A Walk on a Rainy Autumn Night in New England

Wet leaves plastered to sleek shining pavement

Yellow light splashing a golden path

Moist-earthy-leaf smell wafting around me

While dark shadows dance in the nearby woods

I hear the steady hum of traffic out on the street

As I walk through the night

I keep following my feet.

~Kathie Adams Brown (October 27, 2010)

I Got Lost in my Day Today

I got lost in my day today
amidst rain drops
and grackles on the lawn,
and phone calls
and chats with friends,
then the landlord came by
and fixed a broken light
while I warmed beef stew for lunch
on the old gas stove.

I looked at the bright orange carrots
floating in the steamy broth
with potatoes and bits of beef
before gobbling it all down
warm in my belly
a defense against this cold wet day.

It is autumn here
and the rusty leaves are falling
thick as rain drops
and the chickadees are calling
outside my window
and suddenly night has fallen
and I wonder where the day went-

A day full of details tiny and sweet
Added together they fill the space
Between rising
and falling asleep.

~Kathie Adams Brown (October 27, 2010)

Monument in the Park

As a child I crossed the road
to the Civil War Monument
in the park across the street
from my grandparents house
where my siblings and I
rolled giggling down the green slopes
that raised the stone soldier
to the sky

names chiseled into the sides
have become lichen-covered,
faded, and forgotten
the slopes seem more gentle now
and not nearly as high

are all monuments like this
created in moments of grief
to honor the dead
who fought for us
and now
generations later
while a new war rages
and our children play on green slopes
will we remember our soldiers
and build new monuments to them

I don't want a monument.
I just want them all to come home safely
and watch their children play
on green slopes.

~Kathie Adams Brown (September 28, 2010)

One Single Impression Prompt 135: Monument

September Pond

The silence of a September pond
rippling like molten lead,
cool as an autumn breeze,
embraced by trees,
velvety evergreens,
yellow-coined birches, alder, oak,
red-spangled maples,
reflected in still waters
where
a lone water lily
a white flame on a wet lily-pad floor
opens to the rain,
silver droplets falling to its center,
opening its heart,
opening my heart
to receive this autumn day,
this stormy silence.

~Kathiesbirds (September 28, 2010 Babcock Pond, Colchester, CT)

September Ocean

It has been so long since waves
have pounded their sweet song in my ears,
since sea gulls have gathered in the sky or on the sand,
since sea shells have collected beneath my feet.
White foam reaches for my soles
I giggle at the feel of salty wetness caressing my toes,
clouds of gray-steel-blue crumple overhead
with curtains of light streaming through.
The beach is vacant save for those few
who treasure this autumn ocean mood,
this solitude, this ocean song
that dances through my being once again.

~kathie adams brown 9-17-10

A Poem From my Hotel at Night

And the light on the trees at night is silver
when Orion sails through the sky,
while the tires of trucks hum on the highway
as the night is passing by,
and I in my hotel room am dreaming
of places I've yet to see,
in this little town next to the highway
with my love cuddled next to me.

~Kathie Adams Brown 9-16-10 @ 2:45 a.m. Methuen, MA

Poet's Song

Give me a word and I’ll write you a poem,
Send me a thought
And I will create
Line upon line,
Rhyme upon rhyme,
Meter upon meter,
Or not.

Poetry is in my soul
And I will sing her song until I die.

~Kathie Adams Brown (October, 20, 2009)

The Wild Wind

The wild wind is calling me
I need to go outside
The restless wind is beckoning
I have to know just why
Without a thought my feet rush out
And I am following
This inner urge that drives me out;
This heart cry,
This wildness,
This wilderness inside.

~Kathie Adams Brown (October 20, 2009)

You are Always There to Love Me

You are always there to love me,
You are my soft place to fall,
I swim in your love like an ocean

Gently rocking me,
Gently rocking me,
Softly calling me

Home to your heart.

~Kathie Adams Brown 5-4-09

Questioning Robert Frost On This Road

We all know the adage of “The Road Not Taken,”
The poems and stories written that use this metaphor,
But what of when the road is real
And you are peering down its stony path and wondering
If you should follow where the road leads
Or strike out on your own?
There are no prophets here
To predict what lies ahead,
The decision is my own
And I must take the steps
This is not a metaphor,
this is my life,
and it is all about to change
on this road.

~kathie adams brown (7-9-10)

OSI Prompt 123: Roads

Floating Through the Night Sky

Floating
In the white light
Climbing the stars to heaven
Black velvet encompasses me
And I drift
Among the planets
I slide down the milkyway
And ride a comet through the sky
‘till I land on the crescent moon
And rock myself to sleep.
~Kathie Adams Brown (5-16-10)

OSI Prompt 117: Floating
 
(Poet's note: I know I am way behind and these poems are out of order. I am trying to get caught up and publishing whatever inspires me.)

My Daughter Rides

Some dreams are born
While we are young
And never fulfilled,
They are passed on
To our offspring
And so my daughter rides
The horses I once dreamed of
And I watch in wonder as
She moves in harmony
With the creature of my dreams
The horse I so desired,
But, I am not jealous
Nor filled with regret
Her dream is now fulfilled,
And I am content.

~Kathie Adams Brown (May 16, 2010)

OSI Prompt 118: LOVE

About My Brother

Some cracks start small as fissures
In a family
and widen into gaps
decades long
and a continent wide
Until the person you once knew
becomes a stranger
or an unknown soul
Connected only by blood
and DNA.
and the uncomfortable canyon
becomes normal
-not a place you dwell in,
but a rim you live on
and every now and then
gaze across and wonder
about the person
on the other side.

~kathie adams brown (May 16, 2010)

One Single Impression Prompt 113: fissures

Throw Away Your Mask

Do I really need the finer things in life?
Are the finest things material and manmade?
Will a fancy car, the right house, the right address really
Make me happy,
Fill the gap, span the great divide?
Are diamonds really a girl’s best friend?
Or is it all a mask,
A finely woven web
To deceive ourselves
That we are alive
and not dead?

The natural world around us
Gently sings her song
Calling me to come and play,
Calling me to run away,
From all the entanglements
And fancy trappings
Of a culture built on consumption.

Throw away your mask,
Don your woodland garb,
Come dance a moonlit dance
Amoungst the trees!
Hear the merry brook,
Singing you her song,
Hear the whisper of the wind in the trees!
Throw away your mask,
Don’t let it make you hide
Throw away your mask
And find yourself outside!

~Kathie Adams Brown (4-20-10)

One Single Impression Prompt 112: Mask

My poem for OSI Prompt 116: Trembling can be seen at Sycamore Canyon, Disaster in the Gulf

The Churches Stood

Oklahoma City National Memorial 3-19-10 (photo by Gusto!)

The churches stood in golden sunlight

on an ordinary day

and felt the force of anger

tear all those lives away

the steeples pierced the sky

to show the souls the way

to enter heaven's glory

while others had to stay

and weep 1000 tears

while others watched and prayed

for all the families hurt

by the violence of that day

A nation stood united

against that kind of hate

a memorial was built

to commemorate that date

when love was stronger than

the force of such despair

when people came together

to mark what happened there.


~kathie adams brown (6-27-04)

The chairs of the Oklahoma City National Memorial 3-19-10 by Gusto!

(Each chair represents a person who was killed in the bombing.)

The Thrush and I

American Robin at Cienega Creek Preserve 2-19-10

Photo by Kathiesbirds

Alone in the woodland the thrush and I
Seek refuge
We pause and listen
Waiting for sound
Waiting
To hear the earth move
Amidst white bones
And gold coins
Rattling
And crunching
We breathe one breath
We think
One thought:
Home.

~kathiesbirds (2-20-10)
OSI Prompt: Gold

Yeah, I Blew the Curve

But since we are reminiscing

And talking about blowing the curve

I can well remember the day I did

And the crash, the smash, the shattered glass

The unconsciousness of it all

The struggle to release myself

The struggle to be free

Before the car blew up

For that’s all I knew from the movies.

I was only just learning to drive

Had my learner’s permit

And the experienced driver sat near the door

And the other young man sat in-between

And fiddled with the radio and fought with me as I

turned the knobs, as I

turned the corner

as the licensed driver

reached across us both

and grabbed the wheel and

turned it!

Turned into a rock wall

That didn’t give an inch

And the other driver of the other car

A 70 year old man

Smashed!

 Into us

Smashed!

 into his windshield

Smashed!

His face.

We all stumbled out

Into silence. 

Dazed silence.

And then, sirens!

Wailing, screaming, and rushing in!

How I clung to the ambulance workers,

How I clung on for dear life!

The ambulance came and whisked me away

To intensive care

With my liver ruptured and bleeding. 

Yeah, I blew the curve,

but not without help

 and not without consequences

That linger.

~Kathie Adams Brown (2-1-10)

OSI Prompt: Blowing the curve