Tag Archives: Shi Sai

ReVerse Poem – Sunday, 11 June 2023

Happy Sunday! It’s time to look back on the past week and glean a thought from each day. And what a week it has been! Thank goodness for poetry! It helps keep me sane, draws me out of my head, and helps me remember to breathe…even if only for a conscious moment when I realize that I am holding my breath, yet again.

Some weeks, like this one, are just cloudy with good chance of left shoes dropping like rain…all hail about to break loose when we least expect it. True story…we have had so much rain that the gutter drains are forming trenches through the soil in our yard. I’ve never seen anything like it!

And metaphorically speaking the poles are entrenched as ever…with the hysterically woke on one side, and the angrily ignorant on the other. The forecast is daunting, but we’ll get to the other side just like we always do… slow and steady right through the middle where most of us huddle.

I can’t let myself stress about it. I won’t let myself stress about it. This morning is particularly spectacular, sun—kissed, green and sparkling, the birds happily singing, foraging, the wild blackberries are pink now, plumping up, a few weeks to ripe. What a glorious day, and I am so grateful that I am alive to see it!

Peace to you!


ReVerse Poem - Sunday, 11 June 2023 

moonlight, a glimpse of her heart
the way for grace to flow free
in crimson, sweetly fragrant
coloring outside the lines,
where possibilities wait,
it is only noise
warm breath on my skin

~kat

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.


ReVerse Poem – Sunday, May 21, 2023

Whew!!! This week’s ReVerse poem is a whopper. I’ll blame it on the Landay, and the gut-wrenching, emotional, evocative tone of this short, sharp, to the point form. I’m not sure this stream of lines makes sense this week, except…it is very much like life itself. The highs, the lows, the joys, the sorrows, the incredible amount of grace it takes to get up every morning and do this thing called living again and again. The grace it takes to find gratefulness in being granted one more go at it. Peaceful journey to you. Remember to breathe and don’t be afraid to feel the feels! It makes life, all of it, worth living! 
ReVerse Poem ~ Sunday, May 21, 2023

when I smile, it’s me being kind, not flirtation.
In my youth, god was a mean, old man...
The blood of children is on your hands
birthing is a beautiful, exhilarating mess.
There are women I don’t understand,
How are we so different from them,
My love knows me well, every cell
Do not kiss me only with your mouth
it’s the pleasure you take harming innocent lives.
a weapon of hate wielded by carpetbaggers
I’m afraid if I tell you the truth
We are not free, to feel what we feel
even in her distress, she weeps grace-filled fragrant tears.

~kat

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.


A ReVerse Poem – 14 May 2023

It’s been a fortnight since I did a ReVerse poem. In that time I explored the Elfchen and the Than-Bauk, with a detour into a magnificent spring day! A happy digression. 😊 I must say, I love this ReVerse poem. All those short little micropoetry lines add up nicely. I imagine it is because the brevity of short form forces one to be succinct. At any rate it is a good look back!

I hope this day finds you well and happy. It’s been an overcast damp few days here on Bramlett Mountain, but I can’t complain. Everything is magnificent! Green and lush. How many springs have I rushed through on my way to summer? I am just glad that I am finally noticing the gift of spring. It would have been such a shame to exit this life having missed it! Peace, love, and spring bliss to you! 💚🌷💚


A ReVerse Poem - 14 May 2023

gather ‘round the bonfire
solving the world’s problems
work to live
treasured gifts
idle chitchat
sunlight tendrils streaming through
day fading into night
me, watching you
don’t say, “love you”
you make me wait
how green the earth
my cue to breathe
assuring us all is well, all is well
‘til the page turned
fine lines were real
they were deceived
charming untruths
joy and tears…
mind your business
I could go on
takes a pure heart
funny thing, bliss

~kat

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.


A ReVerse Poem for Sunday, April 16, 2023

Happy Sunday!  I decided to give today’s Reverse time to simmer. When I started it a week ago it just didn’t seem ripe. And in the process of reviewing, I made a few tweaks here and there. Most notably yesterday’s limerick poem which was atrocious in form…where was my head? To save you the trouble of revisiting said disaster, I’ll leave the edited version for you here: 

Uncle Ned

Old Uncle Ned, a likable guy was he
An affable charmer, the cousins agreed
He made the kids laugh
For his jokes were quite daft
Made us wonder what was in his tea!

At least now it is a proper limerick that actually follows the rules and rhymes!

And secondly, I added a line to my diatribe from Friday, “a brief moment, lost”. As if I didn’t rant enough, there was one more thought left unsaid. You know how that goes, when the floodgates open and you finally unload everything you’ve been holding onto. Then when you walk away there is just one more thing…that “I wish I would had said” moment, but it’s too late. Well, that’s the beauty of the written word. You can edit it. So if you will, indulge me this final word, my “and another thing”. I’m including the context as well to give it full due…

…I have learned to look them
straight in the eyes, dare them to
objectify me, to present my own
ideas, and tell them it’s time
to make their own damn coffee…
and while they’re at it, bring me mine.

To say that the past several months have taken a toll would be an understatement. But much like the wonder years of being a “mother of 4 under the age of 4…how did I ever do it?”, and later a mother of 4 teenage daughters, I’m finding my stride as a full time official senior citizen, still working full time and now, caring for a spouse who is incapacitated from complications of a major emergency surgery in January. If nothing else I am a survivor. And much to my own surprise I still have plenty of spunk left in me. Life is such a gift! Through it all, I think I needed to be reminded of that.

A ReVerse Poem for Sunday, April 16, 2023

like a nightmare frozen in the sky
is it ghosts, god, or me I hear
how climactic
we dare not want
leaving no stained rock unturned
I’m just kidding (but you’re thinking I’m not)
I’m paying for the demons of your past
In waves she sweeps me off my feet
it’s on the internet
stirring up words, uninspired
let’s bring in the cows
They lied to us you know.
He made the kids laugh

~kat

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. 

A ReVerse – 8 January 2023

It seemed a good time to assess the past several weeks of verse by crafting a ReVerse. I had every intention of doing a sevenling daily in the new year for January…then work, duty, and caregiving got in the way. Still, it is a good start to a new year, one of which I am optimistically hopeful. 

Even though 2023 promises to be a shitshow on the world’s stage. The inmates truly in charge of and running the place here in the US now, and elsewhere insanity is raging unchecked…unprovoked aggression and cruelty, war crimes, nuclear saber rattling by unhinged egomaniacs, lingering COVID. It’s a mess. But we are a resilient lot, we humans. And there is still, there is always a reason to be grateful for each second of breath, of life.

Take care of yourselves, be kind, don’t lose hope, embrace the moment. Peace to you.


A ReVerse - 8 January 2023

the trees will show me
a wise soul will surrender
in our hearts we know
the winds come
the sum of a life
wisdom to ponder
beauty in simplicity
anything but bleak
singed with loss, happy milestones, grief…
for all these beautiful years…decades
there's something in the air, conjuring the dawn in afterglow
was it barbarians at the gate caused Rome to fall, or complicity?

~kat

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.