Category Archives: Social Issues

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 9 July 2017

There is a full moon outside my window. The sky is almost cloudless and the moonlight is washing everything in a pale frosted glow. 

During the day when the sun is bright and high in the sky we are told as children not to look directly at it for fear of damaging our eyes. But it is in the cool shadowy hours of the night when we can gaze directly at the sun’s reflection on the face of the moon. It is not in fact moonlight that we see, for the moon has no light of her own, but it is the sun’s reflection. 


Sometimes I feel like the moon. Face half hidden in cool gray matte while the other half brightly glows … or like the moon in its phases, in full face glow or completely hidden, shadowed in gray. 

I need to remind myself that I am not a moon. I am not meant to be a reflector of everything around me. But that can be a daunting task when faced with the troubles of our times. It seems so much easier to turn inward when the going gets rough. 

But the truth is I am much more like the sun. Reminds me of the little Sunday school song many of us happily sang as youngsters…”this little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…let it shine…let it shine…let it shine. 

We can’t afford to brood; to become reflectors of light hoping to deflect the darkness, because we are suns. If we don’t let the little sparks within us shine the world will just get darker.  

Thank goodness for the dawn and its daily reminder that offers an example to each of us to rise anew, to be light and hope, warmth and healing from the inside out. 


“This little light of mine…I’m gonna let it shine…let it shine…let it shine…let it shine…Have a wonderful week. Your light gives me hope.

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 9 July 2017

nature’s song in green
got her
it was a good death, as deaths go
but it could be true
parched, we are drowning
those who dream dance on
their dreams frail as dust
to greening flush and browning
driving us mad
with longing
as though they are gods
out on digital screens

~kat

A shi sai or ReVerse poem 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 shi sai features the words of one writer, providing a glimpse into their thoughts over time. I use it as a review of the previous week.


Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 2 July 2017


“Happy Sunday!”

“Happy, you say?!”

“Well, in a transcendental, metaphysical, quasi-spiritual, dreamy, optimistic sort of way, yes, happy. And it is a fact that it is Sunday…unless you reside in the Far East…then it is almost Monday…but I divagate.”

“You what?”

“Divagate….as in digress? Remember? The new word we learned this week.”

“You’re such a diva!”

“Am not! You are! But back to your original question, ‘happy, you say?!’ … yes, I take it you’re not.”

“Well, how can anyone be happy when everything in the world is spiraling out of control?”

“Take a Dramamine?”

“Come on! Global warming, a heath care bill that is going to kill people, an insane, mean old man running the country, Russia (need I say more?), collapsing infrastructure, the assault on our public schools, voting rights, gerrymandering, voter suppression, nationalism, travel bans, ageism, misogyny, racism, homophobia, religious profiling, insane tweets, the wall…”

“Feel better yet?”

“No, I’m just getting started. And just you wait. Tomorrow something else will happen to prove  we’re all up shit’s creek without a paddle. So forgive me miss giddy twinkle shoes if I can’t be happy right now! I’m mortified! It’s terrifying!”

“Oh, but you can. Be happy that is. It’s all a choice. It only takes a second.”

“Harrumph! Delusional you mean!”

“No. Happy. Right here, right now, this moment. Let me show you. First, close your eyes…now think about something that makes you happy.”

“You mean used to…”

“Give it a chance. And you opened your eyes…start over. Close your eyes…think happy something…anything. Got it?”

“Yeah. Okay now what?”

“Now take a deep breath in. Imagine yourself completely enveloped by your happy thing…don’t breathe out just yet…imagine…okay now…slowly…let it go. Feel better?”

“I do actually. I get it. I remember. Thanks self for pulling me off the ledge one more time.”

“Don’t mention it. We’re in this together you know. Happy Sunday?”

“Yeah, I’ll give you that. It’s happy enough, given the circumstances.”

“You’re exhausting!”

😳😊😟😉😜😀😢😣😐😘😌☺️😒😅😮

And…welcome to my world! My mind battles itself regularly. Yeah, the world is a bit, chaotic these days, but it’s important to unplug when it gets to be too much.

We’re gonna survive this, like we have survived every trying time in our history. I’m not going to tell you, “don’t worry, be happy”. That is a bit delusional, and it is important to stay engaged as a member of “we the people”. But…there is nothing wrong with divagating into your happy place every now and again.

Look! There goes a butterfly! A beautiful graceful butterfly…and there! Look! A flower! Oh, and I just noticed someone being kind…Wow! It’s not as hard as you think.

So…Happy Sunday y’all! I hope you can find your happy, if even for just a moment, this week. Just remember to breathe. ❤️

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 2 July 2017

If people only knew
never say it…only
smoldering remains
weeps perfume when crushed
from obsidian to glass
Some souls find heaven in hell’s corridors.
look! a butterfly!
divagating tweeted blips,
because that is what those with the truest hearts do
softly
magic is in the air
make love bloom
dreamers ask,
“why not?”

~kat

A shi sai or ReVerse poem 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 shi sai features the words of one writer,providing a glimpse into their thoughts over time. I use it as a review of the previous week.


The Untied States of ‘Merica (No, it’s Not a Typo)

Photo by Ottavio at Pixabay.com


The Untied States of ‘Merica (No, it’s Not a Typo)

I don’t think you’re evil, I don’t
misguided, blind, naive perhaps
and I’ll just say it, I am hurt
to learn the things that you believe

when did the rock-a-bye bough break
I don’t think you’re evil, I don’t
when did we cross that great divide
where no one wins and wrong is right

I’m not sure how to fix this mess
not sure that we should even try
I don’t think you’re evil, i don’t
but you, but we, are different now

and I suppose it’s for the best
we’re not the first to meet this fate
when ideology meets hate
I don’t think you’re evil, I don’t

~kat
(A Quatern)


Complicity

complicity proves
no one can steal a soul
that’s freely given

~kat

For Haiku Horizon’s weekly challenge inspired by the prompt word: Steal.


Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 4 June 2017

There is little one can say the morning after another round of hate-filled violence. When one of us suffers, we all do, be it at the hands of terrorists or nature herself as she burns and heaves from our neglect and abuse. Blessings and peace to our friends in the UK.

Certain oligarchs may try to separate our nation from the world community, but they do not speak for the majority of us who watch in horror and disgust at their reckless and greedy actions. It’s not important to name him and his ilk. We have seen the likes of them before.

History has proved us resilient in times like these. In our ignorance and refusal to heed the warnings from the past, we may find ourselves doomed to repeat it. But I do cling to the hope that just as our ancestors were able to turn the tide eventually, we too will be able to right the course we are on.

There is still so much goodness and joy in this world. When sorrow looms, remember that we are here because those of good will before us pressed on.

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 4 June 2017

darkest of times
was it reincarnation
she teases her clueless guests
just beyond the lattice weave
like the yin and yang
it was much too soon
but the tempest has no power over memories that emerge in the hearts of those left behind
sinkers dipped in morning brew
how the gullible gobble up lies
vile cesspools called sinkers
we can wish
for healing
we are prisoners
again, we mourn

~kat

A shi sai or ReVerse poem 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 shi sai features the words of one writer,providing a glimpse into their thoughts over time. I use it as a review of the previous week.