Have Yourself a Merry Little Birthday (WC)

 

(Guest posted from Wendy birde to Joseph bear, on his birthday : ) Image from here. )

Have Yourself a Merry Little Birthday*

Have yourself a merry little birthday.

Let your heart be light.

From now on

may troubles be just out of sight.

Have yourself a merry little birthday.

May this year be gay.

Don't just let doomsayers 

have the final say.

May you be as in olden days

happy golden days of yore.

Faithful friends who are dear to you

gather near to you once more.

Through the years we all will be together

if the fates allow.

Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.

And have yourself a merry little birthday now.

May you be as in olden days

happy golden days of yore.

Faithful friends who are dear to you

gather near to you once more.

Through the years we all will be together

if the fates allow.

Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.

And have yourself a merry little birthday now...

*After Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Later found other Have Yourself a Merry Little Birthday twists have already been done, Google points to Caitlin McGovern, and Joanne Slagel... both awesome!

Nature's Easter Cross (JM)

 

Surprise Cross found in this peaceful spot, Starker Forestry Trail, tree planted 1986, Oregon 

From Starker Forestry Trail, self guided tour (JM)

                                                   

Bear’s To-Do List (JM)

(Joseph MacRae, February 26, 2025, feast day of Our Lady of the Fields (Paris). Image from my journal.)

Bear’s To-Do List

If only I could remember where I hid my honey jar

safe from prying eyes.

I now regret it is only safe from me.

Oh, the moment I find my precious honey jar —

I'll be a rich bear indeed.

*From prompt: Freewrite as inspired by these words: if, regret, rich. From Daisy Barrett-Nash’s Legacy Lines, February 26, 2025. 

Local Lore (JM)

 

                                                       Snowcap on Prarie Mountian

                                                      Mill Creek stream restoration gathering

                                                       Clemen's Lumbar Company, Philomath:

                                                       Old RD-8 Caterpillar at the abandoned Clemens' Mill

                                                       Interpretation day at Clemens' Scout Lodge 

Our True Spirit Rises (JM)

(Joseph MacRae, selected by Youtube channel Kate Chadbourne which read it aloud for April 2025's Poetry Month special, see here at about 17:00 mark. Also published in Legacy lines: Poems inspired by LGBTQI+ Poets of the Past, edited by Daisy Barrett-Nash, Equal Arts, April, 2025. Prompt from February 12, 2025, feast day of (above) Our Lady of Iviron and Our Lady of Argenteuil. Image from here.)

Our True Spirit Rises*

The poets, they understand —

Keep writing.

Against bird flu, doom scrolling, anything 

makes you think there is no hope.

Close your eyes, some simple verses

sky, she sweeps 

earth flowers — reaps

It will get your mind off your troubles.

Not dwelling but creating. Growing 

in Light — a remedy in wait. 

Take daily. 

*Title is quoted from Audre Lorde, Poetry Is Not a Luxury.

*From prompt: Reflect on this past year's engagement in Daisy Barrett Nash's Legacy Lines (Writers at Play), what stands out? February 12, 2025.

How Our Garden Grows (JM)

 

How to Make Peace (JM)

 

(Joseph MacRae, published in Legacy lines: Poems inspired by LGBTQI+ Poets of the Past, edited by Daisy Barrett-Nash, Equal Arts, April, 2025. Prompt from February 5, 2025, feast day of the The Elets-Chernigov (Chernigov Spruce Tree) Icon of the Mother of God. Image from here.)

How to Make Peace 

Start at home.

Start simply.

Mend bitterness, quarrels, disagreements with I love you. I forgive you. 

Please forgive me. May God forgive the both of us.

Reach out at work. Don't be afraid to say I'm sorry for what happened 

the other day — the greening with envy, seeing red, white lies. 

Give forgiveness, if you would receive forgiveness. 

Love your family, neighbors, your co-workers. Yes, even the one 

who always sneaks the last cookie, snags your parking spot. 

Love and forgiveness, it is a beginning.

*Freewrite as inspired by Audre Lorde’s “The Cancer Journals” (from Daisy Barrett Nash’s Legacy lines, January 29 and February 5, 2025)

Angel Sky (JM)

 

Picture of a horizontal Angel seen in sunset 1/23… Mama-Jackie, may she rest in peace, really loved angels. This feels like a blessing.

Voice of Earth Mother (JM)

(Joseph MacRae, published in Legacy lines: Poems inspired by LGBTQI+ Poets of the Past, edited by Daisy Barrett-Nash, Equal Arts, April, 2025. Prompt from January 15, 2025, feast day of Our Lady of Banneux and Our Lady of the Seeds, Image from here.)

Voice of Earth Mother

Listen to her 

winds caress 

the tall fir trees, 

rocking to and fro

branches flowing

I close my eyes -- 

imagine a ballet performed

on nature’s stage

*From prompt:  Freewrite as inspired by Audre Lorde’s “Poetry is Not a Luxury”. From Daisy Barrett Nash’s Legacy Lines series, January 15, 2025.

When Returning (JM)

 

((Joseph MacRae, published in Legacy lines: Poems inspired by LGBTQI+ Poets of the Past, edited by Daisy Barrett-Nash, Equal Arts, April, 2025. Prompt from January 8, 2025, (above) afterfeast of Theophany, Synaxis of the Theotokos old calendar. Image from here.)

When Returning

(from city’s chaos, speed),

I stop on Mary’s Peak wayside.

Shut off the engine 

and radio.

Roll down the window.

 

Smell the mountain air.

I absorb the green forest —

She fights for survival

like us all. 

*From prompt: Freewrite as inspired by “A Litany for Survival” by Audre Lorde, and highlighted words from it. From Daisy Barrett Nash’s Legacy Lines series, January 8, 2025

March! (JM)

  

Opening this book

and coming up on the author's advice to the reader

and seeing the original reader (a child, her name is June, last name faded, circa 1930's) perhaps response to this challenge -- below is my "finishing" of it...

March!

(a found poem)

Bold March! Wild March.

Oh! You saucy fellow.

Even tho your voice is 

rough

We know your heart be mellow.

Hush! You will waken the sleeping 

children up.

They are awaiting --

April to bring her showers

make the Daffodils to Bloom. 

Bear-Love (JM)

(Joseph MacRae, published in Legacy lines: Poems inspired by LGBTQI+ Poets of the Past, edited by Daisy Barrett-Nash, Equal Arts, April, 2025. Prompt from September 4, 2024, New Moon of Elul and the (above) Unburnt Bush Icon of the Mother of God. Image from here.)

Bear-Love

Love is a pot of honey

Pooh bear would understand —

Inner sweetness.

Who’s guarding your jar?

[Note:Sticky paw prints throughout the kitchen, 

they were planted I tell you, planted! 

They’re not from me.]

*From prompt: freewrite as inspired by “love is ___”, after considering Edwin Morgan's The Unspoken. From Daisy Barrett-Nash’s Legacy Lines (Writers at Play), September 4, 2024.

Standing Helm Watch Today (JM)

 

(Joseph MacRae, published in Legacy lines: Poems inspired by LGBTQI+ Poets of the Past, edited by Daisy Barrett-Nash, Equal Arts, April, 2025. Prompt from August 28, 2024, feast day of the Dormition of the Mother of God (old calendar) and Our Lady of Kiev. Image from here.)

Standing Helm Watch Today

Standing Helm watch today

one hand on a tiny joystick

watching a Dell computer screen.

See a red line scrolling through a digital map.

No need for a compass.

Just like a computer game, just like a computer game.

Not many of us remember 

running on dead Reckoning.

I long to be back on an old wooden vessel

standing my watch as the propeller turns.

Thrusting water against the rudder, can feel it against the wheel.

Gently rocking in your hands, gently rocking in your hands.

Steering by a compass

Reading your charts

Using the aid of lighthouses, landmarks

Reading the buoys

Using radio direction to find beacons

No need for them today, no need for them today.

Now we have GPS

Global repositioning system.

A plotter on our onboard screen.

So with the passing of time

is the passing of a romantic era

In an old Sailor's life, in an old sailor's life.

*From prompt: Write of something longed for, past, present, or future (in this case the longing for miracles). Daisy Barrett-Nash’s Legacy Lines (Writers at Play), August 28, 2024.

I: I Could Write About (JM)

 

(Joseph MacRae, July 6, 2022. Image is of The Merc, from Joseph MacRae.)

I: I Could Write About 

I (pronoun): …12th century, a shortening of Old English ic, the first person singular nominative

I could write about living in our tiny rural town, Alsea, Oregon–-just 234 souls. Unincorporated, and like being in the 50’s. There’s John Boy’s Mercantile (the Merc), an old timey general store. History murals fill the outer walls, inside there’s fishing and hunting gear, fresh local meats at the deli. Though remote, we’re on a big cycle route. Sometimes the Merc’s little parking lot near bursts with Harleys, their riders scoring coffee for the road. Or there's Deb’s Cafe (true confession can’t get enough of the biscuits and gravy). There’s a library, out its window can see cows a stone’s throw away–- if you stare they’ll stare back! There’s the Church, school, medical clinic, post office, fire station, grange, organic farm, park, mountains round, birds roaming about--otherwise a whole lot of quiet--and the Alsea river running through it all. And that’s about it. But then, what more do you need?

 

*From Prompt: Create a “Telling Trails” piece (basically to take a letter/a word beginning with that letter/a definition of that word/a picture drawn to/maybe a song drawn to--and write what comes); from Iris Jackson’s Finding Your Storyteller’s Voice with Telling Trails (Pat Conroy Literary Center, Beaufort, SC), June/July 2022.

August Ventures (JM)