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

The Birds of Christmas

Christmas Cardinal painting 2006

Lo the birds of Christmas

are searching for some seeds

on winter's frosty mornings

so remember nature's needs,

and toss a little fodder

to our feathered friends

in thankfulness for songs they sing

when this long winter ends.

~Kathie Adams Brown (December 9, 2004)

The Colors of Christmas