Rainy Night

Rain has washed the city
Leaving streets slick
City lights
Look brighter
As the rainy haze lifts

The ground drinks
Feeding the grass
Once winter white
Then sepia spring
Now green growth appears

April showers
To end the month
I am looking to May
With hopes of flowers
And sun to warm them

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And here ends my month of poems - it has been quite a challenge. There are some I feel good about - others missed the mark. But each has been a way to push me to write, to imagine and to share.

Now I am hoping for that May weather so I can get out more with my camera and concentrate on the photographs.

Glass

Glass blowers like alchemists
Transform one thing into another
Melting glass until it flows
They blow in life
To create new forms

Heating and cooling
Twisting turning
Shaping
Adding layers of colour
A thing of beauty emerges
Each piece unique




Transparent opalescent
With a lightness
Forged in hot furnaces
Each glass artist
Finds his style
Beauty born of fire

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The bottom piece was bought at Robert Held's studio some 35 years ago. You can read about glassblowing from his web site

Books

I love to dive into a book
Mostly fiction
Explore ideas
Visit other cultures
And linger over
Well-chosen words

My library is brimming
With stories, mysteries,
Misadventures
And tales of the  lives
Of those who have gone before

I can pore over an atlas
Imagining great adventures
Or visit the work of artists
And try to see the world
Through their eyes
One shelf is full of advice
Psychology for living

Trees flowers stars
A book for each
And photographs to
Wonder at this world of ours

My tablet is my new library
An annex to these shelves
I can carry with me
The Complete Works of Shakespeare
Or my latest books to read

I'm not ready to give up
On real world books
Turning pages
Or just flipping through
Always new discoveries
And a reason to stop a while
Time to go read

Coffee

A post dinner coffee
Finer than dessert
The frothy milk
Feels like decadence
An end to a meal
With time to linger

A morning jolt
To start the day
I like mine dark
Corse and bitter
Fair trade
Rich taste

No hundred mile
Diet for me
My coffee needs to travel
Its aroma fills my kitchen
One of life's simple pleasures

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for an ode to coffee, listen to Bach's Coffee Cantata
and here are the lyrics with English translation

Spring Rain

Outside the spring rain falls
Working its magic
Greening the grass
Winter's dirt begins to wash away
The air smells fresh

Inside I sip my tea
And bury my nose in a book
Alice Monroe for company
Simple pleasures
On a dreary day

Outside the buds begin to burst
Hints of leaves to come
All around
Growth is speeding up

Inside I wrap a blanket
Around my shoulders
Pour another cup
A day for slowing down

Changes

I'm feeling dated
I lived through avocado green
A mixer sat on my counter
Beside my harvest gold stove

Almond was a relief
From those murky shades
For my next kitchen
I happily bought white appliances

A riot of colour is back
As silicone tools take over
I balk at this brilliant rainbow
Reminiscent
of clothes I wore in the seventies

My metal appliances
and wooden spoons
Sit proudly on my counter
No need to change
I know this is just a passing fashion

Stumped

Searching for my muse
I wander the neighbourhood
Looking for inspiration
Some days I'm stumped

I have extolled the welcome spring
Waxed poetic over new arrivals
Birds and flowers
Marvelled at music

I play around with words
Is lack of muse amusing?
No wit, no gems
That percolate

A day without Erato
To stimulate my pondering
Perchance she'll visit later
To illuminate my wandering