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Summer Daydreaming
Click for meditationRegarding "Summer Daydreaming"
I love that little Maine
Beach where I found myself sitting
Last week! Every year it
Becomes my safe harbor to
Daydream, wonder, and reflect. No more
Than a quarter mile in length,
It points seaward into
The Gulf of Maine.
Cold the water is! Brrrr!
Healing! Rejuvenating!
And it seems that
Every year as I sit upon
That beach, a fog bank will
Regularly roll in, and a sailboat
Will come into view tacking
In and out of my sight.
I have a relationship
With that sailboat which is
Complicated to define.
It has so many different
Meanings to me, and each one
Is synonymous with
Various themes at work
In my life. One of the
Most important of these
Themes is the loosing of
An almost continual, merciful,
Thought-stream of verse
And stanza, which will
Slip in and out of my
Consciousness like that
Which tacks in an out of a
Marvelous coastal
Maine fogbank, and
Where on my last day
Sitting — it will disappear
Until next year…
Leo Carroll
August 20, 2019
Found
Like a sailboat my voice
Wafts, tacking into the wind, and
Then blithely disappears into the fog’s womb,
Where it soon re-emerges again…
It seems as if my speech has
Been released by the muse on
Behalf of merciful God, and verse and
Stanza have been loosed by
Healing spittle upon a
Tongue’s tied knot.
Sailing
It is as if
On that sailboat I found
My voice, and in and out of the fog tacked
Verse and stanza which
Had waited to be released for
Eons without choice.
“Heave into sight,” shouted
The First Mate, and from the crow’s nest
Then hollered down, “Nary a fear
Is in view, just whitecaps
And blue sky in natural union
Abounding.”
Embedded I Am
Click for meditationRegarding "Embedded I Am"
When I write, when
I garden, I become my poetry, I
Become my garden. I am
Synonymous with my
Verse and stanza,
I am synonymous with
The placement and choice
And color of my plants
And flowers.
I become what
I am creating, always
Evolving, editing, pruning,
Shaping, like someone on a
Pilgrim’s path, always
Influenced by the
Surprises, twists, and
Turns of what
Life has chosen to
Present. My poetry is
As if by the tides
Being polished,
My gardens are
Always being tilled,
And in God’s image
I am being rhythmically
Smoothed and
Rounded until …
Leo Carroll
July 17, 2019
Embedded I am, fitted
Like a puzzle piece into my garden,
Comfortable, under the
Sweet shade of a day lily and
On the sheltered side of
A leafy hosta’s pardon.
Daffodils
Click for meditationRegarding "Daffodils"
It came to me
That my own pilgrim’s path
Resembles the
Seasonal flow of my
Garden in a four-part act, with
The fresh growth of
Springtime’s hope and
Rebirth akin to my
Ever-evolving
Renewal, followed
By the endurance
Required in the summer
Heat of July…a
Metaphor for the
Endless twists and turns of
The human condition
As it sits the beach of
Low and high tides…
And then the final
Burst of color and beauty
In autumn, before
Plunging again
Into the deep sleep
Of winter, only to
Arise again in April,
Pointed and poised to
Resume my journey,
But always bowed by the
Growing pains of
Bloom in my
Season of change…
Leo Carroll
May 7, 2019
…One of the first
Fruits of spring — daffodils
Buttery-yellow and
Dangling from the
Ear lobes of morning —
And at their feet
In fealty, the remnants of a
Once-magnificent,
Autumn leaf, placed by
Winter’s wind and
Now a companion
And witness to
The fresh shoots
Of daylilies green,
And all of these
Stirrings staring into
The stoic eyes of
Garden stones, the
Singular thread
Stitching together
My rock garden
As my shifting
Seasons unfold…
Thicket
Click for meditationRegarding "Thicket"
A thicket, particularly
One in the middle of the woods,
Can be so intimidating
Because of the prospect of
Getting lost within it.
If you go in, you may not easily
Come out! It is common
To lose your bearings,
Even with a compass.
As an example, I was once
In a spruce thicket in
The Maine woods with
Someone else. He was no
More than 15 feet to my
Right, and we were
Both dressed in blaze-orange
Clothing. I lost sight of
Him! If it was not for
The fact I could hear him,
I would not have known
He was there! A thicket can
Be a metaphor for life —
Scary, daunting, confusing —
But, if you keep your
Head and stay calm, all should
Be alright. The old saying is,
“What doesn’t kill you
Makes you stronger.”
On the other side of a thicket
Comes a tremendous confidence
Boost upon exiting.
This also happens with
Major life events – death,
Divorce, job loss, illness, handicap,
Financial disaster, etc. These
Things are part of our pilgrim’s path.
They can be very painful,
But can lead to tremendous,
Personal character growth, just
Like leaving a thicket…
Leo Carroll
December 5, 2018
If I e’er
Entered this place,
Would I be
Able to find
My way back out,
Or would I get
Lost in a tangled
Maze of conflicting
Directions,
Decisions, and
Doubts, thus
Leaving me
Turned ’round
And ’round about, or
Would I be fine,
This apparent
Obstacle
But a further
Steppingstone
Along my
Winding
Path, and each
Straw-hued
Swamp
Stalk just a
Walking stick,
For me to depend
Up’n and to
Have…?
Sailboat
Click for meditationRegarding "Sailboat"
To be free,
To be carried by the wind
Uncaringly, to
Cast your lot with
Fate and to let the tides
Caress you with
No fear, because you
Have decided to
Be free, the air in your
Hair and the
Air imbibed like
Quenching, wheat beer…
Ah, yes, free,
Answering to no one
But Mariah the Wind, and she
Turns her gaze
Towards you and asks,
“Why not come
Here, where the sails
Are topped for your life
To live?”
Leo Carroll
July 9, 2018
There rides my
Daydream, sailing towards and
Away from me,
Gracefully,
Effortlessly,
And then gone it is
Beyond a jutting shoreline,
Where it disappears
For a moment behind
A teasing veil…but then back,
I see it, back, tacking
Towards a little
Summer isle, appearing
To slow offshore
A small, sandy beach,
Contemplating,
Pausing, deciding whether
To dip its masts
Towards me — and from
Afar show a
Promising smile!