EVENTS
(Gwen Eisenmann)
 
Black bear crossed the road.
I laughed all the way home.
 
    My neighbor said
    while we were gone
    she parked in our driveway
    to see a bobcat and three kits.
    Two kits followed the mother
    but one turned back.
    Soon the mother
    went back too,to
    collect the wrong-way baby.
 
Why is it an event
to see wild animals
going their way,
spending their day
in tune?
 
 

REFINER'S FIRE
(Jean Even)

The wind caught her mane
As she took flight in vain.
The Pegasus, poorly adjusted
To the strange equine society,
Took flight from the ill-mannered herd.
The noble steed in hostility stated,
"The consensus of the populace:
In our fertile grazing place, 
There's no place for hideous Pegasus."

Long into the nights and far into the days
She searched for her kind along the way.
Her true love awaited in a mystical place,
Taken there a long time ago in a misty haze
When legions took them, fading into the past.
She had been on a quest to find a magic maze.
In its center she would discover her trousseau,
Designed especially for her beloved beau,
Who now waited in an infinite brume.

The maladjusted Pegasus, growing faint,
Landed in a green meadow quite quaint.
She ingested foliage of delectable cuisine,
Unaware of the mist surrounding her tired bones.
Lulled into the lethargy of sweet dreams,
She roamed valleys and hillsides of colorful tones,
Free at last from her quest to find her trousseau.
In the maze, driven by desire to be with her beau,
She could feel her coat change, turn sleek, shiny.

On she went, wind blowing her through the maze, 
Madness threatening her almost into a daze.
She went on until she thought she would faint.
Tempered in a refiner's fire, her beau to find.
Into the whirlwind she flew till light broke through.
There in the maze stood others of her kind,
Awaiting her entrance as the bride of their king.
She approached center as the bevy closed the ring,
In wedding celebration, they danced for days.



NEXT CHAPTER
(Harding Stedler) 
 
In the dark cold
of December
as I sleep,
the universe
will age another year.
Tomorrow,
the world will start
anew its calendar journey
through the cycle
of changing seasons.
My pilgrimage
will take me to new places,
afford me new friends,
and add more gray
to my thinning sideburns.
The new year will start
in a blaze of optimism,
a clean slate,
and a renewed zest for life.
I will walk bridges
between what was and is
and worship each day's sun
as though it were the last.



FLEA MARKETS
(Tania Gray)

I'll tell you what's scary
is some of these flea markets
you can get lost in there
and what's worse is the people you meet
you could end up in a dusty corner
with a derelict a real tough a hard-edged outlaw
some kind of primitive throwback
boy I've skedaddled out of some flea markets
as fast as I could go
without crashing into someone's cafe dinnerware
got in my minivan and peeled out of the parking
      lot
no bargain is a bargain
if it's in an alien camp



THE ABSOLUTES
(Tom Padgett)

When I was very young, my mother
made me change my clothes and wash my face
and stand before her while she combed my hair,
and several times she told me
cleanliness is next to godliness,
by which she meant Life's greatest good.

When she was very old, my mother
needed help to change her clothes and wash her
      face
and stand before the mirror to comb her hair,
and several times she told me
dizziness is next to nausea,
by which she mean Life's greatest evil.

REMEMBER TO VISIT THE WORKSHOP PAGE FOR LESSON 8.

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