dancing in the rain
at nature’s cloudy party
—Terri Guillemets
dancing in the rain
at nature’s cloudy party
—Terri Guillemets
We all have those moments in our lives that transform us — something small or big happens and we’re never the same.
Sometimes we remember these moments in our personal histories as leaps, or falls — or just serendipitous wanderings — from one life segment to the next.
Or we mark them like stars on a map of self — constellations of life-changing moments. Some seem crazy small and wouldn’t even register as stars in others’ systems. But in our own they blaze bright.
Or maybe our days are raindrops and our lives rolling clouds and these moments are lightning strikes. Raindrop days, lightning-strike moments.
These maps and moments imprint our souls, our minds, our memorious hearts. Our stories of self are made from them.
—Terri Guillemets
It’s peeking round the corner
Playing hide and seek
I see its icy fingers
A frost’d rosy cheek
Days fall ever shorter
Autumn’s air is chilling
Warmth no longer lingers
Wild things are stilling
—Terri Guillemets
Grief cries and life shines on — and hope paints a rainbow.
—Terri Guillemets
Spring is the green
is the peace
is the breeze
and the blossoms
and the blues
past the buds
to the pinks
on the brink
and the warmth
and the warbles
and the weeds
all the yellows
and the bees
and the buzzing
living branches
and the grasses
and the gardens
and the growing
and the blowing
of the pollens
oh! the purples
and the chirples
of the birds
and the beauty
and the butterflies
in the skies
and the sun—
Springtime’s fun!
—Terri Guillemets
—Anonymous, The Queries Magazine, 1890
Fall, temperatures, fall, fall! Let the weather mellow and the year drift into peacefulness.
—Terri Guillemets
Spring: the music of open windows.
—Terri Guillemets
Wind tries to show Tree how to run wild.
Tree: “I cannot leave this place.”
Wind: “Then let’s dance.”
—Terri Guillemets
We live in an Arizona desert town
where winter is brown and green
and summer is green and brown
with 300 annual days of sunscreen
our autumn’s unreasonably warm
and springtime is mostly too hot
here we live for every rainstorm
and the seasons—well, they’re not.
—Terri Guillemets
icicles are daggers of beauty
thrown by winter’s sunshine breath
—Terri Guillemets
Welcome, Winter. Your late dawns and chilled breath make me lazy, but
—Terri Guillemets
P.S. Thank you to all who let me know about King Features Syndicate and USA Today using this for their “Cryptoquote” on
I drifted into a summer-nap
under the hot shade of July
serenaded by a cicadae lullaby
to drowsy-warm dreams
of distant thunder…
—Terri Guillemets
P.S. Thank you to everyone who let me know about USA Today and King Features Syndicate using this poem for their “Cryptoquote” on July 5th. It is quoted as: “I drifted into a