LIFE: That’s what it’s all about

Posted on October 28, 2021 by admin

 

Life - That's what it's all about

LIFE

It’s making something out of nothing,

It’s seeing optimism in the air,

It’s embracing the most impossible,

And the taking your own dreams by the dare.

 

Life, that’s what it’s all about,

Life, with all its slings and arrows,

Life, the living, loving, sharing, caring,

And accepting folks with the robins, wrens and sparrows.

 

Life is never giving up,

Life is empathy, compassion,

Life is the giving of yourself in helping others,

And even some joyful acts of compulsion.

 

Life is making something when you have nothing,

Despite all its troubles harrow,

Life is the revelling in joyful acts,

Faith and devotion, and walking the path that’s narrow.

By H. W. Bryce

 

Image by Daniel Reche from Pixabay

Posted in A Voice in the Wilderness, Advocate, Alzheimer's, Covid, Heart, Poem, Remembering | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Aurora Dancers

Posted on October 24, 2021 by admin

 

The Aurora Dancers

The Aurora Dancers

(after Valerie PondAlberta Aurora Chasers,

Yellowknife, via Kathay Figueroa)

 

It is the magic of childhood

To stand in the cold open air

Gazing spellbound north to watch

The Aurora Dancers in the sky swirling

And curtsying, the red ones, the blue ones

The purple and orange ones, each outdoing the

Previous ones, yet in perfect synchoronicity, together

Painting the sky with perfect colorization—with love and

Good will, to entertain and to edify, burning indelibly into

Our brains the memory of peace and harmony and friendship.

We hold hands and gaze in utter amazement, total awe even,

And we step in closer to each other while the Aurora Dancers

weave and bow and swirl and glimmer and change colours

Sure, it is really a scientific phenomenon, but who care?

This is magic, hands down, legerdemain by the dancing

Angels in the sky, the magnetic dancers, the dream

Weavers for the inner child of us, we mere Humans

Among gods who need tha magic in our lives. So,

Let science be science, let dreamers dream.

— —

I cannot see the northern lights from here in southernmost Canada,

Were they danced last week. But I remember them from my

Childhood in northern Saskatchewan, and those freeze-your-ass evenings

In my teenage years. I remember the Southern Lights in Adelaide at the

Beginning of the century. They are always magic,, exhilarating, inspiring.

All of them. Every single time.

And I think of the “cave men” in ancient, pre-history days. Were they

Frightened by the lights when first they saw them? Did their children

Dance with the Aurora Dancers, laughing with joy?
I like to think so.

 

Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

 

There is never anything boring about the borealis.

Posted in A Voice in the Wilderness, Angels, Celebration, Memories, Poem, Remembering | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Poetry Just Got Real: A book review

Posted on October 17, 2021 by admin

 

POETRY JUST GOT REAL…

By Renee Drummond-Brown

 

Reviewed by H. W. Bryce,

Author of “Chasing a Butterfly”

 

I give you a sample from this book,

Like the message from Romeo reminding

Us to live like “The Child Within Me,” page 51.

 

Like Anna, page 60, feeling battered

Like a battered fish. Don’t we all at times?

She hails from Plymouth, Old lightly.

 

Like Mz Gumbo, hailing from Zimbabwe,

Where ice doesn’t grow, writes of “Thin Ice,”

Asking us to read between the lines, to SEE her.

 

Like Dennis, on Page 72, who knows

The wrath of woman when incited

And the consequences of “Instigating War.”

 

Like Damui of Nigeria who flies with

“Broken Wings,” seeking the balm of healing,

To fly with joy to spread the good word.

 

Like all the poets from the USA, and those

From Egypt, Germany, Hawai’i, Nova

Scotia, an international salute to Poetry.

 

Like me, here at home in friendly Canada

Who, when “After All Is Said and Done,” I

Can say I won, with a hearty Thank You to

 

Renee Drummond-Brown, Pittsburgh poet,

Who brings us world poets together, here,

For your guaranteed enjoyment. So, ENJOY!

 

— —

It is good to see what others write.

 

You can purchase this book of contemporary poetry,
in Canada via:
https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=Poetry+just+got+real+by+renee+drummond+brown&ref=nb_sb_noss

In the USA:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Poetry+Just+Got+Real&i=stripbooks-intl-ship&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

 

Chasing a Butterfly by H. W. Bryce is also available  from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=chasing+a+butterfly+by+h+w+bryce&i=stripbooks-intl-ship&ref=nb_sb_noss

 

Thank you.

Posted in A Voice in the Wilderness, author site, Black Lives Matter, Celebration, Friendship, Poem, Poetry, Review | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Who Will Be There?

Posted on October 4, 2021 by admin

 

who will be there pic

WHO WILL BE THERE?

 

H. W. Bryce

 

Who will be there when it’s time to say goodbye?

Who will actually show up? If you have your doubts,

Live your life so they will. Live life as a legacy.

 

Will it be the money-lenders and the louts

Who wrangle pride and pennies from your purse

Who will be there when it’s time to say goodbye?

 

Best mend your ways, prick your pride and learn to give,

For he who giveth receives in plenty, and amen.

Who will actually show up if you have your doubts?

 

Leave golden memories, the haunting feel of your hug,

The aching of your presence, the desire to be you.

Live your life so they will come. Live life as a legacy.

 

The sins of man are not your fault. Atone

For your own, a good example set. Ask not

Who will come when it’s time to say goodbye.

 

Leave riches beyond count, In personality,

Generosity, everlasting love, the best of you,

And they will come when it’s time to say goodbye.

Yes, yes, live your life as a lasting legacy,

— —

 

Live your life as a legacy, and they will come.

 

On the heels of the Truth and Reconciliation

Day, then, let us all live like a legacy.

If we do that, we will indeed become one,

Great grandparents, grand parents, parents,

Children, grandchildren, great grandparents,

For that is all we all are. Period. Let us be that.

Let us all be our own legacy. For all.

 

— —

 

*Remember: No one wants to die a failure.

— —

 

Image by John Hain from Pixabay

Posted in A Voice in the Wilderness, Advocate, Alzheimer's, Being there, Care Giving, Caring, Choices, Dementia, Lonely, Poem | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

We Fortunate few

Posted on October 1, 2021 by admin

 

We fortunate few pic

WE FORTUNATE FEW

 

We fortunate few who stand here to speak

In willingness to share in all that is

Good to smooth all ills with the balm of love

And kindness and brotherhood, we say on

 

To you today, Come, let us shake hands to

Entwine in unity, for we share our

Humanity; We are the same. Let us

Share our ideas and come to com-

 

Promise, give and take the best of us, and

Make our peace everlasting. Let the by-

Gones be gone. Let us march together to

The New Horizon. Let us listen, each

 

To each, and hear what the Other has to

Say. We might just surprise our selves. Have faith,

For in our bitter differences, in our

Violent tiffs, our stubborn egoism,

We CAN avoid a second civil war.

 

And what is war but a deathful fight for

Domination and submission. And yet

Our country was bsaed on, built with solid

Rock of Truth. So let us live that Truth, for

 

Is not your truth my Truth, and my Truth yours

In all things that matter? Let the god in

Us speak our Truth so to speak but one Truth.

Let Peace be unto you, my dear Brother

Let Peace guide my hand and yours in good faith.

 

This, Your country and Ours, desperately need

That Truth in these desperate times. God speed.

 

Goodby election. Hello…

 

WHAT?

 

—H. W. Bryce

Image:

The Sheep Bleating Communication Communicating Speaking

 

Posted in A Voice in the Wilderness, Advocate, Alzheimer's, Caring, Poem, Service | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Election / Lament

Posted on October 1, 2021 by admin

 

Election Lament

ELECTION / LAMENT

Election notwithstanding

The clause says

Life goes on.

Make the most of the time.

Make your own opportunities.

Let the politiciams be the ones

To make monkeys of themselves.

ALSO: further honouring Alzheimer’s Awareness Month—rather symbolic, don’t you think?­—some of us may feel this way about politics and the state of our country. May the best monkeys win.

Dedicated to all care givers everywhere.
And all losers in the election.

PS: No real disrespect intended against the monkeys.

 

CARE GIVER’S LAMENT

H. W. Bryce

I am dead. I am sorry.

I’m sorry to leave this life.

It’s just too much for my head,

But to this life, I’m dead.

 

I’m dead because you are ill

And I must take care of you

Morning, noon and night,

And life seems such a blight.

 

Not that I complain;

But it is a burden all the same,

Which I find difficult enough to carry–

It all seems devil-sent to harry.

 

For I had a life like you,

Full and fulfilling,

And private and shared,

And showing how we cared.

 

And though we shared life with others,

You still gave me time for me.

But no longer now;

I no longer know how.

 

Friends have drifted on,

Not able to commune,

Not finding me my former lively self–

So they’ve left me here up on the shelf.

 

For I have become you in my caring,

And you have become a shadow

of the former vibrant, younger you,

Bubbling and fresh as newly perking brew.

 

So now that I don’t have a friend,

No time at all for me,

No longer is there we, no longer two,

We’ve become a single you.

 

And so “I” am dead. I’m sorry.

All I do is worry–

It all spins inside my head,

And now the I of me is dead.

— —

Politics is chess

Life is craps.

Worker bees do their best.

—

Poem is from my book Chasing a Butterfly

Image by succo from Pixabay

Posted in A Voice in the Wilderness, Advocate, Alzheimer's, Being there, Care Giving, Caring, Loss, Lost, Memoir, Poem | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

I Am Cedar

Posted on October 1, 2021 by admin

 

I am cedar

I AM CEDAR

 H. W. Bryce

 

I speak for my elders. I speak for my children.

I am Red Cedar. I am 859 years old.

Do not harm us, for we are the lungs of your world.

—

Beware, that even now, you destroy our mutual world. Your pollution and reaping

Are killing our elders. They are a thousand years old, and more. They have given you

The oxygen of your life.

—

Please do not wield your axe on me,

Do not chain saw me down, I and my

Brothers and sisters are the glue,

The manna that

Keeps Gaia in good health.

 

We are the keepers of the wisdom;

We are the branches of the lore

Of the ages that guide us from life

To life and that guides our children.

 

Do not risk losing this wisdom.

Do not scrifice knowledge with your axe.

The fire you start will burn out.

 

I spread my arms out to you in warm

Welcome and mutual respect. We came

First and we welcomed you; our arms

Are still open to you, but please, do not

Hurt us.

Our wood has givcen you shelter,

Our branches have given you warmth,

Our roots have conserved your water;

We are Cedar; we are life. Brother Wind

Sighs his prayers through our needles and

Through our leaves, whispering good will

To all living things. Do not make him angry;

He can also destroy. Keep your sparks and your

Fire safely away; Brother Lightning will come

In his time and take us to refresh us. Gaia

Knows; listen to her, please.

—

Listen, you “masters of man,” do not

Cull your people, do not tear them down,

Coop them not up but nourish them, feed

Them with respect and love in dignified

Manner and mien; they will thank you in

Their productive lives and you will reap

A rich harvest. How have you not learned

This in all the millenia past? Awake. Love

Is always better than hate.

 

I, Red Cedar, have learned this to be true.

It is the Gaia Way. Follow the footsteps

That have trodden her pathways.

This is the true way.

Posted in A Voice in the Wilderness, Advocate, Helpless, Poem | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment