Tag Archives: Lyrical Poems

Oh Beautiful, Colorful Tree . a poem by Alice B. Clagett

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Written ca. 1957; published on 15 April 2021

Dear Ones,

This was the first poem I ever wrote, when I was eight or 10 years old, when I was just learning cursive handwriting. As I recall, I may have been inspired to write the poem after reading the poem “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Still today I feel that trees are my friends. I am not above talking to my friends the jacaranda trees in front of my house. They like it when people speak to them … They say no one ever does, here in the City of the Angels … It cheers me up to cheer them up.

I remember how triumphant I felt that I could write a poem, although I could see it was nowhere near quality of the beautiful poem by Joyce Kilmer. I thought I might like to set the poem to music, but I never did. As can be seen, I have gussied up the punctuation and spelling …

Oh Beautiful, Colorful Tree
A Poem by Alice B. Clagett
ca. 1957

Oh beautiful, colorful tree —
Beauty that no bounds know.
Perfectly shaped, perfectly formed,
With no leaves displace to show;

Gently caressed by the wind —
Caressed with motherly care.
High above the sun-filled meadow —
High as the birds of the air,

Where did you get such bright colors —
Colors so rich and rare —
And in winter take such forlorn looks —
Looks so distressful and bare

Then in spring burst into bloom —
Bloom so green and radiant?
These things I sit pondering o’er
Pondering o’er in wonderment

But now I must continue —
continue on my way
Yet – Wait! the soft breeze whispers —
Whispers and seems to say,

The Supreme One has made me —
Me in all my might
Makes me change with the seasons —
Seasons so pretty and bright

Yes, the Ruler of all made me —
Ruler of All, Ruler of Right.

Image: “Oh Beautiful, Colorful Tree 1,” handwritten by Alice B. Clagett, ca. 1957, CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: “Oh Beautiful, Colorful Tree 2,” handwritten by Alice B. Clagett, ca. 1957, CC BY-SA 4.0

. . . . .

–from Link: “Oh Beautiful, Colorful Tree,” a poem by Alice B. Clagett, written ca. 1957; published on 15 April 2021 … https://wp.me/p2Rkym-mm8 ..

……….

Alice B. Clagett

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Except where otherwise noted, “The Chalice and the Crucible” by Alice B. Clagett … https://chaliceandcrucible.com/ … is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0) … https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ ..

 

Lincoln, Look! . a poem by Alice B. Clagett

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LINCOLN, LOOK!
A Poem by Alice B. Clagett
amongst her early works

The sun is a young man.
How the ocean flirts with him.
How the warmth of his touch rouses her
How she fragments and multiplies upon herself
. . . . . . . . in a thousand changing places
. . . . . . . . the thousand changing faces
. . . . . . . . of his glory.

Lincoln, look!
The sun is an old man.
How he disdains his menstrous wife
for his moist mistress.
How jealous moon will not allow
Ocean to sleep under his hand.

. . . . . . . . No sleep, and mother of so many.
. . . . . . . . They should invent a pill for her.
. . . . . . . . Would she think it unnatural?

No mind. From time to time a piece of her
Settles in some dead sea
where, for lack of change, it grows more bitter salt
than its changeful aspect ever knew.

Change is her nature and her tears nourish
all her children.

……….

Alice B. Clagett

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Except where otherwise noted, “The Chalice and the Crucible” by Alice B. Clagett … https://chaliceandcrucible.com/ … is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0) … https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ ..

 

The Girl Who Rides the Whale . a lyrical poem by Alice B. Clagett

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Journaled on 11 June 2003; published on2 7 July 2019

Dear Ones,

What do whales do
when raw wounds gape?

They have
no hands to touch and heal
There are
no bandaids for a whale

Must they then give
their wounded selves
wholly into Ocean’s care?

So like our hearts
waiting to recall
that vaster sea that buoys us

Like the girl that rides the whale
I yearn to shed this frame and be
more

Not this or that

Past what this little mind conceives

Beyond these words
and any thought of me

. . . . .

Alice B. Clagett

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Except where otherwise noted, “The Chalice and the Crucible” by Alice B. Clagett … https://chaliceandcrucible.com/ … is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0) … https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ ..

 

Hold a Candle . a poem by Alice B. Clagett

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Written on 5 May 2019; published on 31 May 2019

  • VIDEO BY ALICE
  • SUMMARY OF THE VIDEO
    • Hold a Candle, A Poem by Alice B. Clagett, Soundtrack and Words

Dear Ones,

Here is a poem written during the monthly creative writing class I attended at the beginning of May. The stance of the poem I feel to be good for me as a neutral observer of humankind.

Elsewhere in my blogs I express the stance I would take were I a transvestite (a crossdresser) or transgender person dealing with the Ascension clearing process through the Incoming Light. That process also involves neutral witnessing, I feel, but of a different sort: In that field ‘beyond right and wrong’ (to quote the great mystical poet Rumi) each of us stands alone with God, and assesses the what and wherefore of our human condition, the causal incidents of our Soul wounding, and that ruthlessly truthful Awareness that leads to an ever brighter Body of Light.

There is a Summary after the video …

VIDEO BY ALICE

SUMMARY OF THE VIDEO

Hello, Dear Ones, It’s Alice. I Am of the Stars.

At writing class last month, we had an assignment to write a story that included certain words. Each person in the class contributed one word at that moment; and the words were: candle, crutch, soar, sadness, transvestite, and excitement. 

My gift to the class was a poem that included all those words. Here is that poem for you; the title is “Hold a Candle” ….

. . . . .

Hold a Candle
A Poem by Alice B. Clagett
Soundtrack and Words
5 May 2019

 

Hold a candle
Find a light
Hold it high
Against the night

What’s a hindrance?
What’s a crutch?
Find the surest
Healing touch!

Soar in laughter
Sink in pain
Sense the level
Strong terrain

Sadness catches
One and all
Then allows us
To recall

How excitement
May sustain —
Double, triple
Each small gain

Trust that
Each transvestite’s fear
May find comfort
Somewhere

Hear their yearning
Sense their call:
I’m God’s child
As are we all.

……………

–from Link: “Hold a Candle,” a poem by Alice B. Clagett, written on 5 May 2019; published on 31 May 2019 … https://wp.me/p2Rkym-cVB ..

Alice B. Clagett

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Except where otherwise noted, “The Chalice and the Crucible” by Alice B. Clagett … https://chaliceandcrucible.com/ … is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0) … https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ ..

 

Sheets of Light . a poem by Alice B. Clagett

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Written on 13 April 2019; published on 14 April 2019

Image: “Woman Hanging Out the Wash (‘La blanchisseuse ou femme étendant du linge’), by Berthe Morisot, ca. 1881, in Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Berthe_Morisot_-_Woman_Hanging_Out_the_Wash.jpg … public domain … DESCRIPTION: Woman in long skirt, blue apron, and long-sleeved white blouse, arms uplifted, hanging clothes on a clothesline. The artist conveys the effect of white, shimmering light on the clothes, the woman, and the background vegetation.

Image: “Woman Hanging Out the Wash (‘La blanchisseuse ou femme étendant du linge’), by Berthe Morisot, ca. 1881, in Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Berthe_Morisot_-_Woman_Hanging_Out_the_Wash.jpg … public domain …

DESCRIPTION: Woman in long skirt, blue apron, and long-sleeved white blouse, arms uplifted, hanging clothes on a clothesline. The artist conveys the effect of white, shimmering light on the clothes, the woman, and the background vegetation.

Dear Ones,

Late yesterday afternoon, after Palm Sunday Vigil and communion with the holy congregation, I was driving home, and I wrote this poem …

. . . . .

SHEETS OF LIGHT
A Poem by Alice B. Clagett
13 April 2019

Light came down in sheets and folds
. . like cake mix falling into a cake pan
. . like clothes-pinned billows of wet sheets
. . . . .that fold and snap in a wild breeze
. . like Heaven slaloming
. . . . . through the streets.

Now, now is the time.

Dearest of the dear
Nearer than the breath of life
Faster than silver-footed thought

More sure than mother’s love
More curious than cats
More glorious than sunlight
. . caroming past Palm Sunday

Oh my Soul, remember!

……………

–from Link: “Sheets of Light,” a poem by Alice B. Clagett, written on 13 April 2019; published on 14 April 2019 … https://wp.me/p2Rkym-c9k ..

Alice B. Clagett

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Except where otherwise noted, “The Chalice and the Crucible” by Alice B. Clagett … https://chaliceandcrucible.com/ … is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0) … https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ ..

 

Dian’s Steel White Armour . a poem by Alice B. Clagett

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Published on 15 February 2019

Dear Ones,

Here is a poem from college days, to do with the look of the countryside in winter …

. . . . .

DIAN’S STEEL WHITE ARMOUR
A Poem by Alice B. Clagett
amongst her early works

Dian’s steel white armour stilts a jagged landscape.
Flesh dies with winter, colors recess
and the bared bones of bleached children cry to cold winds.

The crotch of the black barked elm, powdered with snow
like a withered woman upturned, flaunts her indecency.

Summer, gentle lover, bee busy decked her with flowers.
Fall garbed her riotous. The cold lust of his breath
scattered her sage modesty. Remnants wither under
winder’s frozen tears.

Age notwithstanding, she tickles his beard with her toes.
Time will bring her newer dresses, aye, but the waiting is dreary.

. . . . .

Alice B. Clagett

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Except where otherwise noted, “The Chalice and the Crucible” by Alice B. Clagett … https://chaliceandcrucible.com/ … is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0) … https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ ..

 

Kitten Dawning . a poem by Alice B. Clagett

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Published on 15 February 2019

Dear Ones,

Here is an early poem …

. . . . .

KITTEN DAWNING
A Poem by Alice B. Clagett
amongst her early works

What ligature compounds this melody?

Awake! The day has just begun!
The animal has wreathed herself beneath my arm
fending the light.

Awake! The shuttered windows perpetrate the sun!

She swarmed into the air, danced there, reneged
grooved deep beneath the sheet
and humpered breathlessly
in the warm, golden darkness.

. . . . .

Alice B. Clagett

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Except where otherwise noted, “The Chalice and the Crucible” by Alice B. Clagett … https://chaliceandcrucible.com/ … is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0) … https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ ..