As winter turns to spring, I feel time fleeting by. I remember persevering during the winter months, as difficult as that was. Each day, I found one small way to unwrap twisted yarns. With bereavement counseling and support from my therapist, I walked away from each session with a spirit of hope.
Time is fleeting. It floats through peaks and valleys. Nature moves backwards, then forwards. The sunshine of spring turns to pounding rain today. Somehow, it is therapeutic as it roars and then subsides into the darkness of morning. Nature nurtures my soul. Winter turns to spring. In its magical space of sunshine covered over by the grey of rain, I find hope floating in the air. Grief comes and goes like fleeting time.
I ponder how I can poetically explain grief as it pours itself over me on dark days that transform into spring's warmth. I lean on spiritual faith and the power of nature to nurture and restore my grieving soul.
"This Spanish poem bundles ten lines, made up of 3 rhyming couplets interspersed with three verrry short lines, and a quatrain. The last line is a redondilla, a little round that collects all three short lines and casts off the poem, as it were."
FLEETING TIME (Format List)
1. How does time slip away each day? (8syllables)
2..It finds a way. (short answer)
3. Does time have power over me? (8 syllables)
4. Love lasts. (short answer)
5. Is there a balm for every soul? (8 syllables)
6. To make us whole. (short answer)
7. hough grieving moments spike, fade, roll, (summaring quatrain starts.
8. Fleeting hours drift, I don't stray.
9. My heart endures with hope I pray.
10. Find a way. Love lasts. Make me whole.
"Time is our friend in that it is the only thing that can dull the sharp edge of grief, although it can't end our grief, which is forever."
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The Poetry Friday Roundup is a wonder of challenges today. Besides it being the end of the month Poetry Sisters' Challenge, our Poetry Friday host, Marcie Flinchum Atkins is celebrating twilight. Her newest book, When Twilight Comes, is coming out on March 31st. Teachers and librarians can find activity copies for the book at her blog site. 
As always, you've shared such a rich post, explaining so much and breaking down how you made it all work with the ovillejo, and sharing so much else. Winter does always turn to spring - a movement slow and inevitable, but true. Courage, friend.
ReplyDeleteOh, Carol, it's beautiful. Once again, you opened your heart and your poetry flowed forth from there. "Winter always turns to spring" is something that we all need to remember, always. Your final words, "Make me whole," touched my heart.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, make me whole fits in nicely with the Restore My Soul line: Renew my heart in every part. That song has taken through many difficulty these past months.
DeleteCarol, I was "Anonymous" above (somehow had signed out of Blogger.) xo
DeleteOh my gosh -- your final line works so well -- I think that's the trickiest part, to make that read naturally. Time does fly...
ReplyDeleteCarol, your Ovillejos poem is heartfelt and heartrending. You pave the way through these difficult days with understanding and the love that sustains even during your grief.
ReplyDeleteI love your twilight poem, twilight tiptoeing and nature curtseying. I know what you mean about how rapidly a sky can change (comment on my post). I only got one pic of that gorgeous sky. The additional ones were different and not nearly as striking as the first. I'm glad I headed out with my camera when daughter-in-law mentioned the sky.
Ramona, thank you for commenting on my Oveillejos poem. I appreciate your thoughts, my friend. I am so glad that you found a layered sky. I have never seen anything so striking as your sky pic. Being with your daughter-in-law while taking that picture was a family duo moment. Enjoy the weekend. Tomorrow the church is having an Easter Egg Hunt if the weather is sunny with no rain. That will become one of my slices.
DeleteCarol, thank you for sharing your poems. Your heartbreaking Ovillejo and your beautiful twilight poem. Thank you so much!
ReplyDeleteYour ovillejo turned out beautifully and said all the things you need to hear.
ReplyDeleteCarol, your words and even your image, depict the complex and heartbreaking web of grief that is wrapped around you. As your poem says, time slips away as the emotions morph and change, but do not leave. You highlighted phrase, "winter always turns to spring" offers hope to all who grieve. My thoughts are with you.
ReplyDeleteCarol, if grief were a simple thing, we would be able to turn it off like a faucet. It isn't, though. Sometimes it feels like we take two steps forward only to fall back one pace. But just as spring follows winter, we start falling back less and less. Yes, there will be those days just as spring has its gloomy days. But the sun and the warmth are there waiting for us. Thoughts are with you as you continue your journey toward the sunlight. Bob
ReplyDeleteBeautiful Carol and such openness of grief and words that not only comfort you but also comforts others. I remember my mother saying something very similar to your words "winter always turns to spring." My mother would quote Hans Christian Anderson's character Waldemar DAA in the fairy tale "The Wind's Tale": "After winter comes the spring." It like your words is full of hope. Hope is what helps us live through grief.
ReplyDeleteHa! Funny we were on the same page with this Carol! Your words are deeper though, mixing grief with the change in seasons. Well done. P.S. I never read anyone's post before I write mine - so I hope you don't think I copied. The words of others can get in my head and it's hard to work around them.
ReplyDeleteCarol, I wasn't brave enough to even attempt the ovillejo, but yours works well. I read it as time and the speaker collaborating in making the speaker feel whole. Very nice.
ReplyDeleteCarol, I believe that your Ovillejo is one I hope you share where you can for others to feel hope, too. It is so heartfelt, full of truth for all who will need it, now, or some day! I copied it so I could remember! I also love that "twilight tiptoes in". Sitting here late afternoon, all of a sudden, I notice that it has, and time to close the shades! Thank you for sharing so much beauty!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing these two gorgeous poems Carol, really enjoyed your Ovillejo—"is there a balm for every soul, " hopeful I think, and hope it brought you some solace, perhaps the writing of it. The curtsy in your haiku is lovely!
ReplyDelete