September 27, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [99 & 100]

This is my last Gogyohka-Thursday on Salt-Rain Tidings. It's been delightful. And yes, unless some honest-to-goodness salt-rain falls, this is also my last post on my beloved Salt-Rain Tidings. I am so thankful for the time we've had... for your support, encouragement, understanding--for reading. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, you have blessed me beyond words can express. If you're interested in other blogging of mine, please message me. God bless and keep you,
             -L.E. Fiore


We've had our days

our years, two

but now it seems time

to say good-bye

to You.








So wish me well!

and every good thing.

And may the seas we sail

to heaven's shore

 us bring.

September 6, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [98]



Calling, rescheduling,


trying to collide our locations.


I miss the days


when I could draw us


together with paper and crayons.

August 30, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [97]



It's true, what the fox said.


You have made me cry.


Cry to leave, to say good-bye,


but never sad


to have wasted time.

August 9, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [96]



There were no words to say.


...not the right ones.



And so I wished that a smile-


or silence, even-



would still your questions.



August 2, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [95]


Never had she look so well

Nor he so fine

The day they exchanged vows

And love and lives

Entwined

July 19, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [94]



In movies


kicking things really hard


fixes boilers and cars...


I kicked my computer, and now


it won't start. Bizarre.




*Note, I have been whacking, not kicking, my computer to make the little wires connect for the screen work... and now it's... not working anymore. I probably should hit it some more... ;-)

July 17, 2012

Not a Gogyohka. And Not a Thursday.


When life 

gets

heavy...

so does my pen.

'slipping through my fingers

splattering

scrambled spelling

always hitting the backspace key.

Searching, searching... 

for letters strung together.

Where's the key

to unlock the writer in me?

July 5, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [93]



Plop! plop!

berries into my pot.

Squish! squish!

into my sister's

stomach.

June 30, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [92]

So. I didn't forget. I had this written (inspired by Knutes at Camp Spofford) well before Thursday, but lightening took out our internet. It's still out. The iPad app is rather maddeningly inferior, hence the post format. I'll fix it when the interwebs come back. Till then, over and out.





The darkened cafe

Its floor strewn 

With popcorn kernels

Is nightly visited

By galavanting mice


June 21, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [91]


watching my sister

sweet bride to be

showered with gifts

for their home-making

so tangibly happy, my heart's aching

June 14, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [90]



I find

I am lost for words

when I hear such significance

in the silent

spaces



I find this poem took on different meanings depending on the photo I coupled with it- choosing any one seems limiting.. Silences in music, in space, in time... between two people... beauty in the unstated.

June 7, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [89]




Shriek! Hide! Freeze!


A spider I see.


It's sizing me up, waiting to strike-


It likes to attack


things 1000 times its size!

May 31, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [88]



Ricotta, mozzarella


 melting in our mouths.


"How much money?" we ask.


"No money," the man smiles,


"You woman eat for free." 




This poem was inspired by yesterday's outing to Arthur Avenue. We ladies were picking up several pounds of ricotta and mozzarella from the cheese shop my great-grandmother shopped at for year after year. She always picked up her ricotta for special occasions there because cheese anywhere else "just wasn't the same." I think our delight over cheese (along with questions and anecdotes) must have delighted the cheese-man, because he gave us a huge slab of ricotta to eat on the way and a mozzarella in the shape of a pig for my little sister. When we asked how much we owed him for our 3-4 pounds of cheese, he told us he'd "called his manager" and there was no charge for us. We almost cried, we were so touched by his sweetness.

May 24, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [87]

For nearly two years, I've had a faithful Gogyohka-reader from Paris. You've never commented; I don't know who you are. But I've always wanted to say thank you.



Si j'avais les mots

les mots justes

je voudrais vous dire

merci, je vous remercie

pour lisant






if I had words

just the right words

I would say to you

thank you, thank you

for reading

May 10, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [85]



still at last

just the God, the grass, and me

sleeping in the sun

reading in the breeze

sweet pondering, just being

May 3, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [84]

In honor of finals week- here's a poem I wrote April 27th, 2009.




staring

at my test

as if just enough time

would fill in

all the blanks

April 26, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [83]




weary of holding


my own chin up...

 

arms strangely aching...

 
realizing I haven't been held

 
 in a very, very long time...




Poem for my mother.  

April 19, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [82]

My brother Peter Fiore wrote this Guest Gogyohka for me. It is hard to be so far away- but sometimes we meet in cyberspace and have great conversations- gchat bridging the gap of several states till we see eachother again.



Your words

On my screen

Like joyful tears

Makes me smile

And wish for more


April 12, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [81]

There is a peculiar beauty that graces those in love. 'Old couples, engaged couples- I love to watch them... this one's for my sister and her fiance particularly. 

 


they walked

like they'd walked

together for a long time

pausing- turning- loving mimes

speaking with their eyes


April 6, 2012

Gogyohka-Friday [80]

So. Basically I forgot yesterday that Thursdays existed. And that's my only excuse.

 
 why do we grow content


living life from inside?


feeling alive through


fragmented light?


like vicariously eating pie?

March 29, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [79]



We war, my food and I.


It stares me down-


I push it around-


I skewer it through-


and then, I EAT IT!

March 24, 2012

Waiting for Pain

I realized the other day that I've been living life as if waiting for pain.

Many know that this past year was an incredibly painful one for me... as I watched good things, things I had prayed for- or unexpected goods that seemed given by God, shatter like crystal palaces into thousand of pieces- impossible to regather...

... laughter into mourning... laughter into mourning...

How can such good things result in such pain, such regret?

...walking in ruins...

And just when I think it's over... it starts again... like splinters of glass one's feet finds in the floor cracks long after the glass was shattered...

And so I've felt that somehow - in some way - God was punishing me... for something. Who knows what. And whatever it was- I must be still doing it, cause the pain goes on.

Waiting for the other shoe to drop... the next beautiful thing to fall to pieces...
 
I've been living as if God were angry with me. I've been afraid to invest- afraid to love. 

How can one build castles while waiting for bombs?

I've been living as if God were my judge (instead of my father), someone indifferent to my pain (instead of infinitely invested in my well-being), as though He were standing over me- disapproving, (instead of weeping over me).

The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay on the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to him is not to believe that he loves you. -John Owen

I was reading a blog-post when I came across that quote and fell to thinking on it... to remembering the love of God... to remembering what lengths He went to to get me. ... that Jesus spared no cost to make me His...  that He endured silence- separation- the broken relationship with His Father- so that our  relationship might be whole... that He knows and He cares more deeply and infinitely and truly than I can conceive... that He sees me through Christ, I am clothed in crystal-white righteousness... that what pain He brings my way He sends to bring me to closer to Himself... that He, more than anyone, is for me. (Of whom shall I be afraid?) 

He has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)

So. I've been learning, yet again, to remember. To remember who I am as a child of God...

... cast all your cares upon him... because He cares for you... (1 Peter 5:7)

I'm particularly fond of Psalm 131.

O LORD, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty;
Nor do I involve myself in great matters,
Or in things too difficult for me.
 Surely I have composed and quieted my soul;
Like a weaned child
rests against his mother,
My soul is like a weaned child within me.
 O Israel, hope in the LORD
From this time forth and forever.

I am running with my cares into the arms of God... and in their love finding rest.

So friends- brothers, sisters- please, whenever you can, remind me of God's love.

Because I forget.

March 22, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [78]



singing with my sister

swinging our joined hands

under the summer sky

motorcyclists smile

and doff their invisible hats

March 15, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [77]


through library windows


I watch as a couple


skips arm-in arm downhill


lightning flickering over


their oblivious heads

March 8, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [76]



Waiting, outside the door,

afraid to knock.

Afraid he'll tell me, "Go away!"

Afraid she doesn't have time to play.

Afraid no one's waiting, anyway.


 

March 1, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [75]

 Yeah, I had fun with this one... For all those who have ever wished their size commanded a little more... respect.




You'd pat my head, would you?


...like patting pride...


The cat recoils, crouches-


and like a tiger 


POUNCES!

February 23, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [74]


Tears fall (sometimes)

and makes the nearest

and dearest soggy.

Hey, your shoulder is soft...

So hug me?


February 16, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [73]



I want to write the poem


perfect for this space


a passing insight


in phrase so sweet


you'll smile or maybe weep

February 9, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [72]


a tender tart

on a table tarries

anticipating

enticing

a traveler to taste



February 2, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [71]


"Stop thinking," she urged.

Stop thinking.
 
Silence my whirling heart,

racing through a thousand

yet unspent days.

January 26, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [70]


Studying. Squirm.

Late at the Library. Yawn.

Deserted aisles of books...

Irresistible.

Sometimes... I run in Libraries.

January 19, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [69]


They were a well-suited couple.

They screened their eyes

like they shielded their hearts

from the sight

of a watching world.

January 12, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [68]



Not enough time left


to pack up my room


to meet every appointment


to make every phone-call


and still say good-bye slowly








 

I find my sister's arms


often stealing around me


as if their encircling warmth


could keep me home


a few minutes longer...




January 5, 2012

Gogyohka-Thursday [67]



Down the hat aisle we descend


and don't return for an hour.


If hats are dungeons


I was a hostage.


Dangerous, those hats are.

January 1, 2012


He is the SHEPHERD OF MY HEART
He watches over me so tenderly, constantly
And I rest easy in His care...

He is the CHAMPION OF MY SOUL
He conquers every doubt and fear for me, instantly
And every enemy I face/ Will be defeated by His grace...

He will deliver me
Because He loves me
Though I should walk through darkest night
He will deliver me

~from an old Nest Bible Story video (David & Goliath) song: unknown to the internet but beloved to my heart