poem: a thief in the night (stuck in time)

poem: a thief in the night
(stuck in time)

in her lucid dreaming
she returns to the
farmstead of her youth
with her family
every night as she sleeps

each morning upon
her awakening she ask me
‘how did I get here,’
‘who brought me here,’
‘what is this place”

never mind that
we have been married
50 years, lived in this
house for 35 years, or never
been apart in the last 5 years

sitting on the bed’s edge
looking into her eyes
I remind her she has
been on the farm all night
while she slept

now back home with me,
that we have not been apart
for a second for many years,
in our house where we raised
our family filled with love

a thief in the night,
stuck in space and time,
the dementia confounding,
now each moment together
all the more sweet

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
November 29, 2021

Image by author
“just resting my eyes”

Author’s Note: A poem
about our life together, my
wife and I, and our experiences
living with Alzheimers.

https://herbstonejr.com/poem-a-thief-in-the-night-stuck-in-time/29/Test

poem: Thanksgiving passes, Winter Solstice nears, Advent begins (via negativa)

The Season of Advent Begins
Pregnant with Anticipation

poem: Thanksgiving passes,
Winter Solstice nears,
Advent begins (via negativa)

and now the family Thanksgiving
bountiful feast has been eaten
and the days revelry abated
( the dominant culture’s lies
about its oppression of the Native
American’s laid bare)

entering the liminal space
of late Autumn’s cold, short days,
the Winter Solstice nears
(the dominant culture’s
Black Friday and pre-Christmas
buying frenzy muted)

preparing ourselves through
deep reflection and contemplation
in our stillness and quietude
(the dominant culture’s frenetic
holiday festivities and prideful hail fellow
well met transmuted)

coming into the Advent season of the
coming of the Universal Cosmic Christ
and its call to “the high price of full
consciousness” (the dominant culture’s
distortions of Santa Claus and the churches’
sentimental baby Jesus plays notwithstanding)

Christ consciousness incarnate
Jesus is Lord, Come Lord Jesus
(not the dominant culture’s current day
Caesar of power, control, and violence,
but Christ with us in the neighborly
community of the Kin-dom)

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
November 28, 2021

Image by Matthias Stromer
‘Annunciazone’

Author’s note: My poem is meant to
convey the story of Universal Cosmic Christ
consciousness breaking into the worldy
human empires of the many Caesar’s and
their power, control, violence, and oppression.
As a universal cosmic, spiritual story, it extends
beyond the institutional Christian church and is
available to everyone regardless of personal
religious beliefs. It becomes part of the human
story of spiritual growth towards True Self and
belonging in Authentic Community together.
The quote in stanza four is from Richard Rohr.)

https://herbstonejr.com/poem-thanksgiving-passes-winter-solstice-nears-advent-begins-via-negativa/28/Test https://herbstonejr.com/a-thanksgiving-reflection-from-herb-and-cathey/25/Test

tanka: exaltation

tanka: exaltation

these years together
your head on my shoulder rest
and your soulful smile
through fair and stormy weather
exalts us for all to come

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
November 23, 2021

photos by author
“Our 50 Years Together”

https://herbstonejr.com/tanka-exaltation/24/Test https://herbstonejr.com/haiku-autumns-amber-glow/22/Test

poem: the elderly couple at the mall

poem: the elderly couple at the mall

the beaming elderly couple
urgently shuffle directly towards us
as we make our way through
the crowded mall

holding my wife’s hand,
she with her cane,
people jostling us
this way and that

me thinking:
do we know this couple,
what huge smiles they have,
hope they stay on their feet

the elderly man holding his wife’s tiny hand
looks at me with prophetic eyes
and declares “Never stop holding her hand”
to which I empathically reply, “Never!”

now, his words disconnected,
saying “Youngsters,” referring to us
and “Sixty-nine years” referring
to how long they have been married

and I reply “Fifty”
as we have just celebrated
our Golden Anniversary
a few days before

now two old couples beaming,
holding hands, knowing long life love filled,
shuffle off our separate ways
disappearing into the day’s babel

love is patient, love is kind,
it is not envious, boastful, arrogant, or rude,
it rejoices in the truth; bears, believes, hopes,
and endures all things; love never ends

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
November 19, 2021

photo by jem vistaprint
“still in love”

Author’s note: The last stanza paraphrases
1 Corinthians 13: 4-8, The Gift of Love.


https://herbstonejr.com/poem-the-elderly-couple-at-the-mall/22/Test https://herbstonejr.com/haiku-leaves-releasing-tumbling-baring/18/Test

poem: the start of our day at home

poem: the start of our day at home

hearing her soft
murmuring
upstairs in bed
I leave my writing to check on her

she awakens
from her deep overnight sleep
with her first words to me,
‘I am here’

brushing her hair
putting on her robe
and house shoes
descending the stairs

she lies on the couch
facing the front window
with blankets piled high
while I finish my writing

after some time
I ask her,
“Are you ready for
breakfast”

she responding,
blissfully,
“No, I love the silence,
I love this place”

then, after breakfast,
she strolls through the house,
as if in some distant grand villa,
saying, “I love coming here”

morning, at home,
together, starting
another magical day
of demands and surprises

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
November 13, 2021

Author’s note: Some
reflections on caring for
a loved one with Alzheimers.

photos by author

https://herbstonejr.com/poem-the-start-of-our-day-at-home/14/Test

haiku: the gaps are the spirits one home

haiku: the gaps are the spirits
one home

Autumn’s morning glow
floods in the windows brightly
lighting up the gaps

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
November 12, 2021

photos by the author

Author’s note: The title of the
haiku is from a quote by Annie
Dillard in her book ‘A Pilgrim
at Tinker Creek.’

https://herbstonejr.com/haiku-the-gaps-are-the-spirits-one-home/14/Test

poem: a paean for senescence

poem: a paean for senescence

our growing older
is not a linearity starting here, ending there,
not a timeline from beginning to end,
not a simple chronological
counting of the years

to be sure there
are circles, loops, and spirals,
bardos, gaps, and liminal spaces,
and ones functional/dysfunctional
life experiences

and of course
in our aging
one is vulnerable
to life’s foibles and frailties
which we must suffer

thus in our senescence
we prepare,
countering bitterness with beauty,
hopelessness with creative imagination,
infirmity with wholeness

embodying a faith that sustains us
for those unseen things yet to come
in our Cosmic journey home
in the truth of the Universal Oneing
of consciousness human and divine

being gentle with those things
unsettled in our heart and soul
knowing our cries, laments, and joys
are heard, and there is place of radical grace
and love that perennially longs for us

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
November 11, 2021

‘Spiral of Life’ art image by Susan Bruck

https://herbstonejr.com/poem-a-paean-for-senescence/12/Test