WOK National Poetry Month WebSlam

Let Your Wings Take You to Heaven
by Sandy Moffett
 
Let your wings take you to Heaven
Where your heartbeat is always strong
Where your eyes see all things clearly
And you sing the sweetest songs
 
Where your arms can fly like eagles
And hug with love to spare
Where your legs can run forever
And you live without a care
 
Let your wings take you to Heaven
To your new and perfect home
Where our love is always with you
And you’ll never be alone

Sandy was born in Bakersfield, returning to her hometown in 1985.  Sandy has been married to Greg for 39 years, and they have four children and 12 grandchildren.

Sandy is a poet, lyricist and has been published in Chicken Soup for the Soul, Cup of Comfort and numerous other works. 

That was Then — This is Now
by Judy Kukuruza
 
Committee meetings—boring.
“Wanna meet for coffee later?”
Stopping to rush into the store--harried.
Never enough hours in the day—then.
 
Excitedly looking forward to a Zoom meeting!
Drinking coffee on the porch alone.
“Do I really need to go to the store?”
So many hours in a day—now.
 
Poetry, novels, music now.
Things there was no time for then.
Literally watching the grass grow,
Seeing the hills that remain a constant now.
 
A text message—phone call.
Truly listening, participating.
Crows cawing, sprinklers popping on,
And now they are noticed and appreciated.
 
The worries from then carry into now—
Money, work, bills due.
But that phone call, that text
Are the important things now.
 
Real friends.
Real caring.
Real nature.
Real priorities that matter.
 
That was then—
A whizzing blur.
This is now—
And there is hope in NOW.

Judy Kukuruza ~ Retired college instructor from CSUB and Bakersfield College.  She published her memoir One Body/Many Souls in 2018, and later Poems to Ponder, Little Stories to Play with in Your Mind, and Letters.  She publishes her blog, “Our Spiritual Journey” through Word Press, participates in the WOK blog challenge and is published in both the WOK Anthology 2018 Reaching for the Sky and the CSUB poetry antholology, Writing Sound. 

Oh so swiftly flying by

            Winter, spring, summer, fall

The hours, days and minutes cry

            For time to answer freedom’s call.

I long for soulful emptiness

            And silence to abide;

A quiet heart that grace does bless

            And angels by my side.

Rose Lester is a Marriage and Family Therapist in private practice. As a true renaissance woman, she aspires to all things creative and is at home in a variety of creative mediums from song writing and singing, to playing her violin and guitar, to painting and sculpting, or writing poems about life and transformation. Her poems have been published in several anthologies and online websites. She volunteers for the Art for Healing program at Mercy Hospital and helps lead the Threshold Choir that sings at the bedside of those in need of comfort and peace.

Siddhartha Transformed                                                            
by Portia Choi
 
Siddhartha in lotus repose,
palms touching in mind and heart,
soles raised in gratitude.
He was breathing with his brother, the bodhi tree.
 
He inhaled morsels of wisdom, 
and exhaled the encumbrances
of his past – castle, wife, feasts –
memories evaporating like a mist.
 
He lived the rock years of self-denial and hunger-
only sitting and breathing: seldom eating or thinking.
With each breath, he emptied his mind of delusions;
breathing in sparks of Truth.
 
One breath then another breath, continuing for years and years.
 
In time,
Siddhartha’s orange garment covered a being of light.
Its energy oozing from all his pores
that flowed upward into a cosmic Oneness.
                                                                                     
His mind opened.
He became Buddha
to serve, to heal  and
free “all beings from suffering.” 
 

Portia Choi published a chapbook of her poems Sungsook, Korean War Poems. At Writers of Kern meetings, Choi met Helen Shanley and MaryLou Romagno who became good friends and mentors. Choi hosts First Friday Open Mic and publicizes National Poetry Month in April.  She administers www.kernpoetry.com.  Contact Choi [email protected].

The Traveler
by Nelson Varon                                           
                                                     
Beads of sweat began to gather on his brow,                                                                                           
Waiting for their moment to slowly                                                                                              
Trickle down the face of the weary traveler.
 
Rather than over earthly roads,                                                           
His was an arduous, painful journey
Through times remembered.                                                                                                         
 
Bitter memories crowded the pathways of his mind.                                                                                
As droplets of perspiration merged with tears
Of long-buried emotions yearning to be released.                                           
 
Hidden for too long, they soon join forces to become                           
An uncontrollable flood of enraged sadness                                                
With power enough to break through the traveler’s protective facade.                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                          

In addition to being a musician and a writer of song lyrics & poems, Nelson Varon was a NYC school teacher, the founder of Nelson Varon Organ Studios in NYC,       a published songwriter & author of PlayNow Method For All Organs. He wrote  feature articles for The Music Trades  magazine, and How to Open a Piano & Organ Store (a chapter in the industry publication, How To Open A Music Store) and the short story, Fixing Things. 

He was also the founder, publisher & editor of The Music & Computer Educator magazine, and the founder of Kern Piano Mall, in Bakersfield.