City-desert nightwalk

early summer, late at night
pleasant sweet-smelling air
clouds veiling a half-lit moon
Scorpius crawling up the sky
tree-hid birds awake chirping
lone dog barking in its yard
startled stray cats darting
crickets playing insistent songs
quiet of people gone to bed
mellow breezes gently stirring
damp-grass lawns subtly cooling
street lights too brightly illuming
saguaro blooms softly glowing

—Terri Guillemets

Poetry of spring

Springtime is a poet —
the blue sky its blank page
so vibrant green in rhyme
a different metre for every clime
birds chirping to keep the time
wildflowers yellow, red, purple divine
words dancing on tall blades of grasses
sparkling in the morning dews
no commas the flow keeps buzzing
vernal dashes & blossoming branches
on newly greening verdant trees
refrains whispering in each breeze
butterflies — floating apostrophes
ladybugs dot floral question marks
blissful bees stray stanza to stanza
seeds disperse from verse to verse
continuing a poem that’s never ended
and into summer’s colors is blended

—Terri Guillemets

Sky-happy

foggy heavy-gray teary-eyed low-hanging
snow-stuffed melancholy winter clouds

impulsive wayward turbulent thick-swift-dark
tempestuous hail-angered storm clouds

sprinkling lighthearted fanciful breeze-drifted
rainbow-nestled April-hued springtime clouds

enormous white-fluffy fairydust-fringed
frolicsome sun-illumed carefree summer clouds

thunderous intense restless rain-soaked
lightning-streaked July-dyed monsoon clouds

azure-skylit sunglow-slanted edge-gleaming
white-silver billowy contemplative autumn clouds

vivid vibrant blissful dawn-lit joy-beamed
daybreak-florid sunrise-tinted morning clouds

aimless airy midday-lazy wandering listless
mountaintop-floating leisurely afternoon clouds

amber-ablaze day’s-end-pink ephemeral-amethyst
evening-welcome smoky-embered sunset clouds

lambent star-flanked luminous moon-halo’d
glowing shadow-painted skygazers’ night clouds

—Terri Guillemets