Eight Years On
How can I write when
My words rise and get jammed
In my dam of grief
©️ Ellen Apple
2 April 2025
Spring erupts in my world
Clouds of gold
Layers of purple
Somulence seeps in
Through cracks
Crevices
Felt
Yet unseen
©️Ellen Apple
03 April 2025
I have never been good at
Staying in my lane
Coloring inside the lines
Going with the flow
I am much better at
Forging a new path
Doodling in the margins
Making waves
But those are not bad things
Just me things
And if I'm not mistaken
They are you things too
Because those constructs
Constrict
And dear one
We are meant to
Soar
©️Ellen Apple
04 April 2025
Wisteria gracefully draped
Waltzing in a gentle spring breeze
Daffodils greet in a gloriously staggered row
Cannas emerge from their wintry nap
Elephant Ears unfurling
Ah April is in my yard
©️Ellen Apple
6 April 2025
🎐 chimes sing
🐶 puppy snoozes
😺 kitty stretches
Ah
Sunday
©️Ellen Apple
07 April 2025
My heart is storing
Placards on my life calendar
"Yesterday was Birthday of..."
"It has been X years since..."
And they increase in number and weight as I am increasing in age and memories
©️Ellen Apple
08 April 2025
It was1986 and April
When my father went ahead
On or about this date
He was laid to rest
Snow flurried in my
Appalachian mountains
That day
Sure would be nice to hear
"Bertie" in his baritone
Just one more time
Hug them
Love them
None of us live forever
©️Ellen Apple
10 April 2025
Quietude descends
Blanketing cacophony
Muting discord
©️Ellen Apple
11 April 2025
I walk with long strides
Curl my lip cock my left brow
I am Poss's daughter
©️Ellen Apple
12 April 2025
Þhêŕè āřĕ mæņý wàªý§
Ťœ ñøț bə ćľeàř
But love is always understood
©️Ellen Apple
The Time In-between
That liminal place
Twixt here and there
Almost now yet
Not quite then
Gloaming of the 'eve
Breaking of the morn
Halcyon Days
When the kingfisher reigns
The time in-between
Perhaps we may
Or yet may not
Find each other then
Again
© Ellen Apple
13 April 2023
13 April 2025
I have had a weepy day
As many of my beloved dead
Have detoured my way
Roger and Chuck and Momma and Daddy
Even my first husband Moe and my brother Larry
I've been working on some emotional spring cleaning
Trying to get rid of the doldrums
But keeping the deeper meanings
I often scatter my mental detritus liberally amongst my meanderings
So I thought more manageable scoops might be a pleasant change
Thus I am settling some regrets and polishing up the glimmer
Trying to make my emotional baggage a wee bit slimmer
©️Ellen Apple
14 April 2025
yellow daffodils
nodding and seabreezes flowing
at suns arrival
showers were then gently ebb
ancient dance celebrates life
©️Ellen Apple
15 April 2025
A Healing Moment
Close you eyes release
All stress and anxiety
As I hold you close
And we just relax for now
We just hugged each other
©️Ellen Apple
16 April 2025
Time is a wee bit tricky
I have discovered
An ebb a flow
A pull a push
Ohh too soon
Not soon enough
Savoring is not easy
Let it flow
Let it go
To hold to it akin to
Holding starlight
In my hand
Only I ever know it was there
Yet I am not quite certain
©️Ellen Apple
17 April 2025
A Haiku:
Beaming sunlight splashes
Wren song in the mimosa
Bring calm of spirit
A Lune:
Distant traffic hum
Broken by
Roosters loud call
An American Sentence:
searching for hope when discord and suspicion easily overwhelm
©️Ellen Apple
18 April 2025
A lot can be learned
Whilst living with cats
Don't tarry overlong after eating
Check frequently on the wellbeing of your house mates and monitor their bodily functions and ablution
Being an official taster doesn't include actually tasting but requires placing the nose directly on the food or in the beverage
The best naps are taken mid-day in sunlight beaming through a window by a bed
You can heal unseen hurts and trauma with cuddles
©️Ellen Apple
19 April 2025
wind-chimes
sing
invocation
©️Ellen Apple
20 April 2025
When I was a wee lass
With a Toni perm and pretty dress
My big sister donned in cardigan
We both wore startled gazes
All dressed up for Easter eggs
And çhocolate bunnies
That would magically appear when we returned
Sunday School was always first
*this picture was taken on an Easter morning, I think it was 1964. We had hats that year, too. Mine was a 'sailors hat' with an elastic that fit under my chin so I wouldn't lose it. My dress was brown, with a border of rainbow rickrack around the hem.
©️Ellen Apple
21 April 2025
In lieu of my daily poem
"Rivers do not drink their own water; trees do not eat their own fruit; the sun does not shine on itself and flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves. Living for others is a rule of nature. We are all born to help each other. No matter how difficult it is …. life is good when you are happy, but much better when others are happy because of you."
Remembering my mother, Janet Marie Slade was Smith, January 9, 1933 ~ April 21, 2019.
I did not write the above, nor did Pope Francis, though it has been attributed to him. Sources indicate it may have roots in the Vedas. The Vedas are the oldest and most revered religious texts of Hinduism.
I appreciate the text and spirit of this quote because it speaks to the lessons we three Smith siblings learned by living with examples given daily by both Momma and Daddy. They were loving, caring, family and community minded people. At both of their wakes and funerals the number of people who mourned them was humbling.
May this day, and each that follows, be one of joy, love, community, and
service for each of you.
22 April 2025
(Today is Earth Day)
We have bones
Gaia has stones
We have blood
Gaia has water
We have skin
Gaia has soil
We have hair
Gaia has trees
We breathe oxygen
Gaia gives us oxygen
We eat food to grow
Gaia grows the food we eat
We need Gaia
We are of Gaia
We would not be were
Gaia not a willing host
©️Ellen Apple
23 April 2025
thick air
cloying humidity
heavy thunderstorms
summer's here already?
©️Ellen Apple
24 April 2025
Where lies the line
Between literal and ethereal
Is it a scar from words
Cutting a tender mind
Or a salve soothing
The just scraped knee
Is it hope
Is it resignation
Where lies the line
In you?
©️Ellen Apple
25 April 2025
my afternoon happy place
having a lay down
with my cats
©️Ellen Apple
26 April 2025
plaintive cries
from the hallway
velcro kitty calls
©️Ellen Apple
27 April 2025
in the gloaming of today
i sit and refect
on my actions
were they
enough
©️Ellen Apple
28 April 2025
Returning the
Here and now
From a whirlwind
Journey to the
There and when
Leaves me
In a daze
Where book intoxication
Holds sway
©️Ellen Apple
29 April 2025
yearning for what was not
regretting what actually was
our minds reconstruct
so easily
memories
©️Ellen Apple
30 April 2025
dream is done
song is sung
new one begun
©️Ellen Apple
