Scarecrow

I am just a scarecrow dancing in the dark,

No one wants to play with me,

When I’m at the park,

It seems I am not like them,

I have a funny face,

I walk a different way,

I think at slower pace,

My stuffing’s always falling

Out upon the ground

And though my face is smiling

Inside I wear a frown,

Not because I’m angry,

But because I’m sad,

I only want to be included

In the group so bad,

So off in darkness is where I dance

Upon my secret stage

Where no one can deride me

For the games I play,

No sees the dance I do,

No one hears my song,

Still, I keep on singing,

In hopes that I’ll belong.

~Kathie Adams Brown (October 12, 2012)

• One Single Impression 
• Prompt 241: Scarecrow

A River Flows

When tragedy comes,
A river flows
from my heart is a great swell of tears and emotions
and I am swept away
only to be tossed upon the shore
farther along in my life
bruised and battered
by the rocks and debris
lying unseen beneath the churning rapids.

Then, tossed upon the sand;
lying in the gravel,
my heart thunders in my chest
until it gains its quiet.
And I lie there in the sunshine
or the moonlight,
whatever the case may be
and breathe earth scents
and water, and life,
and rise again.

~Kathie Adams Brown (October 12, 2011)

One Single Impression


Prompt 189: River

The Artist in Me

There is an artist in me,

A stirring in my soul, a creativity I need to indulge,

So why do I deny it?

Art must be honored,

Preserved,

Expressed.

I will find my way out there,

And inward,

To that busy place,

Quiet place,

Active place

Of creativity.

~Kathie Adams Brown (October 5, 2011)


OSI Promt 188: Language

A Symphony of Silence

Silence…Is a blanket of calm

Wrapped around me—

A stillness in my heart and my soul,

A quiet place of peace.

Silence…is a gag

Holding back my words,

Restraining my thoughts,

Restraining my voice,

Keeping a secret,

Allowing a lie to exist.

Silence is the non-sound

Of wings in the night,

Falling on prey,

Swift and sudden,

Unheard and unknown,

Then it is over.

Silence…is the sweet calm in the night,

The soft rocking of a chair,

And a newborn finally asleep.

~Kathie Adams Brown (August 14, 2011)

One Single Impression Prompt 181: Silence

Bobolink

In a sea of green waving grass you flutter
up in jubilant song
black feathers, yellow and white excitement,
with notes incomprehensible,
a melody that captures the heart and
raptures the soul
in one glorious exhibition,
one small bird
in a hay field
in spring.

~Kathie Adams Brown (May 20, 2011)


One Single Impression Prompt 168: Exhibition

Abundance

Abundance is more than food

or drink,

It is a fullness of heart,

a thankfulness,

a contenment in the soul,

a serenity.

It is a warm and quiet place to eat your breakfast

On a cold winter’s day.

~Kathie Adams Brown (1-20-11)

One Single Impression

Monument in the Park

As a child I crossed the road
to the Civil War Monument
in the park across the street
from my grandparents house
where my siblings and I
rolled giggling down the green slopes
that raised the stone soldier
to the sky

names chiseled into the sides
have become lichen-covered,
faded, and forgotten
the slopes seem more gentle now
and not nearly as high

are all monuments like this
created in moments of grief
to honor the dead
who fought for us
and now
generations later
while a new war rages
and our children play on green slopes
will we remember our soldiers
and build new monuments to them

I don't want a monument.
I just want them all to come home safely
and watch their children play
on green slopes.

~Kathie Adams Brown (September 28, 2010)

One Single Impression Prompt 135: Monument

Questioning Robert Frost On This Road

We all know the adage of “The Road Not Taken,”
The poems and stories written that use this metaphor,
But what of when the road is real
And you are peering down its stony path and wondering
If you should follow where the road leads
Or strike out on your own?
There are no prophets here
To predict what lies ahead,
The decision is my own
And I must take the steps
This is not a metaphor,
this is my life,
and it is all about to change
on this road.

~kathie adams brown (7-9-10)

OSI Prompt 123: Roads

Floating Through the Night Sky

Floating
In the white light
Climbing the stars to heaven
Black velvet encompasses me
And I drift
Among the planets
I slide down the milkyway
And ride a comet through the sky
‘till I land on the crescent moon
And rock myself to sleep.
~Kathie Adams Brown (5-16-10)

OSI Prompt 117: Floating
 
(Poet's note: I know I am way behind and these poems are out of order. I am trying to get caught up and publishing whatever inspires me.)

My Daughter Rides

Some dreams are born
While we are young
And never fulfilled,
They are passed on
To our offspring
And so my daughter rides
The horses I once dreamed of
And I watch in wonder as
She moves in harmony
With the creature of my dreams
The horse I so desired,
But, I am not jealous
Nor filled with regret
Her dream is now fulfilled,
And I am content.

~Kathie Adams Brown (May 16, 2010)

OSI Prompt 118: LOVE

About My Brother

Some cracks start small as fissures
In a family
and widen into gaps
decades long
and a continent wide
Until the person you once knew
becomes a stranger
or an unknown soul
Connected only by blood
and DNA.
and the uncomfortable canyon
becomes normal
-not a place you dwell in,
but a rim you live on
and every now and then
gaze across and wonder
about the person
on the other side.

~kathie adams brown (May 16, 2010)

One Single Impression Prompt 113: fissures

Throw Away Your Mask

Do I really need the finer things in life?
Are the finest things material and manmade?
Will a fancy car, the right house, the right address really
Make me happy,
Fill the gap, span the great divide?
Are diamonds really a girl’s best friend?
Or is it all a mask,
A finely woven web
To deceive ourselves
That we are alive
and not dead?

The natural world around us
Gently sings her song
Calling me to come and play,
Calling me to run away,
From all the entanglements
And fancy trappings
Of a culture built on consumption.

Throw away your mask,
Don your woodland garb,
Come dance a moonlit dance
Amoungst the trees!
Hear the merry brook,
Singing you her song,
Hear the whisper of the wind in the trees!
Throw away your mask,
Don’t let it make you hide
Throw away your mask
And find yourself outside!

~Kathie Adams Brown (4-20-10)

One Single Impression Prompt 112: Mask

My poem for OSI Prompt 116: Trembling can be seen at Sycamore Canyon, Disaster in the Gulf

The Thrush and I

American Robin at Cienega Creek Preserve 2-19-10

Photo by Kathiesbirds

Alone in the woodland the thrush and I
Seek refuge
We pause and listen
Waiting for sound
Waiting
To hear the earth move
Amidst white bones
And gold coins
Rattling
And crunching
We breathe one breath
We think
One thought:
Home.

~kathiesbirds (2-20-10)
OSI Prompt: Gold

The Fragile Web

We are all connected,
I heard the ancients say
In a web of life
That trembles with each breath
A fragile state
For all of us
For if the web
Becomes undone
Then so shall all
Fall.

~Kathie Adams Brown (December 15, 2009)

One Single Impression: Spider's Web

In the Womb of the Word

Hyper-colored photo by Kathie Brown 11-5-09

In the womb it starts,
Blood pulsing, hear throbbing, bone forming,
Life!
Thoughts forming, song singing, mind boggling
Forces
Creating
Becoming
Believing
Sharp pains,
Struggling,
Rushing gushing
Bounding towards the light
Birthing out the beginning
Beginning at the end
Creative rush
Creative flush
Beginning once again.

~kathie adams brown 11-24-09

Under the Milky Way

Under the Milky Way I sit
A star bridge arching above me
Before me the flickering flames of a campfire
Smoke thoughts rising to the sky
And before the last ember fades,
Before the last flame has licked
The fragrant wood,
And crumbled into ash,
I capture this warmth inside me,
I capture the silent sky,
I swallow the universe in wonder,
And howl my contentment to the moon,
For I am a wild thing
On this starry, silent night.


~Kathie Adams Brown (11-8-09)

Prompt: reincarnation

Departed

The Big Lost River near Arco, ID 1987

I never knew when I departed
That I would long for you like this,
That I would awaken in the darkest night
Restless and searching,
And wanting to come home to you.
I did not know your form
Would be imprinted on my brain,
You scent would linger like a kiss
On my memory.

I did not know it would be years
Before I would see you again
And that in seeing you
I would never be able to come back to you
Until my last breath has departed
And I rest in your earth once again.

~Kathie Adams Brown (11-8-09)

OSI Prompt: Departed

A Cloud is an Elusive Thing

Thunderheads over Sycamore Canyon 10-20-09

A cloud is an elusive thing,
An ephemeral wisp, a temporary ghost,
As it floats across the sky
Changing form as fast as wind can sculpt it.
With unseen hands the master
Carves the soft and tattered edges
While here below on solid ground
I watch the artist work
And as I watch I wonder
About the great blue sky,
And galaxies beyond,
And my small life here,
On this shifting ground.
So which is more ephemeral?
The clouds which tears apart
Only to form once again
or me?
For here I stand this moment
Solid as can be
Never to return,
And even now the answer to this question
Eludes me.

~kathie adams brown (October 20, 2009)

One Single Impression Prompt: Elusive

Locust Birds

Like an army of locust
the fierce finch flocks descend
devouring greenery as they go
in this dry desert
where no tender shoots are safe
from beaks that gobble,
beaks that grab,
beaks that tear
and swallow.

~kathiesbirds (June 16, 2008)

OSI Prompt: Conquer

Brown Creeper

Brown Creeper 10-11-09 by Kathiesbirds

graphite and prisma color on paper.

My talisman arrived in autumn
On cryptic wings
Clinging
To the rough bark of a pine
Creeping
Up the solid girth
On tiny feet
With curved beak
Probing
In dark crevices
For that juicy morsel
That food, that sustenance
To carry us through winter
A plain bird
A subtle thing
It brought me life
On cryptic wings.

~Kathie Adams Brown (10-11-09)

OSI Prompt: Talisman