Category: <span>A Poem</span>

Published September 22, 2020 by

Santa Barbara View 

On the tile roof, a seagull stands strong
against the rising down-coast wind.
Sun shines sideways through
the pepper tree, whose shadows
dance wildly inside the parked car, where I wait
during this pandemic for take out food,
as wind moves everything it can.
I have been waiting, quietly, since
we hid from the Gestapo,
though I didn’t know what I was waiting for.
And now, I wait again in this current era
of dictators and would-be dictators
as that strong bird still stands
against a down-coast gale.

September 19, 2020

© Gudrun Mouw

A Poem

2020 election Poetry quarantine poetry

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Published April 21, 2020 by

April 2020 Poem

So sorry readers, I rushed to post

forgetting that: “A poem is never finished,

only abandoned.”

—Gudrun

…

FROZEN SOULS – Updated

1
At 5:00 pm
guards would start collecting women;
children looked through bombed out eaves
to see stars, sometimes the moon.
Once there was a different kind of light—
something conscious.
A child inhaled the essence
like food she was not getting.
2
Rachel stretches. This 70 years old memory,
she thinks, and now another dangerous era.
The pandemic needs drastic measures.
And the horse porch hearth glows;
new beams mix with old.
We watch home movies.
The hitching post stands idle.

…

(c) Gudrun Mouw

April, 2020

A Poem

April Poem Poetry quarantine poetry

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Published October 15, 2019 by

October poem

October

1)
I look at the month
of forgiveness—when rains
come down, when the land expands
with relief, and I forgive myself
for every complaint against heat,

though I still save dish water
for the courtyard
as a hot, dry climate
and fading sun
slowly relent.

2)
I do not forget:
The Drought Years
That Year of Fighting Bucks
Coyote Years
The Year of Fawns

That Skunk Family Year
Mountain Lion Years
Bobcat Years

and Years When I Don’t Know
What to Expect.

October 6, 2019
Gudrun Mouw (c)

A Poem

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Published August 14, 2019 by

Summer Poem

August Lesson

“August represents pure love,” my teacher’s teacher said;
then, why does hatred pull hatred to the mark?
After two national massacres, today looks
unreal. Hardly a bloom in the courtyard under cold fog
followed by wind over brown, dead grass.

I finish reading another bad book, sip lemon water.
Two friends connect by phone; I am willing to help.
We look for ways to heal, to engage, to find once again
joy hiding among the decades.

Gudrun Mouw (c)
August 7, 2019

A Poem

current events Mass Shooting Poem Poetry

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Published June 25, 2019 by

June Poem

MORNING DRIZZLE

Barely visible, a transparent sheet
of moisture falls
to the semi-arid earth.

Something precious stirs—
something momentous like a birth.

Summer Solstice happened;
one more spring has passed.
Morning deer have grazed and gone.

A neighbor’s cat appears on life’s screen,
then, ducks out, under our gate.
How much more is there,
to wonder and to love.

Gudrun Mouw (c)
June 20, 2019

A Poem

Poem Poetry Solstice

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Published May 28, 2019 by

May Poem

IF ONLY…

If only wind would
diminish; if only May would not
feel like winter.

If only humanity were
more humane. If only love
spread wings everywhere,
and rest would stay sweet.

She would be all
that she could, if only
it were June.

Gudrun Mouw (c)
May 23, 2019

A Poem

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