The Traveler

Summer is the season for families to embrace the spirit of adventure as they travel to familiar and/or faraway places.  Travel allows all to relax, rejuvenate, and savor the beauty of the world.  Over one hundred years ago, poet Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not."   I'd like to think that our journeys will allow us to savor all our life living moments.

On the road of life, we are the travelers.

The above photo, sent to me by Al Dhalla, invited me to write about peacefulness and the importance of being present.  The image poem is part of the #EmbraceableSummer Gallery collection. 

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In open spaces

of late summer,

sunrise quietly dawns.

Yogis solemnly salute nature's majesty.
as nature silently paints a fiery sky

above the shifting sands.

Tranquility settles in.

Quietude achieved.

©CVarsalona, 2019

May your day open with peace and end in love.

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Today is Tuesday Slice of Life at Two Writing Teachers.  Join me.

Reflection at Sunset

The timeworn idiom, "One man's trash, is another man's treasure," is one that has become a statement of truth for me. Last week, writing friend, Linda Mitchell, opened up her box of "clunkers" for Poetry Friday friends to choose and turn one into a poem, a keepsake treausre. My choice was flitting, fluttering, flying. I immediately was drawn to those three words because of the alliteration. The words flowed off my tongue in such a lyrical way that I knew they could work for me. While Linda may have turned it aside as a clunker, I brushed it off and repurposed it.

I hope Linda agrees that her passed on words paired with a stunning photo will become a treasure for my Abundant Autumn Gallery. In addition, the words fit nicely into the context of my week that had me flitting from place to place, fluttering in and out of professional development projects, and sending my voice flying. A gorgeous nature photo by #chazchaz from South Africa brought to me by one of my PLN friends, Al Dhalla, combined with Linda's words allowed me to play with language and find the inspiration to write. 

I now present Linda's clunker incorporated into my poem, Sunset Dreams. 

   Sunset Dreams

   Sunset ignites in indigo skies.
   Flitting, fluttering, flying
   words pop-up, wiggle, wind
   into a universe of ideation,
   cleansing and fortifying 
   the sanctity of thought.
   In the sweeping indigo sky,
   serenity settles in at sunset,
   laying thoughts to rest.
      ©CV, 2019

Photo by #chazchaz via Al Dhalla

Now I am off to Poetry Friday to post this offering. Our host this week, Buffy Silverman, has a wonderful review of Rick Lieder's book, Hello, I'm Here. This book is sure to delight children with its vivid photos of a newly-hatched baby crane chick who relates her story through a first-person poem. Buffy followed this review with an original poem, Advice to a Baby Chick, she wrote for Today's Little Ditty June Challenge.

Within Winter's Reach

This year, Lady Winter shared her sense of beauty with the world as she created multiple headlines. She walked the season's runway dressed in various apparels, ranging from frosted snow dustings, gray skies, dampened rains, and patterned ice, providing me with inspiration to create my own digital designs and digipoetry.

Golden Shovel Poem

I started with the strike line, The dust of snow, from Robert Frost's poem, Dust of Snow at https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/dust-snow.

Lady Winter tiptoed into the

dawn spreading frosted dust,

Pausing for wide eyes of

wonder to marvel at her artsnow.
©CV, 2019

©CV, 2019

Line Lifting 
"One must have a mind of winter" and "For the listener who listens in the snow" from Wallace Stevens' poem, The Snow Man.

One must have a mind of winter
to breath in nature's frosty breath,

whisper into the chilled wind,
and be awed by the magic of the dance

in early morning light.
For the listener who listens in the snow,
winter peace is within reach.
©CV, 2019

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Tonight Jone MacCulloch is hosting the Cybils Award Party at her blog site, Check It Out. I am excited to see some author friends' names mentioned as finalists. Time to join Jone. You can access the list of Cybils winners here.