Opal Reflections
Perspectives through Prose, Poetry and Photography
Warmth
Warmth can be a cozy, comfy chair,
Upon which thrown, a hand-knit afghan quilt,
Awaiting little boys who tumble in, and there
fake-wrestle for first dibs; no signs of guilt.A grandson hiding in the fort he built
with tablecloths and sheets from grandma’s chest,
And help from brother (older, wiser), skilled
in art of structures, and a buddy best.Pensive, joy and wonder ‘neath my breast,
I watch my children’s children (five) all sons,
With bluster, joy and vigor unsuppressed,
Whose mischief times are pups and cookie crumbs.With love, I knit team caps to warm their ears,
They clutter-fill my days with happy tears.
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/warmth/
Curtain Call
We stand alert and waiting, muscles tight,
Our eyes burn, focused on the stand
like rays of sunlight, magnified and bright
As Maestro takes the stage, baton in hand.
A thousand hours since I first began
rehearsing brilliant music, t’was my choice,
A single “sop’ performing with this clan
Always the goal; to help with treble voice.
Audition, snag the dress, then get the score,
Each week, without much talk, blend sweat and tears,
That brought me to this night of hopes held high,
Recalling all, my stage fright disappears.
Performing: more than glory, fame or bling,
To bring some peace and light, is why I sing.
*****
This week, after having performed the incredibly beautiful Handel’s Messiah with The Masterwork Chorus, I am pensive. Onstage at Carnegie Hall, waiting for the performance to begin, I recalled the many weeks that brought me to this hallowed hall, sharing this stage with a talented chorus and professional orchestra.  Maestro Megill’s last words advise us to tell the story, to reach someone in the audience, to make a difference if only for a moment.  His words echo the pre-concert pep talk I hear each year in the Berkshires at BCI:  the world is a better place when we add light and beauty through music.
Now that the momentous performance is part of my history, I realize that it has become part of my psyche as well.  In a way I can’t easily explain, I was changed.  Thanks to Andrew Megill for genius direction and warmth of interpretation; to The Masterwork Chorus for accepting and welcoming me to their ranks; to my husband who endured many long, Wednesday nights and Saturday workshops at home alone, and who -as always- sat in the audience without his wife by his side.
“But thanks, thanks…” for the gift of music. Â It is a language that often conveys what words cannot.
Depth of Field, A Gallery of Favorites
A gallery of my photographs that utilize depth of field to focus on and accentuate the subject.  From macro shots of flowers in bloom, blurring surrounding foliage and contrasting vines into the background, to goldfinch pairs busily attacking a backyard feed, and finally to a hand crafted wind chime, hanging  at the museum in Caguas, PR.; the composition of each photo calls the viewers attention, intentionally, to the photographer’s chosen subject.
My personal favorites are the delicate fawn who looked up at me in awe, and I…in awe of her almost didn’t click the shutter; and of course my Bandit, an inquisitive and mischievous Cavelier King Charles Spanieal, who with a tilt of his head responds to my prompts.
Ironically, though the foreground or subject are in sharp focus, they are made more beautiful and dramatic when seen against the backdrop of the softer, less focused surroundings.
There is a life lesson in there somewhere, perhaps a post for another day!
Unrestrained. (Photo Friday: Metal)
This photograph was taken last week while I was touring the JardÃn Botánico y Cultural de Caguas, Puerto Rico.
It’s amazing to consider that centuries before the birth of Christ, The indigenous  peoples of Puerto Rico, represented by this Taino Indian, were living and thriving. I was particularly impressed with this depiction of man springing from many roots and cultures, connected to those roots, yet leaping forward from history, unrestrained, into the future.
Life Beneath The Canopy
Upon closer look:
Unseen, teeming life ‘a-thrive’
O’oer moss-crunched wood path.
Haiku Friday
Photo Friday: Tiny
A Noble Life
While trudging through the forest dark and deep,
I spied an eerie crossroads sight, a tree,
Alone amid the leaves and crocus heaped
with fervor, ‘top her rosebud roots – her feet.She once had noble lean and leafy shine,
Where children found their shelter from the sun,
Beneath her bending arms, they’d throw a line,
To soar the mud-pond waters o’er they swung.But thorns of time had taken toll and she,
The sacrifice to threading, clinging vines,
Her suicidal stance, no longer free,
E’en birds and owls abandoned her, in time.Though overcome with sadness at her plight,
I stand in awe: This regal Queen of Night
*****
These thoughts, though prompted by the Sunday Wordle, took root one day last week while I was walking through the woods, taking pictures at every turn of the path.  It seemed that each new vista was more striking than the one before, until I was stopped in my tracks at the foot of this tree.  I thought of how many threads of nature were nourished by her during her existence, and how even in waning years, she is still the supporter of life.  I thought too of the children, my own children and more recently my grandsons, who have grasped the knotted rope line to swing perilously over the water.  This poem is my humble attempt at capturing some of these thoughts.  In a way, the tree is still giving, as she has given me a noble subject about which to write.
*****
Healing Hibernation
Â
November…
I know because a gray cloud cloaks my soul,
I stand upon the brink of day, though predawn sky’s still dark.I trust a spark of morning’s bursting light will soon burn through,
Lifting fog, creating clarity,
Slash a way to scrape through buried pain,
Acceptance.It will take time…
So, too, becoming jaded to the cold
and drenching rain; but it will come; Fate must be satisfied.I’ll gather strength to face the solitary winter wait,
Like bulbs beneath the over-wintered ground,
For warmth  to burgeon through, to bloom once more,
Emergence.
Written for The Sunday Whirl, 
Aspects of Light
Brightly Lit: Â
I had a difficult time selecting a single photo to epitomize this week’s Photo Friday prompt, “Brightly Lit”. I soon realized that there are many, equally compelling  interpretations.
***
Brightly Lit: Direct Light: The indescribably bright, white-hot flame flickering in a beachside fire pit.
With Pen in Hand…
“Every man is guilty of all the good he didn’t do.” Â Â Voltaire
As autumn swings into its waning arc,
I’m thoughtful, as in days and times of yore,
Reminding, with its ‘Technicolor’ parks,
Dismissing summer ‘lush’ that came before.
The parable for life, renewed once more,
As leaves hang loosely, breezes, softly sway,
And clinging only by a stem (no more),
Bear witness, as their ‘tree sibs’ float away.
With golden, crimson, purple deep arrays,
The greenest leaves remain until their time,
And nests uncovered, bared and on display
As soaring hawks swoop low for prey, then climb.
Man chooses to compose his legacy
A leaf-ling has no choice, save just ‘to be’.
***
Lighthouse in the Mist, Cape May, NJ
Bandit
Festive View from the Pub, Peddler’s Village – Lahaska, PA.
Home Sweet Home
Opal Reflections 