The love embrace of the universe the earth mexico myself diego and senor xolotl – by Frida Kahlo
Looking out upon our world I feel
Wonder at it all. With joy and hurt,
Living threads to weave in light and grief,
Heartbeat rhythms, warp and weft in grace.
Ev’ry life rise from, return to, dust;
Spanning, cherish lush brocade of real.
Never turn away from parts of real.
When you do, denied the whole of feel.
Plenty is the time for unmade dust,
Segregated realm from joy and hurt.
Sterile matter disconnects from grace;
State of paradox in fugue of grief.
Full life fulcrums us with joy and grief.
Welcome how it see-saws with the real.
Carousel with melody of grace.
Smell the popcorn, munch the grease of feel.
Know we are designed to heal from hurt
From the moment that we spring from dust.
Wither not yourself in sterile dust.
Take your time to fully harvest grief.
Reject flat, placebo cures to hurt.
Bypass salve of fantasy. Choose real,
Pressured though we are to sidestep feel.
Keep connect with resonance in grace.
Nature’s handiwork is full of grace.
Watch the crocus rise from new spring’s dust;
Whispered breezes cross our cheeks; we feel
Righting ballast after winter’s grief.
Celebrate each brocade blossom’s real,
Poignant pathways, textured joy, and hurt.
Seasons call, yet know they pass. Though hurts
Trounce us, each begin and end; sweet grace
Dances skin to skin with whirling real.
Keep a tin of snuff to clear the dust.
Rest within each sorrow’s keening grief.
Solace find in bittersweet of feel.
Courage enters hurt. Emerged from dust,
Credit grace with tempered pain in grief.
Embrace real; a vital way to feel.
Linda Lee Lyberg is today’s host of dVerse’ Open Link Night. My poem today was submitted to a local poetry contest and was not chosen.
Tao Talk 
In your poem, you have crafted a poignant ode to the significance of cherishing every aspect of life – both its peaks and valleys. The piece beautifully urges readers to avoid succumbing to the allure of disconnecting from reality or settling for facile solutions that ultimately prove empty. Yours sharing this masterpiece with us has moved me deeply; thank you for the inspiration. 👍👏👌😊
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Pankaj, I’m glad you got what I was trying to say. Thank you very much for the kind words and glad you connected with the poem.
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You’re most welcome! I look forward to reading more of your writing in the future. 😊
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Lisa! You are unreal… this is so well written – I can’t believe they didn’t select it! By total coincidence, I also shared a sestina for OLN this week! ❤ 🙂
Much love,
David
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Thanks so much, David. They had the entries posted on the fb page so they also went to a popular vote for prizes too. The ones who got the most votes for popular were romance and religion topics, so I’m guessing that’s what swayed the judges, but haven’t seen the actual winners yet. I will definitely check out your sestina! Shalom!
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Well put, Lisa. Life has its ups and downs. Most valleys will pass. And even during times that aren’t great, usually not all is bad. I think many folks including this guy all too easily fall into the trap of focusing on the big things and ignoring or taking for granted the smaller things. However, the latter can make a huge difference!
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Christian thank you very much for your thoughtful comment.
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So many insightful lines about life, reminding us to choose care, real and grace. Specially this part:
Wither not yourself in sterile dust.
Take your time to fully harvest grief.
Reject flat, placebo cures to hurt.
Bypass salve of fantasy. Choose real,
Nature’s handiwork is full of grace.
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Grace, thank you very much. I worked hard on this one.
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I love your ode to feel and being real. Letting the present reality soak in is the best way to grieve. So many good thoughts and images.
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Dwight, thank you. I believe everything that is in this poem.
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I am sure. Well done.
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Wonderful sestina. It never ceases to amaze me how we say the same things at the same times, sometimes. You’ve masterfully captured what I stealthily crafted into my own ballade that I shared tonight. Yours is beautiful and direct.❤️
“Keep connect with resonance in grace.
Nature’s handiwork is full of grace.”
My favorite part.
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Melissa, we would all be sunk without grace ❤
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Very moving and evocative poem Li.
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Sadje, thank you very much ❤
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You’re most welcome
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I felt embraced by your sestina, Lisa, and happy to be alive. I particularly love the phrase ‘lush brocade of real’ and the lines:
‘Nature’s handiwork is full of grace.
Watch the crocus rise from new spring’s dust’.
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Kim, happy you felt embraced by the poem ❤
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Beautiful sestina. It rolls and crashes like the waves, brings a sense of the cyclical nature of things to bear and reminds us that life, coming towards us, is all of these things and more.
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Paul, many thanks for the feedback and happy you liked the poem.
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You’ve created a wonderful rhythm here. It’s time to leave the fantasy world and look around us and do something to save what is real. (K)
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AMEN, Kerfe ❤
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A lot of great lines in there Lisa…I like it.
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Max, thank you. The most challenging part of a sestina is choosing 6 words that can work together to repeat for 6 stanzas without getting irritating. Trying to keep it from getting too sing-song is another challenge. Trying to stay cohesive without harping is another one.
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I was amazed on how long it was with quality.
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Absolutely adore the impact and imagery of this poem. 🥰
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Aboli, thank you very much ❤
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A masterpiece ~~ I hereby award you First Prize … I would love to see you submit it in another contest one day. “warp and weft in grace” .. “state of paradox in fugue of grief” ..
“tin of snuff to clear the dust” .. lines don’t get better, these are my favorites.
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Helen, thank you and so happy you liked those lines.
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Very insightful, Lisa … weaving the tapestry of life. 🙏🩶
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MW thank you very much.
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Well said, Lisa. And you made a difficult form seem easy.
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Linda, thank you very much.
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You’re welcome. 😊
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A beautiful sestina, Li. So evocative with wonderful imagery. ❤️
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Thank you, Punam. It took me awhile to pour myself into it.
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I love me a great FK painting. 😊
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She’s another painter to get lost in. How she did it while suffering the way she did is a tribute to her strength and talent.
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Absolutely right. I remember getting lost in a book of her work at a Paris hotel. Incredible woman whose body of work is some of the most arresting.
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