Good-bye 2021, Don't Let the Door Hit Ya...

We’ve laughed and we’ve cried

faced challenges, struggled with choices.

We’ve wallowed just a bit

and swallowed our dreams.

We’ve even changed careers midstream.

The worst days threatened to drag us under

but we've still managed to put one foot in front of the other

and keep on moving, no matter what;

because it’s not how many times you stumble

it’s how many times you get up again.

It’s holding onto the belief of  better days ahead

no matter how dark it seems now.

So 2021, we count the hours until you’re gone.

Out with the old, in with the new,

and as we bid the year 'adieu'

we hold tight to the adage 

that "all good things come to those who wait,"

as long as we have patience, perseverance

and a little bit of  faith.

© GB 2021

Carrying On

 

At the mall the other day

I stopped to drop a donation

into the red bucket;

a tradition, something 

we always did for our fathers,

two WWII veterans who spoke 

of the kindnesses rendered

by this “army of salvation.”
I gave more than usual

then tried to explain that this year

I was donating for you, too,

but I couldn’t find my voice.

In routine there is peace,

joy found in small moments:

a visit with family,

time spent with friends,

in memories shared

 and in traditions…

each thread woven with love.

If a tear should appear,  it is not from sadness,

but from the place where the heart remembers.

It is Christmas, after all.

© Ginny Brannan 2021

What's in a Wish?

 

What if wishes weren’t 

“horses for beggars to ride”

but instead became kisses

borne from our sighs~

the rush of soft wind 

a warm brush on the cheek,

an admission of truth

to the things we don’t speak,

confessing with candor

all that we feel

not rendered in whispers

but spoken with zeal.

Maybe then we’d acknowledge

with honest inflection,

not cowered in fear

of another’s rejection.

Oh! If wishes were kisses

from sighs that are sighed,

we could lasso the moon

and conquer the tides,

with purpose unquestioned

 our hearts as our guide.

 

© Ginny Brannan 2021

Fine Tuning

 

Our songs are played in different keys

sometimes discordant in their sound

filled with dark intrusive notes

falling short on harmony,

without tempo or synchrony.

Perhaps the music comes too late

out of step and short in time­­–

and symphony is not our fate.

Yet, if I were a strategist

I might not bet against the odds:

to say our chances don’t exist

could be a great concerto, missed.

The lines may often obfuscate

to generate an unclear passage,

yet every note we iterate,

every measure we have tendered,

becomes part of a larger whole.

I understand your dissonance

inside the lines and written texts;

the darker notes, the allegory,

that shatter norms but tell a story.

Each composer wants the same

in every spoken admonition,

not longevity or fame–

but a chance to write their own attrition.

It’s in the dark we find the light,

the yin and yang of our volition

and in the seeking, we are found.

Yet in sharing our confession

we break out of our own mold–

and in the honesty we render

we find the window to our soul.

 

© Ginny Brannan 2021

The Old Meeting House

 

Whispering of her tales of long ago

her stately image framed inside my mind

captured in soft hues of ice and snow

 

Within this hushed and still scenario

upon a hilltop, stalwart and refined

whispering her tales from long ago

 

Across the barren fields, chill wind blows

through empty trees, their silhouettes outlined

against the palest hues of ice and snow

 

I picture sills alight in candleglow

within her walls, our history defined

shared to us in tales of long ago

 

She stands against sky of indigo

stark testament to another time

frozen there in hues of ice and snow

 

And I am drawn as if by undertow

in awe and wonder to this ancient shrine

whispering her tales of long ago

frozen inside hues ice and snow

 

 

© Ginny Brannan 2021

Inspired by the image below of the Old Rockingham Meeting House, taken by Jeremy Noyes and shared on the website "Growing up in Bellows Falls." This and many other beautiful images from VT and New England are available for purchase at Jeremy Noyes Photography

Anything is Possible, Anything Can Be...

 

Pace yourself against this world

of death and pain, of rare disease;

savor all that comes your way,

save sadness for another day.

It’s in the choices that we make

between the darkness and the light,

inside the words we choose to share

layered with hope and not despair.

I’ll select the seeds I sow

tendered by tenacity;

it’s in the setbacks that we grow…

each step we take each day we seize

shines rife with possibilities

 

© Ginny Brannan 2021

With gratitude and love to Mr. Shel Silverstein, whose words are not just for children.