Shining Silver

 

Is it something about being a witch? For my jewellery, I have always preferred silver to gold. I notice many witches do. After all, it goes so well with black! (That’s a joke. Witches don’t really dress only in black.)

We do all love the silvery moon. (Gold is the colour of the sun.)

 

My favourite silver earrings are odd – a pentacle in one ear, a Scorpio sign in the other. They were meant to be pendants, but I replaced the chains with hooks. (A pentacle is a five-pointed star within a circle. In America – I found out when I was there – they call that a pentagram. No-one knew what I meant when I said ‘pentacle’! We’re not exactly in disagreement, but elsewhere we say ‘pentagram’ to mean only the five-pointed star with no surrounding circle.)

I used to wear many rings. Since COVID, with all that hand sanitising, I mostly wear only two, one on each forefinger. They are silver rings with no stones. They sit quite flat, you see. (They bind me to two pantheons. One is a Celtic knot, the other a scarab.)

‘Gold glows,’ says my friend who is not a witch, to explain why she prefers it. I tell her, ‘Silver shines.’

winter dark –

the waning moon

a silver sliver

Written for dVerse Haibun Monday: Silver

Your Life Is Not Wasted If ...

 

[Not a poem; a reflection.]

Someone told me: ‘I feel I’ve wasted my life.’ I was shocked, because I don’t see her like that at all. So I thought about what would make a life wasted, and what would mean it wasn’t wasted. I don’t think it necessarily has anything to do with our achievements or our success in the world (although in my eyes my friend has plenty of both – but she doesn't always see it). Instead it seems clear to me that :

Your life is not wasted if:

 you have enjoyed its various pleasures

      e.g. tasty food, the beauties of nature, 

      singing and dancing, passionate sex …

you have given kindness to someone

you have smiled at someone

you have loved someone

you have cared for an animal

you have taught someone something useful

you have laughed 

you have been moved to tears

you have gasped in wonder

you have seen a rainbow

you have read books which you treasure 

you have had a friend.

A piece of prose this time, which I had occasion to write and feel is worth sharing. For Friday Writings #189: The Most Important Step, at Poets and Storytellers United, we are asked to write about what we think is the most important step a person can take. Although not written to the prompt, I think this answers it obliquely. Sometimes a simple realisation is a vitally important step!

in this time ...

 

in this time

of wars and disasters

eclipsing other horrors

today’s rain and thunder

seems only fitting

I am glad to huddle indoors

sadly, to huddle indoors

only seems fitting –

today’s rain and thunder 

not eclipsing other horrors:

the wars, the disasters

of this time

A double cherita, written for dVerse Meeting the Bar: A revisit with the Cherita. (The cherita is meant to tell a story; I hope this almost plotless piece qualifies!)

Farewell, Col Joye ...

 

Farewell, Col Joye. Thanks 

for songs I danced to

when we were both young.

Thanks, Col Joye, for the joy

which you named yourself for

and always gave.

https://7news.com.au/sunrise/australian-music-legend-col-joye-dead-at-89-c-19593252

(He was born Colin Jacobson.)

14 Words For Love is a facebook group (the number of words chosen because Valentine's Day falls on the14th). They don't have to be in verse, but I always try to do that.

(OK, this is 14 words twice over, but he deserves extra.)

Old Scars

So many, and yet

over the long years

they fade, not quite gone 

but changed: pale and far –

no longer a spot of wrongness 

marking the smooth surface,

but a soft remembrance, 

less of breakage and pain

than a kind of beauty

or even of gain …

lessons learned, hurts survived.

In idle moments I trace 

the vestiges, finding not

disfigurement, no remnants

of any ancient ache, but 

only a strange, delicate grace.

Written for Friday Writings #188: Telling Scars at Poets and Storytellers United.