DARK PAGES
(SONG IN PROGRESS)
Our connection was written
Into the river
As it deltas
Into the swamp
Disintegrating
Like the road to nowhere
Sadly reminding me
How many endings there are
Quantum possibilities
With me standing in a
Camera obscura
Waiting
for cars that never come
Messengers
of love and luck
Not
finding their way
Down
the rutted road
Of
muddy muck
In
a rhythm of rain
Our
hearts severed
Not seeing
Your perfection lying alone
On the marshy ground
Soon to be
Swept away
By the delta-maker
Ruthlessly pruned so
Neither a pantheon of gods
Nor a hagiography of saints
Can help me now
And in self-pity
I
stare at the dark pages
My poems sitting alone
In unbought books
Waiting
Like Miss Havisham
To walk down that aisle
But no takers
And yet, elementally
The wind fanned the flame
That heated the water
That quenched the earth
And you came
With a poetic rescue
By breathing life
Like a careful midwife
Infusing your Music
Using it to shape my words into a
Universal soul
While making me whole
At last...
© 2023 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: Broken Pottery
AUTUMN EQUINOX
(Saturday 9-23-23, 2:49 A.M.)
*scroll down for a YouTube video
Moon Phase
Waxing Gibbous
In the Earth sign Capricorn
Almost that date
To celebrate
Equal Days and Nights
And, only one thing is right
Oh, yeah, let’s plant
The healing-est herbs
Once called simpling
But now kitchen
Or, off-the-spice-rack
Check your almanac
To see what’ll grow
How about those
Sung in an Old English
(Or mid-20th century)
Haunting Ballad
From those two harmonizers
Simon and Garfunkel?
“Are you going to Scarborough
Fair
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and
Thyme…”
So I present you with a photo
Of my 20-gallon fabric pot
Home of my just-planted
Simon and Garfunkel Garden
And here is the song to
Encourage you to do
Something fun
To honor the harvest
Of sun
As our solar year
Winds down
Healthy and Happy
Autumn Equinox…
© 2023 Clarissa Simmens
(ViataMaja)
IMAGE: Simon & Garfunkel Garden
Scarborough Fair, Simon &
Garfunkel
FRIENDSHIP BOUQUETS
Living the Folkloric life
On my tiny swamp
A friend today
Sent me a virtual bouquet
Of colorful flowers
There has always been
A language of flowers
Where a bloom was worth
A thousand words
So I translate her
Morning Glories
As growth, healing and
hopefulness
And the yellow sunflower
symbolism
Is health, happiness, and
friendship
And now from coordinates 28/83
To coordinates 45/72
I send her a virtual squash
blossom
Beloved by a part of her heritage
Symbolizing healing and
friendship
But also the wish that there is
Always food on the table
Because that is life itself….
© 2023 Clarissa Simmens
(ViataMaja)
IMAGE: Morning Glories &
Sunflowers © 2023 and thanks to Gail Larose
IMAGE: Squash Blossom © 2023
Clarissa Simmens
FAIRY RING
Found a fairy in my terracotta pot
Holding pretty,spotted
Red and white fly agaric
Moving among the fragile
Toadstools taller than she
Caught between the
Horrendous heat of day
And moist dampness of night
For some reason
When I shook her hand
I shrunk like Alice
And the pot became a busy land
Of Fairies and music
Flowers and spicy scents
We ate, drank, and danced
Me drunk on dripping honey
Or maybe ‘shrooms?
And suddenly, yawning,
Fell asleep on the shoulder
Of a hunky fey man
When I woke,
Definitely back in my back yard
Alone
Saw my reflection on the
Glass door streaked with algae
Years older than when I left
When climbing into the pot
And I knew
It was true
One hour in Fairyland
Equaled 25 years in reality
How can that be
Once young and free
And now aged…
© 2023 Clarissa Simmens (Viata
Maja)
IMAGE: Fairy Ring
REGRETS TOO LATE
Cat 5 hurricane
Storming up the Atlantic
While pathetically plastic
Greenhouses held by
5/16th inch rope
Bravely face their fate
Why does my money
Get spent on romantically
Stupid wampum and structures?
If I found fifty thousand
I’d spend it on bricks
Spend it on strongest metals
Build a safe fortress
But year after year
I forget the fear
And then when danger visits
I blame it on autism
I’m too disordered, I say
To know what to do today
So I exist on wild swamps
Of regret yet also
Mysterious excitement…
© 2023 Clarissa Simmens
(ViataMaja)
IMAGES: flamingo garden 9-8-23 & south greenhouse
with ginger
HAG STONES
Standing in salt water
While wind and rain
Wrestle my hooded jacket
Exposing tangled hair
Waves too close
To old leather boots
Questing for holey/holy or,
As legend calls them,
Hag stones
For protection
And therefore good luck
I bend over seeing a few
With eroded holes
Lifting to the sky
Gazing at weak sunlight
That cannot dry
The early morning dew
But think,
That hole
Worn by crabs or
Sand or stones is
So like the hole
In my heart
Worn by aching grief
Of a love
Never fulfilled
Of a garden
Blighted from
Heat and storm
A once beautiful Shangri-la
Of dreams
Torn to pieces
Missing an essential
Life force no longer
Part of me
The hag stone, then,
Perhaps a reminder
Of what wasn’t to be…
© 2023 Clarissa Simmens
(ViataMaja)
IMAGE: Hag Stone 3
VEGVISIR Walking through the dark of night Aging eyes not seeing quite right Some say the runes are from the Huld Manuscript Per...
