The Music
A novel through sound Prelude It’s three-thirty in the morning and we’re far underground in one of the deepest trenches of the Pacific Ocean. A hole has been drilled down through the ocean floor and a…
Sonnet
from Lays of Melpomene, 1824 Lyre of my Love! for many a lonely hour Thou hast breathed music o’er my sinking mind And I have sought thee, when the world unkind Crushed my fond hopes, in…
Change on Change
Three months ago, the stream did flow, The lilies bloomed along the edge; And we were lingering to and fro,— Where none will track thee in this snow, Along the stream, beside the hedge. Ah! sweet,…
I Will Remember This Day
I will remember this dayJust like almost any day That my tears fell like rainMy heart was full of painShe brought along her babyAs if to say, maybe.But, then she laid with me upon my bed…
Leisure
What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare. No time to stand beneath the boughs And stare as long as sheep or cows. No time to see, when…
Nature
Nature rarer uses yellow Than another hue; Saves she all of that for sunsets— Prodigal of blue, Spending scarlet like a woman, Yellow she affords Only scantly and selectly, Like a lover’s words. Photo by…
Disputed Tread
Where she steps a whir, Like dust about her feet, Follows after her Down the dustless street. Something struggles there: The forces that contend Violently as to where Her pathway is to end. Issues, like great…
The Use Of Life
“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means…
One Circle More
Is the spiral the shape of life? From our DNA to galaxies, spirals permeate nature at every level. Spirals are found in algae, flowers, pine cones, shells, vines. Nature often moves in spirals — draining water,…
Voices of the Air
But then there comes that moment rare When, for no cause that I can find, The little voices of the air Sound above all the sea and wind. The sea and wind do then obey And…
Voices of Earth
We have not heard the music of the spheres, The song of star to star, but there are sounds More deep than human joy and human tears, That Nature uses in her common rounds; The fall…
Singing Waters
A selection of poems from Johnette’s spring 2022 release Singing Waters, A Selection of Haiku, Senryu, and Haibun roofers next door their shadows work on my house gathering sea shells one moves in my pocket tide…
Love our Ukraine
This poem expresses Ukrainian’s love for their Motherland and helps others understand the “true Ukrainian soul.” Love our Ukraine Love our Ukraine, as the sun loves her As the wind, the grass, the waters Love her…
“Zapovit” and “I care not if it’s in Ukraine”
Taras Shevchenko (1814 – 1861) is one of Ukraine’s most beloved figures — poet, writer, artist, activist, folklorist, ethnographer. His poem “Zapovit” is so well known in Ukraine that it is second only to Ukraine’s national…
The End and the Beginning
Anyone who has experienced war, or even a natural disaster, knows it doesn’t end when the bombs stop falling or the rain stops or the wind stops blowing. That is the message of poet Wislawa Szymborska…