Tag: postaday

Poetry by Patrick JenningsJan 26, 202412:29 pm

The Calm Below the Storm

She reclines on the porch swing
Sways with gentle breezes

She loves this spot
Overlooking the bay
Always the picture of calm
Even if the sky threatens rain

Artful reflections
Flow over glassy waters
The ominous clouds tempered
As the wash of a watercolour
On which her mind paints
Stories of transformation

In the morning
A mug of americano
Vapour wafting
With the scent of roasted bean

Then the garden
No more than a thin film
Of rock-strewn topsoil
Spread over a bed of granite

Now the afternoon
Pinot gris
The bottle at her feet
Chills in a bucket of ice

This afternoon
Began earlier than others

Though not the earliest retreat
She may not need
To replenish the bottle

Poetry by Patrick JenningsJan 25, 20247:00 am

Storm Hardened

Some thought her broken
Even brittle

But all the brittle
Had broken away
In countless storms

What remained
Was hardened
Tenacious

She’d shed many facades
Until what was left
Was what she chose
To keep

She kept nothing
For perfunctory friendships
Or pettiness

Able to withstand any hardship
She chose carefully
What to stand for

And who

Content in gentleness
She suffered no one
Who drove hard upon her shores

If some thought
Walking away made her weak
She walked away
While they washed out to sea

Poetry by Patrick JenningsJan 24, 20247:00 am

Off Season Lobster Traps, White Point Harbour, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada

Waiting It Out

In the off season
Lobster traps wait in repose
Fishers count the days

Poetry by Patrick JenningsJan 23, 20242:57 pm

The Path Through Darkness

Stillness in dark, dense forest
Light trickles through the canopy
Enough to cast shadows of utter black
In near blackness

Trees and roots form vague outlines
A maze of a path
Upon a maze for footfalls

I stumble my way
In a direction which seems
Forward

Progress slow
Or futile
I do not know

No matter
If futile
Step back
Seek another path

In this sense
All paths lead to the light
Failure is to remain complacent
In the darkness

Poetry by Patrick JenningsJan 21, 20247:00 am

A Moment not in the Moment

I remind myself

A photograph is neither
A moment nor a place

Taking a photograph is neither
In the moment, nor the place
So I put down the camera

Take one breath
Then another

In the moment, and the place

Poetry by Patrick JenningsJan 20, 202412:43 pm

Penny Lane

Aground not grounded
Becoming one with the Earth
Ashes to Ashes

Poetry by Patrick JenningsJan 19, 20247:15 pm

Evolution’s Percolator

Where the wide of the sea
Finds the flat of the land
There the tide flows

I pick my way
Down mobile shore
Where life is lived in many worlds

In the shallows and the depths
And too this realm of barely land

Where creatures slither and scatter
Between the pools and rivulets

So I wonder

At all the possibilities life created here

Including me

Poetry by Patrick JenningsOct 8, 202311:14 am

Field of Canary Seed, Drinkwater, Saskatchewan, Canada

Seeds

Season of growth yields
Seeds of possibility
Harvest renewed hope

Poetry by Patrick JenningsOct 4, 202310:40 pm

The Straight Path

The master told her students
This is the path to enlightenment

“But it is so straight”, one replied

True, said the master

“I expected the path to be difficult!”

The straight path is difficult

“How can it be?
There are no mountain passes to find!
No intersections or forks to choose from!
No sharp curves to negotiate!”

Many students nodded their agreement

The master shook her head

The straight path is difficult because
You want to climb mountains
You expect there to be many paths to choose from
You believe there should be sharp changes in direction

One student had sat quietly through all this
Listening while looking straight down the long path
As far as she could see
Finally, she spoke

“Walking the straight path is impossible
For one who seeks insight
From every roadside attraction”

The master smiled
I am your student!

Poetry by Patrick JenningsOct 3, 202310:20 pm

From Peak to Valley, Yoho River, Yoho National Park, British Columbia, Canada

Peaks and Valleys

From peak to valley
He tumbled
A pebble
In the tumultuous runoff
Of his own emotions
Finally released
In the awakening spring
After a long, cold winter
Of isolated dissociation

He lay there
For a while
In the rocky bed
His torrent gouged
Through valley floor
Then stood
Shook off pain
Shouldered the burden
Of recovery

So began the work
To break new trail
Back to the peaks