Pause to Enjoy Fall
Ah crisp, cool mornings with a nip in the air
Trees changing color, dropping leaves everywhere.
The weather is perfect – indeed it’s sublime -
Then I check my computer inbox and what do I find?
E-mails from dozens of political campaigns
Each pushing their candidate, hopeful for gains
In the poll standings as time ticks down
I delete them all quickly wearing a frown.
I tried blocking the sender only to find
There are so many my muttered words are unkind.
Then I open my mailbox and what do I see?
Pamphlets galore – oh dearest me!
There is only one solution that I have found
Walk through my garden where fall flowers abound.
Yes, Montaup daisies, asters, and of course many a mum
It’s a temporary reprieve which works to keep me numb.
Enjoy the fall, take time away from political hype
In evenings gaze at stars that cast soft light.
Watch first for the Harvest then await the Beaver full moon.
And draw comfort from knowing it will all be over soon.
Sandra Little, Newbury NH
The Politics of Trees
In autumn trees reveal their truth.
Life becomes simpler.
I am able to look
deep into the forest,
deep into my own priorities.
Although it is the season of politics,
trees have no opinion.
I sit beneath an ancient oak,
branches gnarled with age
like my own hands.
All I hear is said in whispers
in a melodious thrum
reverberating
in roots beneath me.
I watch as the last leaves fall.
The only fanfare is the wind.
Later it may be time to speak.
Now it is time to listen.
Jennie Pollard, Windsor, VT
Taking a Pause from Politics
Turn off the television
Stop the rude news programs
Get rid of the spiteful advertisements
They just use them for harsh slams.
Let us sing a hearty song
To brighten the heavy air
And free us from turbulence
Let us go to the down country fair.
Let us stand up and be brave
To bring civil conversation to friends
As we go to make our legal vote
Try to remember not to follow trends.
Take time to reflect on life
Don't let this turbulence turn you away
For all we do to make this all right
If you turn our back we all will pay.
Rachel Seamans, Wilmot, NH
Not Taking a Break from Politics
With our votes
we used to reward statesmen,
candidates who put
country or state or town
before self, whose allegiance was to
the public good and the Constitution.
In Claremont in 1995 President Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich,
in response to a request from a Claremont senior citizen
who asked them to “clean up Washington,”
held what they called, significantly, a joint town meeting.
Seated side by side,
they never raised their voices.
They didn’t argue.
Both were respectful to the audience
and each other.
Both first praised the Stevens High School band.
When Clinton asserted, “we owe you our best efforts,”
Gingrich nodded yes.
Sealed with a handshake,
both agreed to
a process of negotiation
where possible.
Where they could,
they would work together.
Claremont voters and the country’s
demanded no less.
The current stakes are too high
to take a break from such politics.
Nancy Marashio, New London NH
Whistling Down the Wind
We’ve all been through an awful lot
in 2024,
It makes one wonder what comes next
can’t take it anymore.
Election’s almost over now
it’s well within our reach,
Trump’s dodging whizzing bullets while
Joe has hit the beach.
Kamala’s in a tizzy
she doesn’t wish to speak,
The press excoriates the lot of them
the public’s reached its fit of pique.
It’s time to find a common cause
acceptable to all,
It’s time to whistle past the graves
of those closed minded - petty, small.
David Balford, New London NH
Pausing From Politics
What if there were no internet
no media, no phones, no constant voices
calling Doom and Fear and Look-at-Me?
and warning, Anything outside the cyberworld
is cancellation?
What if there were no charts of spikes and dips
to rule the churning of emotion’s seas,
no daily cocktail hour of home-brewed myths,
no taking of the temperature of the body politic?
Now, if you point to fallen skies
that lie in shards around your feet
no one will see, for everyone’s
out surfing trends in vaporous clouds
that mock what were our heavens.
Those prattling trinkets are just noise—
Yours is the only voice that speaks to mine,
except for drowsy birds at evening time
and squirrels chipping from their lofts
and the whispers of the wind through pines.
Those tiny screens are jealous petty-gods
Demanding our fixed gaze on them
Instead of everything that lives and breathes and moves,
so that we’d never see dawn’s rising fire,
we’d never find the stars.
Joan T. Doran, New London, NH
Political Pause
There is no pause in Politics
it has always been with us
from 1776 and on
Politics has long been around
a basis to agree or disagree
on ideas Pro and Con
We all should take an interest
in the issues we are all to face
always voice our views
Then along will come the Media
to fact check and dissect
publish in the news
The political news is here
our daily dose appears
on it we all thrive
Take it with a grain of salt
with Himalayan Sea Salt
so we may all survive
Political Pause?
No such thing.
W. D. Tighe, New London NH
Political Sabbatical
I am taking a pause from presidential politics
permeating almost every facet of my life.
For one week, I will toss all election paraphernalia
in the waste basket before I even leave the post office
thinking about the money going to waste and the
promises they all contain. This also means I will
have to give up my electronic devices for the duration
of my political sabbatical since they are saturated
with double sided partisan commentary. No car radio
either, just Sirius playing classic vinyl. I could get used
to this. Learning to remember to bring my Kindle reader
to waiting rooms where I might be tempted to breeze
through complimentary newspaper headlines. I am quickly
learning I might have to go into forced social isolation
finding out, after one day of practice, that presidential
politics is what every one wants to talk about.
And robo calls mean not answering any calls from unknown
phone numbers. But wait! Even my adult children on
opposite sides of the political spectrum want to talk
about my vote. I am starting to believe my desired
pause is only a dream that can take place
on a desolate island where any inhabitants speak
a language that is foreign to me but my reverie is
shattered when I envision them all wearing political t-shirts.
Dianalee Velie, Newbury NH
Taking a Pause
We talk about the baseball games, of the score, the player’s names,who’s on top, who’s all done, laughing together—all for fun.
We concentrate, no wish to swing, to the subject we know will sting, changing a pleasant conversation, into hostile interrogation.
So we speak in temperate voice, not of the great impending choice, but of colors—brilliant reds, yellow, orange turn our heads.
As we visit, munch on cake, wiling hours for their sake, we dare not mention in the room,of elephant’s and donkey’s loom.
Patsy Barrett-King, Newport, NH
Expectations
Put away your expectations today
They become burdensome and not attainable.
Put away yesterdays footprints and travels
They deal with revolving things that can happen again.
Put away tomorrow's laid out road maps
They deal with the hypothetical.
The sun calls you to absorb today's life, amid learning and observing
Giving you an escape from all that goes on around you.
Enjoy the companionship of others and what they offer
They often wish to just relax.
Let your worries disappear like dew drops
Into the glistening glory of nature.
Gather graces and contentments into your soul
Like sweet hosts of cinnamon and sugar.
Tom Keegan, Bristol NH
I Travel a Path
Snares of boxes
Vinyl bags
Remnants of a city life
Textiles
Art Nouveau
Prints matted in raw silk
Clothing
Fabrics
Dark colors ready for the theatre
Opera
Captured live on
Long Playing Records
Below
Train wheels
Screech on metal rails
The man
We both love
Climbs
Worn steps
From Spuyten Duyvil
Harlem River at his back.
Kathleen Shulman, New London NH
(note to the reader:Spuyten Duyviltranslated from Dutch: “Spouting Devil” referring to tidal currents)
