Caroline Gerardo's Blog, page 13

Rattle Snake Poem

Poem A DayIs it possible to consolidate thoughts into meaningful forms?
Prepare the sway to drain off, as not to stagnate.The constraint builds a chain link fence around a treasure.Trench for a silt fence, around the squirrel holes and rabbit dens. Use a narrow shovel as not to injure some infant mice.
Hit a rattle snake in error.
He scurries away, as men do with broken pride.
Then he surfaces at night, a foolish attempt on the first warm night of spring.
Amelia, a barn owl who hunts from the roof of my house,
spots him moving in the moonlight.
A fight ensues, and she wins, taking the meat of his body to the sky, leaves a piece to rot in the meadow.
A game of hide and seek;
for bow flys to discover and clean up the mess.
The odor of death is the same for all of us.
We reside on this earth inside fences, caves,
and cabins safe only as long as chance allows.I don't believe in a God who knows the moment Amelia willdie, or why your soul suffers worse than a guy in a Maserati.Be careful when digging, and it is not a gas line may blow,
or to disturb a den of dormant terrorists, yes, we livehere in fragile tissue balance where barbed wire that keeps
us inside also cuts to death.
Caroline Gerardo © copyright 4/16/2018

Pumpkin Snake

Pumpkin SnakeSpring snakes singing outheat crusts their burrowssignals to waken to findsilver feathered mice, hide in pumpkins,and apple blossoms on theearth waiting for them toplay and scare me silly.I'm building a silt fenceover the mesh wire buriedin front of the chain linkto keep out the rattlersa critter evil surprisedstrike me when I forget leather gloves, snake chapsand sharp shovel to keep mygarden safe from some crazyking who steams his subjectswith nerve agents and say they meant to kill the bugs and rats 

Copyright Caroline Gerardo April 2018 Poem A Dayt

ABC Poem

 I'm missing teaching the alphabet

Answering every question with a: "yes, here's how."
Believing I fix things after watching a UTube video.
Cleaning ears of our Golden Retriever named Honey.
Dancing to music composed on a Stratocaster guitar.
Enlightening your mind to constellations over earth.
Feeling appreciated by the gestures, notes, & smiles.
Greeting sunrise with a rosary and packed lunches
Having courage to do motherhood and fatherhood solo
Investigating the clicks on the home computer for evil
Judging after hearing lies from blinking eyed faces
Knowing car repairs when no Moms know how to
Listening for the front door to open when your home
Managing the payroll check with the mortgage money
Nagging when you can study longer, or do an extra lap
Organizing the drawers, bagging stuff for the Veterans
Planting heirloom tomatoes next to the herb garden
Questioning the Principal about school safety plans
Reading the tandem books in your syllabus
Searching graveyards for new rose cultivars
Tallying statistics for Frosh JV and Varsity Lacrosse
Underlining the legalese to change the contracts
Verbalizing prayer, plans, praise, and elation.
Waiting for your call that requires my advice
X husband pays for nothing criticizes particulars
Yawing in the morning under dark Tule fog
Zzzz is not sleep it is the diligence of my mind.

Love,
Mom




and more
Stopping the leak of the river of the world
Planning for
Saving for goals

Copyright Caroline Gerardo April 11, 2018 A Poem a Day

Roland Reiss

" Ars longa, vita brevis occasio 
praeceps Art is long, life is short, opportunity fleeting,experimentation perilous, and judgment 
difficult.
:Ὁ βίος βραχύς,ἡ δὲ τέχνη μακρή,ὁ δὲ καιρὸς ὀξύς,ἡ δὲ πεῖρα σφαλερή,ἡ δὲ κρίσις χαλεπή."

Hippocrates
Roland Reiss Poem 
on my 10th day of 
National Poetry Month 
Poem a Day


Roland Reiss at Claremont Art Museum celebrate a return to history ~not a retrospective, peeks in his past. Color bombs cultivated to outlast. 

Miniatures in plex-cases reveal 
narratives laid out in minute detail
diorama  natural   history. 
lifelike scenes offer a view of story.

Watch a television melodrama
endings determined in the spin around
movies playing out without the three acts
from a peephole, viewers discern the facts.

The paintings also share high principles
buried brushstrokes under dirt road washboards,
glossed color medium gives such a sheen,
stinking aroma of permanent green.

Amaryllis opens on time Christmas
captures forced a 17th Century bulb
and tulips as the Dutch Masters did save
Reiss tames cadmium yellow to behave.

Disney, The Capital and winged airplanes 
humming low under Matisse colored sky.
Not wild lupine, these cultivars create
music by the Master that is first rate.
Caroline Gerardo  ©  copyrights reserved April 10, 2018

Please see his exhibition
"Unapologetic Flowers and Small Stories"

Poem To My YOUNGER Self #wtwrites

A Poem to myself many years ago.
Fear nothingthe highestsilo cannot stifle growth.
Practice hourly,daily, dream,drum untilarms ache.
 Plan newclimbs they saycannot completeor flew before.
Wake earlysmile before the sun hits smoke horizon.
Save moneyharvest likea worst yearstore energy.
Love manywhen they ripthe soul, plantseeds for more.
Make mistakessave the scabsmix in the mortarbuild YOUR life.
National Poetry Month Poem a DayCopyright  ©  April 10, 2018 Caroline Gerardo

Moshen Namjoo

Moshen Namjoo on poetry, form and rhythm.  در شعر، شکل و ریتمنUSC Lecture April 2018

Yosemite Closes

Yosemite Waits For StormYosemite closes due to impending blizzard.
Language is a storm that prevents camping.


4/6/2018 Copyright Caroline Gerardo
Poem a day
National Poetry Month
This one is short

Egg Shell Poem

Lost Egg ShellTiffany blue skinchocolate spotsNo yolkNo chickNo violent death
Not a suicide from nest,Not a reject dumped out,
Probable murder by raven.
A hedge sparrow, a house martin,& a goldfinch calls out in sorrow.
Mother skulks in shadow,she prays the chick peeps. 
Did the crow pick the moss nestas I pick the bowl of Jelly Bellies?
Avoid caramel corn, buttered popcorn,cantaloupe, toasted marshmallow,cinnamon Harry Potter boogers...
Flavor is only in the shell,inside is gooey duck jelly that protein a crow hunts.
The mother sees Lazuli Bunting babyluminous in sapphire, sapphire, citrinebut he is a russet potato feathered boy.
don't judge by the colors,one nightingale shares300 love songs
Above the flavors I don't bite into
Copyright  ©  Caroline Gerardo April 5, 2018

What a Monster Needs Poem

What a monster needs
Press cider vinegar to rinse off slime.Cheer up bath bombs, aroma fills the pond.Orange fake suntan removal of thyme.Peroxide to turn grey hair into blonde.
What a monster needs
Coconut oil to scrub sharp amber teeth.Bramble rose wire to keep mouth silent shut.Perfume necklace of a bay laurel wreath.Duck tape on bloated rotten stomach gut.
What a monster does to hide his hate.



Caroline Gerardo copyright April 5, 2018
Winter Tangerine poem # 5 Prompting a poem a day for April but no promises about keeping up 

Ghazal Garden

Ghazal for an entry without a fee.
A black lettuce wrap sandwich for my sinDon't tell my vegan daughter she'll cry seaApril is poem a day month for old me.
Anxiety grows at night under cardboard.


Sparrows tumble from my throat, is to saySnakes eat Araucana eggs on their wayAmelia’s boys keep cabins in the wood.Aphrodite’s sacred birds kept at baySolitary life,  they did not dismay.
Peaches, blood oranges feed the blue jaysPaul, young son loads the truck for market dayCoffee becomes compost, chicks are tradedSilkie Bantams warm in Matelasse bedsSunflower seeds dry in a crumpled way.
Tires go flat over the dirty road frey.The boy shares his lunch with a passeridaeShe calls tik tik as rock sparrows do flyWish him good fortune, yes, which is to sayWaste not, be kind, work hard C. G. each day.




A woeful story ///  you want to replay.
Daughter told me never eat at Chic fil AThe C. O. O is ju ju ~  ~        Dan Cathywe should shake our fist at chicken and sayOff to hell the phrase "my pleasure" all day.
Copyright © Caroline Gerardo April 4th 2018 
images, video and poem no permission rights granted