Bev Tappan

Category: Life’s Lesson Poems

Thoughts on life meaning

  • RIVERWOODS POEMS: DANCE TIME

    DANCE TIME

    There’s a time for Ring Around the Rosy,

    Musical chairs and Farmer in the Dell,

    And a time for jitterbug, electro-pop,

    Disco, Eurobeat, New Wave as well.

    And then we do the wedding march and waltz,

    Virginia Reel and polka and all that

    Or mambo, samba, tango, lindy et al.

    Before the final shuffle with the walker.

    So when the caller hails you to the dance floor

    Kick up your heels and swing your partner round.

    Promenade and bow and dos si dos.

    Make the most of your time on the ground

    Before the lights begin to turn down low,

    The Exit sign above the door to glow.

  • RIVERWOODS POEMS: ON A FRIGID MORNING

    ON A FRIGID MORNING

    They hang from the eaves like spikes

    The fingernails of old man winter,

    Translucent tapered icicles,

    A warning to stay inside.

    A blast of Arctic air

    Has caged us in our rooms

    Hoping the grid won’t fail,

    Fearful of roadside breakdowns.

    Some say our end is fire

    But we fear more the ice.

    We know how to deal with desire:

    Hypothermia’s not so nice

    Though if one must really go

    There are worse conveyors than snow.

  • RIVERWOODS POEMS: FALLING LEAVES

    FALLING LEAVES

    They lift and pirouette in the pulsing breeze,

    These brown and desiccated maple leaves,

    Dancing and leaping and twisting, a phantom crowd,

    Surrounding me and my car in a thickening cloud.

    They seem to have some message they want to convey;

    They seem to want me to stop while they have their say.

    I will slow my pace but I will not come to a halt,

    Whatever these autumn messengers foretell.

    Bare branches offer an unimpeded view

    Allowing the splendor of sunsets to come through.

    Snow-dusted branches also have their charm:

    Who strides on snowshoes easily keeps warm.

    At any time of the year I’ll keep journeying.

    The day has not yet come for tamely sitting.

  • RIVERWOODS POEMS: THE ECLIPSE

    THE ECLIPSE

    Three oldsters sit on a wall to watch

    The super moon’s eclipse, a sight

    They will not live to see again.

    The stars shine faint in the ebony night

    As a shadow darkens the moon’s left rim.

    This moon that bathes our faces with light

    And spotlights the jet plane streaking west

    In olden times would have filled with fright

    Our primitive ancestors’ childish hearts.

    A monstrous mouth they would have thought

    Was eating their beacon amidst the gloom.

    It is not without some dread we watch

    The red cloak spread across the moon.

    When barely a sliver of silver shows

    We rise and repair to our separate quarters.

    The next night we welcome the cheering glow

    Of an only slightly diminished goddess

    Who yet protects us from the dark.

  • RIVERWOODS POEMS: STARTING FROM SCRATCH

    STARTING FROM SCRATCH

    Bits and pieces, odds and ends,

    The Found Art sculptor rescues them

    From long discarded bowling pins

    Or Chinese combs or beaded etuis.

    Just so from stardust, we are told,

    From random protons and electrons,

    Were fashioned creatures new and old

    As chance and whimsy brought them forward 

    Jigsaw puzzles, each of us,

    Put together by Found Art,

    Disassembled for new purpose,

    Recreated part by part.

  • TAMWORTH POEMS: ON THE NIGHT OF THE FULL MOON

    ON THE NIGHT OF THE FULL MOON

    On the porch the women spoke

    Of goddesses and wonder.

    Behind the trees the moon arose

    In glowing orange splendor.

    From north and south and east and west

    They called for strength and power

    To meet life’s most exacting tests,

    Lighten life’s darkest hours.

    Then Luna, Goddess of the Moon,

    Rose queenly in the night

    To grant them her distinctive boon

    Of clear and healing light.

    She inspired them to journey on

    Casting impediments off,

    Aspiring to new horizons,

    Daring to venture forth.

  • RIVERWOODS POEMS: THOUGHTS ON A HORSESHOE CRAB SHELL

    THOUGHTS ON A HORESHOE CRAB SHELL

    Its carapace lies on the shore

    More ancient than the dinosaur.

    It spawned a hundred thousand roe

    A tasty treat, as Thai folk know,

    And food for heron, gull or tern

    Or any shallow water bird,

    A good arrangement all around

    To hold an overpopulation down.

    Phragmites, called the common reed,

    Can generate a million seeds

    Or send its runners all about

    To crowd its native neighbors out,

    Though grazing cattle can contain

    Its spread and keep the landscape sane.

    The pink wild rose stays in its place

    And does not seek to dominate

    While multiflora roses shoulder

    Their way around, forever bolder.

    What lessons can we humans take

    From other species’ use of space?

  • TAMWORTH POEMS: GRATITUDE

    GRATITUDE

    Flame azaleas by the pond,

    Redbud blooms have come and gone.

    A house finch pair are nesting here

    In my blue spruce another year.

    May’s full moon is safely past:

    We’ll put tomatoes out at last.

    Down the lake my kayak arrows;

    Tadpoles swarm within the shallows.

    I thank whatever gods there be

    For good health and longevity.

  • RIVERWOODS POEMS: THE WEIGHT OF WINTER

    THE WEIGHT OF WINTER

    The spruce is still bowed down by snow

    Below my north-facing window.  Its limbs

    Droop sadly, unable to bear the load

    Of yesterday’s twenty-four hour storm.

    Yet across the road the pines have risen

    Branch by branch, shaking off their burdens

    As sun and breeze set them free until

    They stand tall again, undiminished,

    Proud to have weathered another of winter’s

    Relentless assaults, green and regal.

    I think how much difference a little sunlight,

    A little warmth, can make in a life.

  • POETRY ASSIGNMENT: WHAT A WORK OF ART SAYS TO YOU

    THE OSAKA VASE

    The lamplight glides off the sloping sides

    Of the blue-gray stoneware Osaka vase.

    My daughter, the potter, had asked advice

    From her teacher with the long black hair

    And gentle hands on how to inscribe

    In vertical kanji a plea for peace

    Inspired by her Hiroshima pilgrimage.

    This old vase of some thirty years

    Has suffered breakage and repairs.

    Equally old are the skeletal stalks

    Of the dried flowers and reeds it holds

    Which we found in the Victorian home

    A block or two from our children’s school.

    It sends a mute and ancient message

    Still falling on deaf human ears.

  • TAMWORTH POEMS: HIS EYE IS ON THE SPARROW

    HIS EYE IS ON THE SPARROW

    This morning before the service began,

    With caution and care and celerity

    Lyn captured a bee on the coffee stand

    And carefully gave it its liberty,

    Freeing it from its glass enclosure

    Over the rail of the little back porch.

    Though fearful of bee stings and fatal reactions,

    She practiced Schweitzer’s reverence for life,

    Which later proved an apt introduction

    To the blessings of the animals rite:

    A concept which folks would do well to extend

    To all of their dealings with fellow men.

  • TAMWORTH POEMS: A POEM FOR OUR CHURCH WATER COMMUNION SERVICE

    ON WATER

    What can we say,

    What can we not say,

    About water?

    Water, water everywhere.

    As foetuses

    Afloat in the uterus,

    Cradled and comforted

    By water

    We are in our element.

    It is our only element.

    Seawater runs in our veins.

    Not wine but water

    Is the elixir of life,

    Adam’s ale,

    Without which we mummify

    Into leathery dried sticks.

    Without water

    Our blue planet

    Becomes a desert.

    And water transports us.

    It floats our boats.

    We see it flow

    From our mountains to our seas

    And we know

    That we are on a journey.

    We are on life’s journey

    Back to the sea our mother,

    Back to the single cells

    That merged into our selves,

    Becoming one with the universe,

    Becoming one with the water.