Poetry | Perle Champion

J is for Jogum, Joss, and Jolt

11 Apr 2014 1 Comment

by Perle Champion in Blogging from A to Z, Haiku times 2, Perle Champion, Poetry Tags: Blogging from A to Z, Haiku, Luck Joss, Poetry

Day 11 of Blogging from A to Z. Today’s letter is J
J is for Jogum, Joss, Jolt

Shed the Jogum, with Joss or Jolt.

jogum hindered soul
blindly plodding rutted paths
needing joss or jolt

escapes’ only hope
events unknown luck unseen
nature’s buds abide

Jogum in Latin means yoke. There are many kinds of yokes not readily discernable: jobs, marriages, and friendships, to name a few.

Sometimes the Jogum can be dislodged by a jolt such as betrayal by a trusted friend, the infidelity of a spouse.

A hated job sometimes needs more than a jolt; it takes a little Joss.

© Perle Champion

——
Glossary:
Jugum – mid 19th century from Latin, literally meaning ‘yoke.’; also a connecting ridge or projection

Jolt – To move or dislodge with a sudden, hard blow; strike heavily or jarringly

Joss – Chinese idol also meaning luck.

I is for Id, the Isle of I.

10 Apr 2014 3 Comments

by Perle Champion in Blogging from A to Z, Haiku times 2, Perle Champion, Poetry Tags: Blogging from A to Z, Haiku, Philosophy, Poetry

Day 9 of Blogging from A to Z. Today’s letter is I
I is for Id, the Isle of I.

Id, unaware struts
thinking it stands all alone
a singular isle

such wrong conceit self
centered thought denies that earth
revolves round the sun

We are islands. But just as the sea laps the shore, and the isle continues into the sea, we are all an integral part of each other. The very air between us is as alive as we are as we move through it – from earth to the farthest reach of space.

Touch a leaf and the stars vibrate.*

© Perle Champion

———

* “Touch a leaf on the tree and you have made all the stars vibrate with it. You may not be able to see it right now, but things are so deeply related that it impossible .not to touch the stars by touching a leaf. – Lieh Tzu – The Pathless Path

H is for Hale and Hearty Health.

09 Apr 2014 1 Comment

by Perle Champion in Blogging from A to Z, haiku, Health, Perle Champion, Poetry Tags: Blogging from A to Z, Haiku, Health, Poetry

Day 8 of Blogging from A to Z. Today’s letter is H
H is for Hale and Hearty Health.

hale walks hand in hand
hearty steps up the walk’s pace
spring hopes winter waits

There is nothing so limiting to personal freedom as ill health, and in this land of the free, the personal freedom of a truly healthy body is eroding at every turn.

Some may consider the phrase Hale and Hearty somewhat redundant. I do not. Although they both allude to the health of a person, their meanings are subtly different.

I think the sum says more than the parts about a person’s Health.

Hale – free from disease
Hearty – strong, exuberant, vigorous.
Health – the general condition of the body or mind with reference to soundness and vigor.

I’ve known more than a few people free from disease, who were not hearty. Without the Hearty (strength, vigor…) there cannot be total health.

© Perle Champion

F is for Facile Feigned Façade

07 Apr 2014 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Blogging from A to Z, haiku, Perle Champion, Poetry, Writing Tags: Blogging from A to Z, Haiku, Perle Champion, Poetry

Day 6 of Blogging from A to Z. Today’s letter is F
F is for Facile Feigned Façade

facile tears feign need
façade to suit a motive
once seen we pity

Facile tears and feigned need come easily to some – the façade of neediness Wyse in the Garden 1 art darker the only way they garner friends.

In the beginning, the audience is large as they follow along from drama to drama. They watch and participate vicariously as each living play unfolds. But the theme and plot begin to repeat again and again.

The steady stream of repetition eventually wears thin; the motives of the face behind the façade become more and more clear.

Slowly the followers’ caring turns to pity; the parade of followers thins then falls away.

© perle champion 4/7/14

D is for the Dash twixt Dawn and Dusk

04 Apr 2014 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Blogging from A to Z, Haiku times 2, Poetry Tags: Blogging from A to Z, Haiku, Poetry

Day 4 of Blogging from A to Z. Today’s letter is D
D is for the Dash between Dawn and Dusk

The Dash Church near Wadenhoe 2

we dash twixt dawn and
dusk blind to miracles strewn
like gems before us

a life reduced to
birth and death dates and one small
dash engraved in stone.

The poem is new – written this afternoon as I revisited my 4/4/12 Blog on the letter D. I find I need reminding from time to time, to get out of my rut and live my Dash. So although the text below is mostly a reprint, the double haiku above is new – written this morning

4/4/2012
Too often, we dash between dawn and dusk barely noticing the miracles, large and small, strewn like gems throughout our days.

I read an article in which the writer said ‘live your dash’. What I wondered did that mean. She went on to explain that as she wandered through a cemetery one day, she noticed that beneath each name there were two dates with a small dash between them.

I never thought about that – a lifetime reduced to a birth date and a death date separated by a small dash.

I know people who plod through their days for whom that dash is far too large. I know people who dash through their days and never notice the day’s bounty.

And I know people for whom that dash is far too small to encompass the life they live.

I’m determined to live my dash from dawn to dusk and then some.

Are you living your dash?

Do You Name Your Journal?

28 Feb 2014 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Haiku times 2, Journaling, Poetry, Writing

Dear Kitty was how Anne Frank began her journal née diary entries. Our journal is our confidant – giving it a name elevates it’s status from that of an inanimate object to that of a friend. A friend with a willing ear that we can tell our most intimate secrets, fears and idle thoughts and know the confidence will be kept.

Naming Things

diarists address

entries by name pleading for

someone’s attention

however abstract

it matters that an ear hears

else trees fall unheard

© Perle Champion

The Cloud Dweller for National Faery Tale Day

26 Feb 2014 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Clouds, Memoir, Perle Champion, Poetry

I love Faery Tales. I read them and had them read to me when I was a child, and I had my favorites. I was not the princess. I liked the regular girls best before they gained that status. Cinderella and Beauty were the daughters of merchants/storekeepers; Red Riding Hood was a woodcutter’s only child; the heroine of Rumpelstiltskin was a miller’s daughter – and so on.

When I liked the ending as in Rumpelstiltskin I went with the story. Of course I was the miller’s daughter who triumphed over the wicked little creature who would steal my child.

Red Riding Hood I revised when I read it to myself. I was she, but in my version the wolf did not eat me, because I was so tough and so smart. It was I who rescued my grandmother just before my father arrived.

I pondered my propensity to make stories including faery tales suit my ideal – walk on clouds so to speak or ‘head in the clouds’ as momma put it. I wrote the below poem in one of those moments when I had fallen through those insubstantial clouds to the reality of a disabled child and sick husband, and…

The Cloud Dweller

far away

and long ago

there is a child

perle velvet cropped 5

i used to know

with wide bright eyes

asking why

but deep insidenot out loud

why that way

and not my

way

those clouds those

insubstantial

faery vapors which

upheld us

have given way

to the ground

i wonder if

we shall walk

together

as easily as we

flew

A is for the Adventure I Embark Upon This Day.

01 Apr 2013 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Blogging from A to Z, Poetry

A is for the Adventure I Embark Upon This Day.
(I missed the deadline for the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge, but I’m doing it anyhow.)

I’ve not blogged consistently for a while. But I’m gearing and beginning again. I’m embarking on a new adventure. I’ve bid adieu to Dilbert’s world; claimed my entitlement which I am ‘entitled’ to; and I’m looking to the moment and the future.

At 5, I thought 60 was old. Now, at 64, not so much. I am sometimes utterly amazed that I’ve been on this planet so long. Lately, I’ve been pondering the next 3rd of my life. Yes, I think I’ll make it to ninety-something, but not as some dottie, but rather some doughty, old lady.

Surprising to me, I’ve become a woman of a certain age, and I’m still here. So I a

100_1452

sk, now what? I want to explore where I am; how I got here, and where I’m going as I enter the next third of my life. I’ve lots of projects in process ready to launch mid to late April.

What better day than All Fools’ Day to begin, after all

Fools Rush In Where Angels… (from 2012 Blogging from A-Z Challenge)

edges rough worn thin
mind that races rushes in
angels watch in awe

not quite sure they saw
halos doffed no wind for wings
grounded and unsure

© 6.23.12

Blue skies, Grey skies

03 Feb 2013 3 Comments

by Perle Champion in Blog 365 Challenge, haiku, Poetry

whether stormy grey
deepest blue or clouded scudded
each day is a gift

I’m counting down – 62 days to go.

28 Jan 2013 1 Comment

by Perle Champion in Blog 365 Challenge, Poetry, Retirement, Uncategorized

I’m retiring from my day job March 30, 2013, and I’m counting the days.
—-
Oh, The Places you’ll go! You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.
—– Seuss

We all do it; we put all our hopes on the destination. You know the litany: When I graduate; When I have money; When the kids are grown; When I retire… Don’t deny it, we’ve all done it – still do.

Well, I have 61 days until I retire. That’s 1,464 hours; 87,840 minutes, 5,270,400 seconds.

I wonder how many of those things I plan to do when I retire, I can get a head start on between now and then. I have a list, and here are just a few.

Publish my e-books (I have 5 in varying stages of completion, but I always start editing them again when I decide to upload them to Amazon).
Publish my NaNoWriMo novel this year. (I’ve participated in and written 50,000 words for ‘national novel writing month’ every November since 2004, but have never edited, rewritten or published any of them.)
Start sending out query a week, instead of every now and them. (Follow-up on the submission to Victoria Magazine – haven’t heard back from my last query a few months ago. Last published with them in 2008.)
Hang a photography show at a local gallery: (Two galleries are interested, but although I have the slides picked out, I have yet to get them digitized, printed, matted…)
Ditto Art show (I’ve been painting and drawing again, but not as much as I can.)
Start back to yoga classes (it’s been 5 years of gonna, and I’m still pretty limber.

There are more, but this is the enough to start with.

This list ends with ‘Move to Some Beach Some Where’. I’ll have to add – visit some beaches between now and then so I can make an informed decision. I’m leaning toward Virginia Beach so I can visit the ARE library on a regular basis. – tick, tick, tick…