Picture-Inspired Poetry

One droplet  -  One ocean
One raindrop  -  One storm
One grain -  One beach
One blade  - One meadow
One tree  -  One forest
One person  -  One nation
One creature  -  One biosphere
One molecule  -  One universe
One perspective  -  One omniscience
One moment  -  One eternity

One.

The night sky cloaked the lake
Clouds lazed on the horizon
My eyes searched for the color
Silence, Familiar lights, Shallow waves licked the shore

Slowly, the hues changed
A small patch, faint, amoeba-like in its movement
Grew
Brightened
Widened
Awakening the molecules above me

And colors began to dance. 

A slow ballet of greens 
Like musical notes in the night sky
Stanzas of poetic color
Tiptoed from west to east 

Crescendoing across the sky
Filling the vast emptiness with shafts of light
Dripping neon on the canvas of the sky

Chords of red stole in from the west
Pulsing waves above the reflections below
Colors danced together as partners
Choreographed by some unseen conductor

In silence I absorbed the symphony
In awe of the ballad above me
My soul rose to join the concert
And for a time I was less than a speck
Merged with the grandeur of the world around me

Momentary statue

Perfectly still but for the breeze in its feathers
Regal, mesmerizing
Watching, listening, being
Teaching
May I be somewhat like you

Enjoying a solitary paddle
I float among the water lilies
Mesmerized
Water droplets cover the petals like a beautiful rash
Flies bask in the cover of a sepal
Light reflections kiss the water's surface with stars
Yet this beautiful scene in nature
Marred by a wisp of oil
A tiny slick snakes across the surface
Tentacles encircling the flowers and leaves
Obstructing the view through the clear water below
My thoughts turn to the creatures that call this lake their home
Saddened by the impact
We have on the life around us
Adding to their struggle for survival
Yet most of us don't struggle like these creatures do

Waking up in the winter solstice
Long nights missing light
Reluctant to leave my cocoon of sheets
I open my eyes
To a beautiful sky
Still dark
But the darkness awakens me
Stirs something inside
Quiet beauty, I gaze at the crescent above me
The Wink in the sky holds secret promises
Of seasons changing
Sunlight’s return
I snap a photo or two
To remember the feeling
As the moon’s wink fades
Into a new sunrise.

We move freely
Experience individually
Feel singly
Choose independently

Yet we are never alone

Journey separately
Sing solo
Suffer exclusively
Die apart

Yet we are all joined

As wisps of smoke
Twining lives together
In this world and others
Joined by
Silver strings

Relativity
All depends on our view
Perspective
Time and place
Need a starting point
Eternity has no such point
Eternity is not a line
Marching from one point to another
No map from one location to another
On Earth
We see relatively
How will we see in Heaven?

We are here
To create and experience
All life has that purpose
Sometimes we create in concert
Sometimes experience solo
But it is a fundamental need
And if we neglect these
We are unhappy
Stagnated
These two goals
Mandate change
So all things must eventually change
If we are to keep creating and experiencing
This is why art touches our souls
Experiencing new creations
Music
Life
Relationships
These have so much joy for us
Because they allow us to fulfill this purpose
Sorrow creeps in
When we cease to notice and participate
Though sorrow is an experience as well
It is a part in the dance
Soak it all in
For we are part of that change
Another’s creation
Another’s experience
Enjoy the symphony
We cannot fail to be part of it
Though we can fail to notice.

How perfect nature is

I saw a beautiful flower

Huge

White petals in beautiful curves

Nibbled by some unseen enemy

Until I looked closer

The culprit

A green beetle

Making a living the only way he knew how

As I looked closer

He too had an unseen enemy

Camouflaged beneath a petal

Beautiful, graceful, and terrifying

With a body plump as a ripe blueberry

White as the flower she hid beneath

With two mesmerizing pink stripes on her sides

I watched her

As this ingenious creature of nature

Seized upon her victim

How perfect the circle of it all

These masterpieces of nature

Spider that needed the beetle

Which needed the flower

Which needed the sun, the rain, the soil

The ruin of the flower a necessary part of the spider’s survival

And even of it’s own survival

Attracting the beetle for its own procreation

As the insects that visit carry away pollen

The beetle using the flower

The flower using the beetle

The spider using the flower to get the beetle

How each part of the spectrum

Is vital to the dance

Life only possible with each element

Perfect

Too often we wish away the ugly, the tragic, the unsightly

But without every part

The others cease to exist.