’t go from bud to blossom in one spritely burst and yet, as a culture, we’re disinterested in the tedium of the blossoming. But that’s where all the real magic unfolds in the making of one’s character and destiny.”

That’s it. Have a pleasant week, and enjoy your Sunday!