Avery Veils Venus

Twirling like Sufis the snowflakes flew like Olympian Messengers 
Hailing Centaur’s fiery confusion to reign a fortnight and a half

Mercury stands still within the archers field tonight

A Poem : "RARE RED RULES OCTOBER LONGWOOD"

Dahlia rules October blooms

Red heads show off fancy cloaks 

Fingers of fluffy petals point wildly

Mexican Bush Sage explodes purple spikes

Violet velvet villifies challenging growth

Surrendering, Coleus surrounds

With growths of ruffled leaves

Labyrinths of color intertwine

Chartreuse mingling with plum waves 

Toward the knolls of lush grassy green

Tall Caribbean Copper plants drop back

Sherry colored Sentinels not to be outdone

Murmur amidst warning autumn winds

Mounded dollops of burgundy Mums 

Lush inheritance serenely astonishing

Proud majesty humbly awaits it’s court

Polished paprika Peppers pose

Amongst the brandied Mums 

Trumpets of Cuphea, like cardinal heads 

Dangle over coral Lantanna

Cigars of flaming red billow pollen

Amongst Red Globe Amaranth

Sumptuously scattering seed

Sowing their futures together

Asparagus Ferns with their fronds of plumes

Coax a flush of holly red beries that surprise

Languishing Rose Molloy Hibiscus

Whose florid blooms beckon butterflies

Vermilion double blossomed begonias 

Plushly adorn an undulating carpet of rubicond petals

As of yet untarnished by the fall of leaves

© copyright 2018 Maria Carmichael DeSalvo

A Poem: "Listen"

Listen !

Can you hear nothing?

The gift of stormy snow

While I listen others must go

The low-pressure will take some stellar bound

While I listen to a wold without sound

Hark!

My heart cries for this

My body eases into slow

My breath abates as some souls go

The earth is frozen silent as my eyes melt into my ears

Strange how a world without sound calms my fears

A Poem: The Rainbow

Making a Wish on the Rainbow

Some loved ones are no longer below

Shedding skin their Spirit glows 

They sit at the same table tonight

Wondering at the Ides of March plight

Listening to their  children's music with delight

A new painting and a song is made tonight

Play compose paint and be you 

For that is what a great parent wants you to do!

Like ephemeral fleeting flames

Mother Earth decorates and reclaims

Frozen time encapsulates

Truly though God Recreates

Life, fickle like a passing storm

We have done this before

This is the norm

But still we feel the icy chill

Loss becomes our boss

Until time heals all!

A Poem: "One After The Other"

Trees like ghostly skeletons posing on the snow

Their quaking brown branches iced from below 

Gauzy shadows dancing in the dark

The eerily silent night seems quite stark

The crescent moon in hiding

Makes my fear worth chiding

This house of stone and mortar

Makes us notice our lives are like the water

No hands can hold them in a clutching grasp and a

Beloved Soul Departs with one last great gasp 

The vastness of space without moonlight 

Glowing pasty white through the night 

Has no cares or wanton desires of decay

Matters not how much we love

On Earth We cannot choose to stay 

A Poem "Avatars of Spring"

Avatars of Spring

Winter Storm Toby or not Toby

Whatever they call nor’easter 4

It’s Franken-spring and snowy

Having travelled to Philly at its start

It’s clear it’s not the usual 

Not for weak of heart

Another Love taken in rapture

Amidst turmoils, the Reapers surprise

Loving flesh taken back to pasture 

Grief darkens this somber snow

The thief of night delivered a shock

So soon, a second Mom to go? 

As the celestial equator changed its tilt

The Heavens called one more Love

Back to be enfolded in the stellar quilt

Leaving the children confounded 

This haunting dagger feeling

Surreal, unsteady and ungrounded 

Causing questions and uneasiness

Un-halting replays of cherished moments and

Lifeless form give rise to a certain queasiness

For loss, we are never ready

Especially when its all at once

Multiple shocks leave us unsteady

Beware beware The Ides of March

The SouthEast hurled a ball of white

Swirling murky clouds of thunder into the night

The strongest March nor’aster

“Skylar” brewed as Heaven

Called Mother during pre-Easter

Causing A white out in Maine

A blizzard in New England

In the NorthEast, a storm of pain

A nor’ester is when two storms collide

This truly was a “parent storm”

Warm meets cold and no longer thrives

Our human mystique illusion stole

Our flesh but turns to ash and

Misfortune takes its toll

Now Mom is a glowing star

Skylar took her stellar

Amidst the heavens not so far

We falter, we grieve, we console

Prayer cloaks us in virtue so

We give gratitude for this soul

The vernal equinox

Mercury’s in retrograde and

Fate delivers hard harsh knocks

©2018 Maria Carmichael DeSalvo

A Poem : "The Ceasing"

The Ceasing

My brittle bones breakable 

As fine porcelain

I wonder at my advancing age

In the late-middle of life 

My blight stained past calls upon me 

To acknowledge the treasure in my midst 

Appreciate the pearls within my dome

To fan the flame of Prometheus

Our parents frailty and demise

Is but a thin disguise

Of angst that lurks within the dark 

Gossamer and shiny brittle and briny 

Are the tears upon my cheek

Reflections of Life’s illusions

As hummingbirds dwindle 

With the vapor of a cooling breeze

Earth knows not this ceasing

Humans pretend to forget 

Until times ravages catch them off guard

The final curtains drawn 

Upon the leaders of our clan

Only in a dream does time stop

So stop wishing for fairy tales to begin

Eventually winter’s frosty hands

Etch the creases in our face

No fleeting wish can melt them

Charms beguiled our songs 

Begin to crumble as the castle

Breaks upon the dawn

copyright ©2018 Maria Carmichael DeSalvo

NorEaster Number Three

Today is a day off for many schools in my area, just as yesterday was.  Quinn,  a nor'easter storm laden with heavy snow and moisture targeted our foothills like a bulls eye and carved a swath of air to call it's own for the entire afternoon and early evening as it morphed into a bomb cyclone covering us with two feet of snow.

On the heels of a severely damaging storm, a nameless howling nor'easter not even a week out to sea, Quinn was feared and unwelcome by the vast majority who were still without power.  Woe for those who had tragedy beset them and blessings to all who have and are suffering.  My heart goes out to you.

I was fortunate enough to arrive in the sunshine state with my husband and the musician friends he was to perform with just before nor'easter number 2 slammed into the area.  We were all fortunate to  arrive safely home before number 3 cancelled all flights. But that was by the grace of fate, as this trip had already been postponed by the first nor'easter of the year, a bomb cyclone, two months ago. Dealing with the flight cancellations was time consuming but nothing compared to those who have suffered severe losses.

Confessing to childlike wonder, a snowstorm that doesn't wreak havoc in my life, quickens my senses and leaves me feeling alive and in the hands of God. Mother Nature inspires such reverence and awe.
When unscathed by natural disaster, one can appreciate the beauty and revel in the downtime, which must seem so unfair to those reeking with anger whilst reeling in darkness and cold not to be consoled. This juxtaposition seems to be a brushstroke of humanity.  The polarity of the haves and the have nots can embroil even reasonable souls to mutiny and treachery.  Witnessing the current political climate as well as the change in the global warming has incited many to take action or feel victimized.

The continual sky-clouders darken our skies so perpetually that to see a blue sky makes me want to drop everything and run outside. This subject has seemed so taboo I don't even get a response from most people. It frightens and scares because no one knows what those skyc-louders are painting the sky with. But I wonder, has anyone noticed the eerie blue color carved within the mountains of snow?

So please see my poem of wonder inspired by the bright blue sky and the impossible to recreate color show.  Go to Maria Carmichael Poems at padmariacarmichaelblogspot.com.