Foundations
No matter how solid
Crumble in time
*
Photo: Dwight L. Roth
Shared on d’Verse Poets Pub open link night
change
Celebrating 52
We were married two days after Christmas 52 years ago. Time has flown as we watched the whole world change around us. My first classroom had slate chalk boards. I typed my purple masters for school on a big black typewriter with keys, arms, and a ribbon! Our TV was black and white with 13 channels and an antenna on the roof. We had a pushbutton telephone mounted on the wall. Seatbelts were not required when riding in our car. The Viet Nam War was still going strong. We had a record player with 33 1/3 vinyl records, as well as a cassette tape recorder for music. It is amazing how much has changed since then.
As we reflected on our past years of marriage. she came up with this jingle that sums up our years together. I thought it was perfect!
Fifty-two years of hit and miss bliss!
Photos from our trip to Myrtle Beach 2012
Looking into Time’s Mirror
These old bones gaze on those old bones
filled with memories intertwined in each room.
Looking into a mirror of the past I wonder
if those old bones have memories…
of love and laughter in each room?
I open memory’s door to a dim view.
I see us all crowd around as we listen to
Mom reading stories enriching our minds;
instilling values and morals never forgotten.
This broken down pile of bones still stands…
Seventy-four years later it remembers my birth.
In the back bedroom, I came into the world…
A bouncing baby boy with a life of wonder ahead.
Now looking back, I see an old house;
A stack of bones, not unlike my own;
Still here // but for how long I do not know.
As I look into times mirror, I see what was…
A life full of joy and pain filled with memories.
Do houses remember that we have been there?
How much longer will I remember?
Photo: Dwight L. Roth
Today at d’Verse, Bjorn asked us to use conceit in our poem. Conceit in poetry uses metaphor and extends it by comparing and interwining two unlikely subjects in juxtaposition with each other. I took a trip down memory lane to the house where I was born. It is now old and run down, un-cared for and overgrown. These are some of my thoughts as I remember my visit there a couple of years ago.
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Nature’s True Gold
Our lives birthed from fire and ash
Chilled molten quartz rock left exposed
Eroded by providential trials and tribulations
Washing away the ash // the insignificant
Leaving us acne pocked and worn
Our igneous core shining in the sun
revealing the gold embedded within us
Photos: Dwight L. Roth
Today is Quadrille Monday at d’Verse; and De Jackson asked us to write a Quadrille (exactly 44 words) using the word stone! I took these photos on Saturday when we were at our local park, not knowing when I would use them. This seemed to be the perfect time.
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Blowin’ in the Wind
Summer travel plans
blowin’ in the winds of change
Geese fly overhead
Photo: Dwight L. Roth
Real or Reflection?
Real or Reflection
Normal or reflection of normal
in our changing world
*
Reality
skewed makes many question
what is real and what is just a reflection;
*
Reflections of wishful thinking and deceit
bombard us with every click of the key
with every click of the channel
*
What was once foundational
now undermined
becoming the skeptics challenge
making one wonder
“What is Truth?”
*
Photo: Dwight L. Roth
Time Tumbler
Time smooths sharp edges
Mellows rigid perspectives
Time opens our blind eyes
Seeing others as equals
Colorblind // first step to peace
*
Time shakes us up
tumbling through our little
blip of eternal sinus rhythm,
spitting us out like grape seeds
to be replanted in another
place and time
*
Time sometimes just
swallows us whole
Painting “Splitting Space and Time”: Dwight L. Roth
Today at d’Verse, Laura asked us to look at the use of repetition in our poetry. Epiphora, from the Greek means ‘to turn about/upon’… and is used to drive in a point through poetic repetition. I am using the word time in my poem to show how we flow and change in time itself.
The painting is an abstract that I did a number of years ago. I thought it fit well with my theme!
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Shattered
Stones shattered // scattered
Revealing Earth’s upheaval
Iron-powdered sandstone
Ocean waves grind away cliffs
Even Rocks crumble with time
***
Photo: Dwight L. Roth
Fossil Fuel
Fossil Fuels made the steel that built this country. The coal fields of South Western Virginia, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia were rich in bituminous coal. Miners labored long hours in dark mines to extract the coal from the land. Steam trains carried it to the Steel Mills of Pittsburgh, where some of the best steel in the world was manufactured. But, as with everything else, times have changed. Climate change is bringing an end to the coal mining era, leaving many people of rural Appalachia wondering how they are going to feed their families. With the winds of change comes the push for solar and wind to replace coal. So what do we tell the people of rural Appalachia??
Bluefield coal train
Steam engine labors upgrade
Only songs remain
***
Miners dangerous decent
Forgotten // lost in the wind
Painting by Dwight L. Roth
Sand
Mountains majestic / rising tall above us all
Solid and strong they stand immovable.
Until shaken, they crumble and tumble;
their strength broken and their high position
brought low, scattered across the landscape.
You see, mountains are simply rocks waiting to crumble…
Even the tallest mountains turn to sand in time.
Sand is the great equalizer!
Photos: Dwight L. Roth
Roth Poetry 