Category Archives: Week in Review

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 19 March 2017


Happy Sunday. Though I try to spin goodness and hope into my day to day I must acknowledge the fact that I am also a creature of my environment. I imagine that I am given a clean slate to write upon each morning, new in its graces, but it is not long before I realize how daunting that is. It is a balancing act on a fragile tight rope. It is exhausting. It’s impossible to blot out the never-ending stream of lunacy that bombards me even on the sunniest of mornings. Even if I try avoid all media and the cacophony of negative spin, lies and negative vibes, it is always there. Reality.

How does one rise above? How do I continue to press toward the light when I know that darkness is an inevitable end of each day. This week we turned our clocks forward to save the daylight, but the night still comes, cold, dark, sometimes scary, haunted by shadows that block streams of artificial light. Even the moon is a reflection. Try as I may I cannot hide from the darkness of the night any more than I can hide from the dark elements of reality.

But I’m still an optimist at heart. It’s there. The ugly. It will always be there. At the risk of appearing totally bonkers I still greet the blank slate I am given every morning with hope because beauty, goodness, love and truth are also realities in this crazy world of ours. They may be harder to find in the harsh light of day or hidden in the shadows of the night, but they’re there too. Today, every day, has great potential.

I leave you with this week’s Shi Sai and the paraphrased words of the Wizard of Oz, “Pay no attention to the frantic little man behind the curtain.”

Have a great week. Spring is almost here! 🌱🌸🌻🌸🌱
Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 19 March 2017

like breathy kisses
the old house was a writer
ever chasing the light
those who twist the truth
impossible to hear
it’s better this way
a fading memory
set in rock and sand
blossoms of love
from heaven’s vantage
stones etched mysteriously
eden softly dawning

~kat

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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 – 12 March 2017


Happy Sunday! During the wee hours of this morning we lost an hour here in the US. Sixty minutes made up of sixty seconds made up of nano-seconds…moments lost in our quest for more daylight…moments.

It makes me think about how I use the moments that I have. I like to complain about that lost hour of sleep. I like to argue that it makes little sense to add an hour of daylight in the Spring when the days are gradually lengthening on their own. Any mother of young children will tell you that daylight savings time is a nightmare when it comes to convincing their children, whose circadian rhythms know something is amiss, that it really is bedtime when it is still light outside. They have a point. There is even a recent article at Reuters that suggests even the slightest change to our sleep pattern is bad for us.

As if we believe can control time by shifting the clocks forward…who do we think we are? And yet…

We are each in control of how we spend those nanoseconds…those seconds and hours. We can fritter away time fretting or we can take control and seize the day. We decide who we are and how we react to each moment we are given.

It’s true, we live in troubling times. But we are not victims or innocent bystanders. None of us can afford the luxury of wasting daylight or even the dark night by giving up on our dreams.

I have always believed that the best way to respond to adversity is by pushing back. It’s messy. It’s hard and exhausting. But we are not the first generation to face challenges. We owe it to our ancestors as well as to future generations to make the most of time. We owe it to ourselves to seek the treasure to be found, even amidst the ashes.

It’s not about saving daylight. It’s about shining the light on what is right and just and good, and recognizing the light to be found in ourselves and others that matters most. Clocks are just disks with sweeping hands and numbers. Let YOUR light shine. Time’s a-wastin’!

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 12 March 2017

they forget who we are
she wasn’t crying about a broken glass
bring us days of blissful peace
days of wine and blooms
bellowing bursts of cold breath
on that day she will play and play, and the people will dance once again
tell me what happened
you know it’s true
I saw a different side

Oh

destruction’s embrace
it helps to be an odd bird
some may think you’re a lost fool
whisper, lovely in pink

~kat

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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 – 5 March 2017


Happy Sunday. Wow! Normally I would be trying to make sense of the lines that I lifted from the past week’s posts. But today, as I sit outside in the bitter nip of winter, the birds are trilling as if it is spring…like mercury colliding…moments of unexpected clarity…consume me…

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 5 March 2017

Simplicity, just being it, is best
Everything happens for a reason,
the past best left to ashes
but I always smile as if…
to have a do-over
Touched by the divine
its light burns fog into mist
A life of worry
It’s a waste of time
The cruelest fate
It is such a waste
But plenty
had to see if the rumors were true
to slip anonymously through the crowds
feel their presence ever so near
as a great flash of light consumed them
beware of the glitch
I see your heart
the loveliest flowers
Color me

~kat

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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 – 19 February 2017

Another week, another Sunday of looking back. The second line of this week’s Shi Sai was troubling to me when I read it back for the first time. “God is not there to listen”. What does that mean? Why am I troubled by this?

True enough, the world is a noisy, obnoxious place. I am guilty myself of zoning out; muting the cacophony that grumbles for my attention day after day, endlessly, mercilessly, ad infinitum, ad nauseam. I do it to maintain my sanity. Does god worry about maintaining sanity? I wouldn’t blame her if she did.

Just what is it that I expect from a god, a deity or a higher power? Does god exist to make my life heaven on earth, or more specifically…

…to help me pass the exam I didn’t study for?

…to land me that promotion or raise or fortune that I didn’t work for?

…to move the traffic along; to give me green lights all the way to work because I indulged my own laziness by hitting the snooze button once too often?

…to heal me or my loved ones; even thwart death, making us all immortal in a world where everything dies?

…to win the argument or war that I have stirred up in god’s name…when it is really my own selfishness, greed or self righteousness that needs defending; that needs to win?

…to make this person or that love me, appreciate me, see me?

…to fix my furnace, car, toaster or unclog my toilet?

…to fix the mess I’ve created for myself and others through my own actions?

…to make everyone just like me, and if they refuse to get in line, to make them go away…forever?

…add your own “please god” here…this is by no means an exhaustive litany…

We let ourselves off the hook too easily by repeating “god is in control” when the shit we’ve hurled at the fan comes back to slam us in the face. -kat 2017

We’d really like to be able to “let go and let god” and “surrender all” but those “come to Jesus” moments usually hit us when we are in the thick of chaos of our own making. It’s the ultimate “get out of jail free card”, absolution and immunity from accountability. An “in control” god gives us reason to praise and celebrate when the going is good, while taking personal credit for our own good judgement for having had the faith to believe. And when things go bad? We cry out, stomp our entitled feet and gnash our teeth toward god who we believe has “forsaken us”; who has stopped listening.

It’s complicated. What do I really expect from god? In all my wailing and pleading and groveling I think I’ve missed the point. And the point is not whether or not god is listening. 

The point is, am I?

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 19 February 2017

the dreary gloaming makes me weary
God is not there to listen
a stubborn squatter with a frosty bite
“Tomorrow,” he sighed
I don’t need chocolate or flowers
bits of bread and stale saltines
sight is relative
the deafening silence had an unintentional consequences
I just don’t want to be left behind
it has no value
frail shells of starved flesh
the sea is calling
a speaker’s nightmare
what’s most important to survive
nature secretly longs
bread, day old, crumbs to sustain
what I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall

~kat – 18 February 2017


Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 12 February 2017


Well, it’s Sunday again and I’m happy to say as I write this, and if you’re reading this, we’re all still here. I have to admit, it’s been touch and go for a few weeks. Still, the sun and moon have kept to their schedule. We even saw a comet pass by with little fanfare or disruption to our day to day. In fact you might be tempted to think that it was a normal week, or at least as normal as anyone can expect…except…

There were a few collateral casualties this week, depending on your point of view, on a whole host of battle fronts…education, speech, equality, ethics, justice, retail profit and loss, immigration, environment, freedom, separation of powers, diplomacy, and healthcare. And as a final exclamation point to wrap up the week, North Korea launched a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan (no it wasn’t the aforementioned comet…that happened too) while Japan’s Prime Minister golfed with the president at his Florida resort residence.

But many people probably missed all of this because…well because the sun and moon kept to their schedules this week. And that’s okay. Following current events is a daunting task after all and not for the faint of heart. Fortunately there are those of us who persist, nevertheless.

So, no worries. I hear the sun is scheduled to rise again tomorrow morning. Those of us who concern ourselves with the details, with the minutiae of the day, who are not afraid of the dark, who persist…and who resist will keep the light on for you. Have a great week!

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 12 February 2017

So, this is an “alt-clerihew”
but that was not his mortal sin
their family grows
separated, what a pity
but here’s the thing
your days were numbered
denying reality
Liberty’s a bearded fellow
return home to the freedom of the sea
Love is everything
just as I believed…
Drum roll paleeaaze
those who curse the rain
beguiling, mesmerizing, looming
unless they’re a duck
spinning alternative facts
ferocious and wild
easily flustered, weak and unruly
keep us in suspense too long
not that I notice such things.

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 specified period of time. I use it as a review of the previous week. 😊