poem – Page 9 – June Paisa Perkins

The Bystander

Domestic Violence hotlines can be found here

WHITE RIBBON HOTLINE NUMBERS

DV Connect

I have found that social issues have been preoccupying my mind; foremost amongst these: domestic violence.
I think of the people suffering this in silence.
I wonder about those of us who might find ourselves bystanders.
What can we do when we suspect this happening?
This is the first draft of my first poem on this topic.
In this one I am concerned to ask the ‘victim’ what do you need me to do.
This first poem I wanted to be plain speaking, direct address to the victim
What do you want me to do?
I think there will be more, as I do more background research.

Tell me how to help you
I see you look so sad

I can see it in your eyes
The way he makes you lie

I can see the strong control
He makes me stay away

Yet I want to be your friend

View original post 150 more words

Dust (workshopped version)

Reworking Dust… the process of editing.

Ripple Poetry

Creative Commons Flickr – Anna From Dresden

I reworked this poem recently, by reading it aloud and discussing its meaning with my daughter. Reread the earlier version if you like. DUST ORIGINAL POEM

I enjoyed our working process so much that we may repeat it on some of my other works.

DUST

“We cherish the hope that through the loving-kindness of the All-Wise, the All-Knowing, obscuring dust may be dispelled and the power of perception enhanced, that the people may discover the purpose for which they have been called into being.” Tablets of Baha’u’llah, Ṭarázát (Ornaments)

Dust
obscuring
covering
settling
coating the everyday of the soul

A thickening mantle of swirling
loss
regret
anxiety
confusion

Self-doubt
surrounds
impounds
confounds

Questions asked of a higher power
astound

The shape of the soul unfurls
feathered tips of wings
for a moment, visible
faith
connection
certainty

Divine breeze released by words
chanted

View original post 24 more words

Ballad of the Boots

Ripple Poetry

Creative commons – Free Image

Sonto Mum

My boots are made for sleeping
I’ll never take them off again.
My feet are made for keeping
Those leathery brown boots.

My heart is made for boots
They are the world to me
& if you take them off me Mum
I’ll scream the whole house down.

My boots they sing me songs
As the crackle in the night
My heart is made for weeping
For my hand-me-down brown boots.

Mum to Son

Son, I wish you’d take off those boots
For they are lethal weapons as you sleep.
I know you love them deeply, truly, madly
But they do not make your parents
Meet the morning mildly mannered.

If you stayed asleep on your own bed
We’d have no problems with your obsession,
But as you creep up into ours

I’d rather your boots were dreams
& not your midnight…

View original post 112 more words

Country Boys and Country Girls

Ripple Poetry

Image by June Perkins

A song lyric

Country boys and country girls
dream more than sugar cane.
Country boys and country girls
want more than endless rain.

They’re picking stars from skies above.
They’re catching pieces of the moonlight.
They’re running to the canopies
of light.

Country boys and country girls
often hide their pain
but they’re still holding
onto all their dreams
looking into the firelight
to find the global streams.

They’re picking stars from skies above
They’re catching pieces of the moonlight
They’re running to the canopies of light.

Country boys and country girls
often leave these towns
‘cause when the pickings done
there’s too few jobs around
and when a cyclone’s been
it’s even harder still
but now they’ve just got to
have a stronger will.

So they’re leaving behind the sugar cane
they’re saying goodbye
to endless rain
And they’re still looking
for the canopies of…

View original post 74 more words

Dust

Ripple Poetry

Creative Commons Flickr – Anna From Dresden

Dust
obscuring
covering
settling
coating the everyday of the soul in
a thickening mantle of swirling
loss, regret, anxiety, confusion

Questions

Surround
impound
confound
and then

Astound

Divine breeze
released by spiritual words
chanted, sung or said into
Air
becoming light through melody
and memory
beyond dust

Peeling away veils

Visible for a moment
the sense of the soul’s shape
free falling
into
faith, connected, certitude
unfurling
feathered tips of wings

Then air filter light warning
the arrival of
more dust . . .

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