Category Archives: Essays

December 1, 2024

A ReVerse for This Time of Uncertainty

Skyline Drive, Virginia 2024 – photo by Kat Myrman

A ReVerse for This Time of Uncertainty

I expected to feel magic
how tempted am I to lose myself here
with pieces of you and you and you
I don’t mind
when the unknown looms just beyond
we humans are a cruel race
how weary she looks

in another lifetime
time steals away before you know
surrendering to the whirlwind 
justice buried alive under the heap

but…her roots run deep
we cling to hope as winter closes in
it’s hard to ignore the elephants
when the tempests rage

rest deep sweet seedling
dare to dream.
breathing light 
dares a blue-sky world
hey, what if?

~kat

It’s been a minute since I dared to look back to chew on past musings. So much has changed, or at least presents the threat of unwelcome change. At least to me and roughly 74+ million souls. But it felt like time for another ReVerse.

While I am not sure, as none of us truly can be sure, what the future holds, I am sure, as a daughter of light and love, as a survivor, and a fierce fighter for justice and truth, as a mother, as a warrior, as a crone…I am sure, I am steady, I am a safe place, I am a light in the darkness. No matter how things might change, no matter how fierce the coming storm might try to break me…to break us…I am not inclined to change who I am. Who I have always been. I am. Yes, I am. Nothing can change that.

Peace, Love, and Light. Seize this day. This very moment and breathe a deep breath in…and slowly exhale while taking it all in, your surroundings, the stuff of life in your tiny corner of the world…and feel how beautiful it is to be. ❤️

A ReVerse poem (a practice I started many years ago) is a summary poem with a single line lifted from each entry of a collection of work over a particular timeframe and re-penned in chronological order as a new poem. Unlike a collaborative poem, the ReVerse features the words of one writer, providing a glimpse into their thoughts over time. I use it as a review of the previous week…or in this case, over the past several months.

11 Comments | tags: digital photography, Poetry, ReVerse | posted in 2024, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Life Lessons, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Reverse Poem

March 24, 2024

autumn to winter to spring – a ReVerse Poem

By Kat Myrman

It’s been a minute…three seasons in fact, since I collected lines from previously penned poems and constructed a ReVerse Poem. The intriguing thing is that it seems as though I have landed right where I started…face toward the sun. Another odd thing I noticed was a repeat separated by months of me thinking myself silly for thinking. As Alice was known to comment, “curiouser and curiouser”.

I’m well into the second year of the new normal thrust upon us by a series of unfortunate medical events. It still feels foreign to my partner and me. When you’ve spent decades planning a certain thing and the universe throws a plot twist into your best laid plans… well, I suppose we are still grieving. Spring will be a welcome break from the dreariness of winter; its warmth and sunshine a healing touch. Just what we need.

The hummingbirds will be returning soon. Life does go on…yes it does. 🥰🌱🌼🌞🐣🦋🐝

autumn to winter to spring - a ReVerse Poem 

her full face at dawn
burdened with secrets and
lessons from the past ignored
silly me for ever thinking 

drawing us deep into the one
to sleep at the feet of our mother
the in between has lost its charm

when hope was a thing
I caught her smiling
she slumbers, dreaming of spring
once upon a time she was fierce, 

how silly of me to think it

it keeps me up nights
I see it clearly
it’s time…turn your face to the sun

~kat

11 Comments | tags: digital photography, Poetry, ReVerse, Shi Sai, spring, Week in Review | posted in 2024, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Reverse Poem, Shi Sai, Week in Review

January 21, 2024

reflections

By Kat Myrman

I’m a bit late to the 2024 party. As fate would have it, I was exposed to not just one, but two nasty viruses on Christmas Day at a family gathering. First to darken my door was the flu…a nasty strain this year…and then, just as I was feeling human again a week later, on New years Day, COVID finally got me (a first for me). I suppose I’ve joined the herd. If not for the booster I got last November, the doc said I might not have faired as well as I did. Still it was not how I planned on ringing in the new year! Anyhow…we’ve been snowed in for a bit…things finally melting, and I snapped this view out my front door this evening. It blew me away. I am so grateful for the beauty that surrounds me. For each sunrise and sunset. I hope you and yours are well.

Before I close out this post, I must share another view of the photo above. I applied a mirror filter to it and lo and behold, there she was right there reminding me Gaia, (as I imagine her at this time of year) sleeping amongst the roots, deep underground waiting for spring! What a gift this slight of photo editing produced! Isn’t she amazing!!! If you look at the original, you’ll see her peeking out at you. Sometimes it takes a mirror to see things more clearly.

It’s a reminder to me that it’s okay to rest (I’ve rested a lot this year). A new year need not be tackled all at once. We have 365 (actually 366 days this year) to live the promise of 2024.

I wrote a little haiku too. Of course I did! Peace and much love to you!

gaia suspended

deep beneath the snow
she slumbers, dreaming of spring
winter lingers long

~kat~

21 Comments | tags: 2024, digital art., digital photography, essay, gaia, Haiku, Poetry | posted in 2024, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Haiku, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Spirituality

September 3, 2023

A “Mash-Up” ReVerse Poem – Sunday, 3 September 2023

By Kat Myrman

Well it’s been a week. Took time away from my day job to catch up on a few big projects at home. Here in the US we call it a staycation but don’t let that close kinship to the word vacation fool you. Staycations are anything but relaxing, recharging, getaways because, as the name implies, one “stays”. All this to say after an exhausting week, I only managed to pen three poems. I really like the shadorma though, and will give it another go next week when life settles into normal.

With only three days worth of inspiration to glean from, I decided to do a full harvest of verse taking each line in sequence from each day. A mashup reVerse poem if you will, rather than waiting for another week to assemble adequate content. Amazingly, it works.

We’d less to say, the silly chores did not wait, but I have a much cleaner garage to show for it, several appointments finally attended after having been canceled when life sidetracked our plans, and I got a few naps in…boy did I need those.

I’m looking forward to this coming week, getting back to my day job and the routine I’ve perfected over the course of this challenging year. I’m still exhausted but it feels oh so good to be able to find a hammer when I need one!

Happy September and impending Autumn to you! The cooler mornings are exhilarating! 😊

A “Mash-Up” ReVerse Poem - Sunday, 3 September 2023

a day off
clouds hang low
this I know
with so much to do
a blanket of mist
when nothing seems true
but I’m trapped
dawn is east
underneath
on treetops 
dusk is west
two hundred pounds of pure love 
cool rain droplets dust my face
the sun rises, then it sets
silly chores can wait
this could be heaven
the moon lights the night

~kat

5 Comments | tags: Challenge, digital photography, Mash-Up, Poem a Day, Poetry, ReVerse, Shi Sai, week in Reverse, Week in Review | posted in 2023, Challenges and Writing Prompts, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Poetry, Reverse Poem, Shi Sai, Week in Review

August 27, 2023

A ReVerse Poem ~ Sunday ~ 27 August 2023

By Kat Myrman

Tried something a bit different with this week’s reverse poem. It actually covers the past two weeks. When I put together last weeks verses, I felt it needed more. So now I’ve included those short snippets in italics as background thoughts around the longer verses from this past week’s roundup. I think it works. It took a little more effort but it speaks to me of life right now in general.

Crazy as things may be right now, there are always flickers of beauty, splendor…magnificent. We can curse the dark clouds when they come billowing in or we can embrace the cool refreshing rain. It’s our choice. We have opportunities every day, several times a day in fact, where we can choose light over darkness, gratefulness over bitterness, goodness over evil, truth over lies, kindness over hatefulness. And especially this past week I have been keenly aware of the ways nature encourages us to look deeper. To find treasure in the midst of weeds. If not this, then we’re just taking up space and wasting air.

Choose beauty, light, love and truth my friends. It’s there…I promise! 🥰

A ReVerse Poem ~ 27 August 2023

like heavy fog settles in the hollows
     in a rush, longing for
dusk settles the dross
     you’re thinking…it’s worth
twenty-thousand serendipities to savor
     or two crows
when gaslights endlessly flicker
     …who saved who?
where swelling creeks giggle over rocks when it rains
     love, kindness,
     before hatred…trauma 
monsters don’t hide in closets, under beds, or in the shadows these days
     they assured me
there is always an element of sweetness in the bitter

~kat