“I am old,” said Mother Williams
while she sat on the bench
beside the jogging trail
as two youths sweated past,
“And I do not want to jiggle
and jounce my bones
and innards like a horse or a dog.”
“I am old,” she repeated to herself,
“but this last summer I climbed
the Eiffel Tower just because
I had never done so before—
And the view was superb.”
“I am old,” she said again,
“yet it was just this spring
that I walked as pilgrims might
into the quiet of Fuji’s heights.”
“I am old,” she admitted once again,
“yet new dreams come to me
with the dawn, and the moon
brings only the promise of tomorrow
not the sorrow of time passed.”
“Ah, yes,” she sighed, “I am old.”
Then she added with a knowing smile,
“But never was I so young before.”
DREAM STARRED NIGHT
Dream-starred silver light
Floats leaf shadows on grass sea
O, the summer moon
NOT SEEKING ANY HALLUCINOGENS
Assailed by a brilliance
Painful in its clarity
Ambushed by flavors
And sounds
In a sneak attack
Far, far from their source
Assaulted on all sides
Even by the touch of air
As subtle barometric shifts
Bear down on me
Driven inside to home
To one room, to a space of mind
For relief, a bit of quiet
In a concentration so deep
The world beyond shatters
Unheard, unseen, unfelt
Almost forgotten
Thus pursued from earliest
Childhood I find
It strange in others
That they seek out the extremes
Of awareness and mourn
The loss as their experiments
With hallucinogens
Relinquish them
Into moments, days, years
Of muted, past knowledge.
AUTHOR NOTES
GLASS RAIN – Margaret Roxby
“DREAM STARRED NIGHT” was untitled when found in the author’s papers. It is included for Hammock Day, July 20.
REFRACTIONS – Robert Roxby
“CHRISTMAS NEAR” is included for July 25, Christmas in July. Cheer Up the Lonely Day. The poem appeared in his book, Reflections on a Lifetime.
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS – Kathleen Roxby
“NOT SEEKING ANY HALLUCINOGENS” was written when LSD was making headlines promoted by Timothy Leary, among others. It is included for July 24, World Self-Care Day.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Readers who write in response to one of the prompts listed each month in Splintered Glass, may see their work presented here on the last week of that month. Though poems are preferred, short prose work will also be considered for publication.
Guidelines for submission:
HEALING ARTS
From wounds caused by harvesting,
Dust particles in the sunlight shine
When winds stir high the land.
The soothing ointment of rain,
Winter dressings of pure snow
Heal these cuts before spring comes
When life, again, renews earth’s bosom—
Similar in ways to man’s struggles
To reach the goals we need
To fulfill our hearts’ and souls’ desires
Keeping us feeling wholly alive.
FEATHERED DREAM
A shadow falls
on the garden wall
there’s a strum of singing strings
and through the mist of shade and sound
a dove with folded wings
As in a dream
the white bird seems
an old remembered melody
perched there so still
on the garden wall
a strange white feathered song
In shadowed light
a sweet time past
within the heart may fall
Such fragile things
spark memory
a wisp of sound
a haunting song
a feathered dream with folded wings
on a sequestered wall
MOTHER WILLIAMS: ON BECOMING OLD
“I am old,” said Mother Williams
while she sat on the bench
beside the jogging trail
as two youths sweated past,
“And I do not want to jiggle
and jounce my bones
and innards like a horse or a dog.”
“I am old,” she repeated to herself,
“but this last summer I climbed
the Eiffel Tower just because
I had never done so before—
And the view was superb.”
“I am old,” she said again,
“yet it was just this spring
that I walked as pilgrims might
into the quiet of Fuji’s heights.”
“I am old,” she admitted once again,
“yet new dreams come to me
with the dawn, and the moon
brings only the promise of tomorrow
not the sorrow of time passed.”
“Ah, yes,” she sighed, “I am old.”
Then she added with a knowing smile,
“But never was I so young before.”
AUTHOR NOTES
GLASS RAIN – Margaret Roxby
“FEATHERED DREAM” was found among the author’s papers.
REFRACTIONS – Robert Roxby
“HEALING ARTS” was found in the author’s journal.
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS – Kathleen Roxby
“MOTHER WILLIAMS: ON BECOMING OLD” is the author’s spinoff on Lewis Carroll’s “You Are Old, Father Williams.”
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Readers who write in response to one of the prompts listed each month in Splintered Glass, may see their work presented here on the last week of that month. Though poems are preferred, short prose work will also be considered for publication.
Guidelines for submission:
A CARING HEART
The caring heart reaches out
To help a neighbor who hurts,
Or to a stranger to share
A small gift of caring.