Spring brings new life

​The thrill of early spring grows green and lush

Birds sing their songs,

New growth bursts forth in its full glory,

Signs of life are everywhere. 

Robin’s voices trill through the air

Filling the silence with song

Sweet choirs take wing.

Birds sing their songs.

My heart has been tilled

Old, dead ideas plowed under.

New, fresh ideas are planted and nurtured.

Soon pushing new stems

Through the fresh soil.

New growth bursts forth in its full glory.

I dread the thought of mowing

That lush green grass,

Holding hideouts for rabbits, mice and more.

Signs of life are everywhere.

-Carrie Horn

4-15-26

Those darn state taxes!

 Today's prompt is to write a haiku about taxes and tax day! Yikes. I had big plans for my Kansas return but apparently so did the state. They found a debt for me to pay. 😢

State Tax Return

Kansas tax return

You were supposed to save me. 

Instead you are gone. 

-Carrie Horn

Grief is all consuming

Today I cannot follow the prompt. Today my heart is heavy, sinking, drowning. I must give credence to the emotion. And let my soul surrender to grief.

Succumbing to the Grief

Some kinds of soul searching produce

grief before healing,

hurt before happiness,

reflection before surrender.

As I bob and tread 

and desperately try to keep my head

above the engulfing current

I realize that the grief

is overwhelming,

all consuming. 

I cannot be saved 

until I surrender.

I have to face the pain,

feel it,

drown in it.

So it will wash away.

I allow myself to be engulfed,

the feelings

flooding my entire being,

enveloping all that is reality.

Going down, 

no longer bobbing,

no longer fighting,

succumbing to the completeness of it all.

Grief.... 

a vital part of my personhood.

Surrender feels like death,

like failure, 

like there's never again to be hope.

Only in surrender 

do I find peace, 

and quiet strength.

The desire to go on.

the resolve that takes.

the strength is breathes.

-Carrie Horn

borrowed a free-to-download image from the internet

The Poetry of Everyday Loves....

 Today's prompt is quite a lot like other recent prompts. But I'm going with the random: in my head things that I tend to love daily. 

Everyday Loves

I love kitty kisses. 

Not just any kitties,

but my loves,

Turtle and Fluffy.

My child bestowed the name Turtle

upon my pretty kitty,

because we had high hopes 

she would be a tortoise shell. 

Fluffy got her name because,

as a small, abandoned kitten,

her fur fluffed straight out. 

Just stood straight out, 

FLUFFY.

So I started calling her the fluffy one.

It morphed into her name. 

And now, well, 

Fluffsy-wuffsy,

ain't so fluffsy anymore. 

But she knows her name, 

so Fluffy it is. 

But I digress. I was just planning to freefall

and write about all those loves, 

not just those two crazy bottle babies 

that still call me Mom.

I love... 

rain in Spring

and ducks splashing in puddles.

I love Duke the dog, 

who might also we called 

Gargantuan.

He's kind of rotten, 

not enough training,

and a little too much puppy.

But I love his derpy goofy self. 

I love... 

how my very own Ed Sheeran,

the cat, 

who thinks his name is Eddie,

and loves me in his possessive yet aloof kind of way.

I love... 

how my kiddos

count me on their friends list.

and even act like I'm a best friend, 

trusting me with their

fears, triumphs, failures, needs,

all of it.

This is my favorite love.

It tells me I've grown, 

changed, 

become trustworthy.

I love.... 

Jesus.

Because he loved me first.

I don't love Christians.

Enough said.

I love...

Spring

and all the new life it brings:

kittens, chicks, goat kids....

vegetables, flowers, houseplants.

I love tiedye. 

The process, 

the outcome.

The thing I call 

"the magic of tiedye,"

which is really just the mystery of...

I can think it will look like this,

but I won't really know 

until it's rinsed and unfurled and revealed. 

Art that mimics life. 

I think my life will turn out like this,

but I won't know until it is later unfurled. 

I love that. 

-Carrie Horn

One of my favorite people ever... 

Another favorite human

Turtle

Fluffy

 

The magic of tiedye.

He is probably larger than appears. Duke.

I love...

I love lazy days, which only materialize,

when I create them, and set them free. 

I love how the rules change 

each time I engage in "my day off..."

Maybe I drink coffee and blog all day,

and maybe I do load after load of laundry.

Maybe I get dressed; maybe I don't.

I love sugar candy, in an obsessive kind of way,

consuming the entire bag,

box, or other container. Who doesn't have a 

hidden pleasure, one they don't easily confess? 

I love Springtime, and new life, and babies.

Baby kittens, baby chicks, new to this earth goat kids. 

Wobbly feet, fluffy feathers, fuzzy furr.... babies. 

I love a greasy burger,

with all the trimmings. 

Cheese dripping off the sides,

grilled onion and jalapenos,

piled high in the gooey delight of 

American cheese. Not cheese product.

Some days I inlude the trimmings less essential:

lettuce and tomato and pickles. 

Who am I kidding? Pickles are essential.

Even on a jalapeno burger. 

I love my children,

born of my womb,

or not so much so. 

Some of them raised me,

all of them teach me, 

how to be a human, full of grace

and forgiveness,

not so black and white as I once was.

I love the grey areas,

because few things are ever black and white

and I take issue with those who say they are.

I want to lay down an example here, but my mind 

is suddenly on vacation.

I love lazy days,

when people don't judge me,

don't see me, don't know me. 

I love lazy days,

they make the productive days so much more 

significant. 

-Carrie Horn

Dear Hippie Chick Farm,

 Dear Farm that I love,

Your an oasis in the desert 

of my life. 

Your greenery and growth

are a blessing and a curse. 

Requiring time invested 

going round and round 

on the magical machinery 

that shortens the growth

of grass and weeds and the dreaded

pig weed. 

Every day I chase the chickens

and count the eggs 

and watch those little raptors

race for the cat food.

Elvis the Rooster 

calling his girls

when he find something tasty. 

Goats that bombard me

planning their escape

while I slip in and out of the pen.

Cats, cats.... everywhere cats.

Much as I love them

they are a lot.

A lot of crying, purring and such.

A lot of grey stripes and tails and 

toes. 

Everywhere a cat. 

These are the things I love most.

Thank you dear farm

for bringing me solace, 

tranquility,

disguised in the form of chaos,

and satisfaction

that comes from chasing the critters

big and small

dawn to dusk and beyond.

Your simplicity

and complexity

both intrigue and inspire me.

Thank you for the life your give me.

-Carrie Horn

I love our rainbow, though we are trying to add to our diversity of color.

In Poetry We Say... "

 Today's format challenge is "In Poetry We Say" as a response to some cliche` saying in English. A few examples she threw out there for us to try were: "Such is Life," "It Is What It Is," "That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles," or "Let Bygones Be Bygones..."

I'm gonna try "Through Thick and Thin..."

I Will Be Here For You

In English we say,

Through thick and thin,

but in Poetry we say,

trudging through the 

muck and mire

I am here.

Where the veil is thin

and death is well-versed,

I will be here.

When life is bulging at the seams

and friendship is 

neglected

I am still here. 

-Carrie Horn